Kimi Maeda has started a six-month fellowship in Japan. Maeda is a Japanese-American theater artist based in both the U.S. and Japan, who uses sand drawings, shadow puppetry, puppetry, and object theater to create performance pieces that connect personal stories with global themes in contemporary society. The fellowship will focus on research, oral history collection, and investigations for a future installation and performance of the project "Ichi Oku House,” where an abandoned house in Hamada City, Shimane Prefecture, Maeda’s family’s hometown, will be used as both the main character and setting in a performance piece. Through the work that decays over time, Maeda will explore memories, how people relate to objects and spaces, and the global trend of depopulation and abandonment of rural communities.

Profile
A Japanese-American theater artist based in South Carolina, U.S., and Hamada City, Shimane Prefecture. Maeda studied visual arts at Williams College in the U.S., and scenography and Scenic Design at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and the University of South Carolina. Her work "Ephemera Trilogy," which uses sand drawings and shadow puppetry to explore themes of memory, home, and transcultural identity, was nominated for the New York Drama Desk Award in 2017. She received the Jasper Magazine Visual Artist of the Year Award in 2015 and the Rose Brand Award in Scenic Design from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology’s Scenography Department in 2005. Other awards include a Creative Capital Grant (2023) and a Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship (2017).