| 7th Aurora Challenge Grant Winner |
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the AURORA CHALLENGE GRANT Winner will be introduced at the Aurora Foundation Award Dinner & Auction For Immediate Release The Japanese Language Scholarship "AURORA" Foundation (Dr. Akiko Agishi, Founder & President) is delighted to announce that winner of the Aurora Challenge Grant for 2006-7 is Heather Lenz. To welcome the recipient, the Aurora Foundation is holding the Aurora Japanese Language Scholarship Benefit Dinner & Auction on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 5 p.m. at the New Otani Hotel & Garden Los Angeles. To show her support of the goals of the Aurora Foundation, Akira Fuse, Japanese singer, will attend. There will also be a benefit auction (live & silent) as a fundraiser for the Aurora Foundation. The Aurora Foundation Benefit Dinner & Auction is open to the public. Admission is $100 per seat or $1,000 per table of 10 seats. ($40 per seat is tax deductible) For reservations, information, or donating auction items, please contact the Aurora Foundation at (323) 882-6545. The Aurora Challenge Grant is awarded to a US citizen who resides in California and has a unique dream, in any field of endeavor, which is related to Japanese culture and which would never be realized without traveling to Japan. There is no age limit and no academic requirement. The award goes to an individual with a creative dream or challenge that will contribute to global goodwill and intercultural appreciation. The winner will receive a $3000 scholarship and roundtrip air tickets from the USA to Japan. The recipient can travel anytime (for any duration) between fall 2006 and summer 2007. By awarding this grant, the Aurora Foundation hopes to help the winner enhance pursuit of their truest, most heartfelt dream by providing them with the opportunity for a once in a lifetime experience.
In addition to being
recognized at the Aurora Japanese Language Scholarship Benefit
Dinner & Auction on Friday, October 27th at the New Otani
Hotel & Gardens; the grant includes attendance at the Akira
Fuse "Aurora" Benefit Concert in the El Camino Collage
Center for the Arts Marsee Auditorium at 6p.m. on Sunday, October
29, 2006.
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The
winner of the 2006-2007 Aurora Challenge grant, Heather Lenz,
will travel to Japan to interview avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama
for a feature length documentary that is truly her dream project.
Lenz holds degrees in Art History, Sculpture, and Filmmaking
and became captivated with Kusama's work a dozen years ago. Kusama
stormed the 60s New York art world before falling into obscurity
for several decades. Now 77, Kusama resides in a Tokyo mental
institution on a voluntary basis and is considered one of Japan's
greatest living artists. Her contributions to the American art
world remain under-appreciated, something Lenz will strive to
change with her documentary. Lenz began conceptualizing a film
about Kusama five years ago and is delighted that her passion
project has recently received support from both the Japan US
Friendship Commission and the Aurora Foundation. The plane ticket
presented by the Aurora Foundation will enable her to make her
first flight to Japan. Lenz is ecstatic and would like to express
her deepest gratitude to the Aurora Foundation. The grant will
be formally presented to Heather Lenz at the Aurora Benefit Dinner
& Auction.