Blakemore Foundation

Blakemore Foundation runs two structurally separate giving tracks, and grant seekers need to know which one they actually fit before applying. The overwhelming majority of its 142 tracked grants go to individuals — graduating seniors, graduate students, and young professionals receiving fellowships (commonly $22,000-$40,000 per grant, with some multi-year fellows accumulating $70,000-$98,000 across 2-5 disbursements) for a full academic year of intensive Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Khmer, Thai, or Vietnamese study in Asia. This is a competitive, open, individual-applicant fellowship — organizations cannot apply for this money on a student's behalf, though university fellowship offices (Georgetown, Illinois, ASU, University of Washington, NYU Shanghai) actively circulate the call each fall. The second track is institutional art grants for exhibitions and internships that 'broaden and deepen understanding of East Asian art' — and this side is invitation-only, not open-application. The clearest evidence is the Seattle Art Museum relationship: 7 separate grants totaling $259,550 for exhibitions (Renegade Edo & Paris, Skin as Allegory) and a named, recurring internship program (Frances Blakemore & Griffith Way Internship), renewed year after year rather than opened to new museum applicants. A one-off $50,000 grant to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art for the 'Anyang: China's First Capital' exhibition shows the foundation will fund outside its home city, but only for a project squarely in its East Asian art niche. The board makeup reinforces this: Chair Mimi Gardner Gates is the former Seattle Art Museum director, and other board members include China-trade veteran Robert Kapp, University of Washington China/Asia scholars (Kenneth Pyle, Dongsheng Zang, Tabitha Mallory, Haicheng Wang), and Southeast Asia specialists (Therese Caouette). For institutions, the realistic path in isn't a cold LOI — it's visibility within Seattle/UW-adjacent Asian studies and Asian art circles, or a project distinctive enough (like a major national-museum exhibition) to reach the board's attention independently. First-time individual applicants should treat this as a scholarship-style competition decided on essay quality, recommendations, and a genuine long-term career tie to the target country and language.

Total giving has ranged from a low of $839,365 (FY2023) to a high of $1,162,792 (FY2015) over the last decade-plus of filings, generally running well above the IRS 5% payout floor relative to assets. Grants paid by fiscal year: $940,649 (2015), $781,942 (2014), $874,761 (2013), $803,560 (2012), then $721,654 (2019), $665,921 (2020), $748,668 (2021), $770,195 (2022), and $620,356 (2023) — a gentle downward drift in the most recent five years compared to the 2012-2015 period. Assets fell from $7.7M (2012) to $6.18M (2023) before jumping to $8.99M in FY2024 on a $1.08M revenue year, alongside steady annual contributions of $300,000-$400,000 (2019-2023) that replenish the corpus. Per-grant size data (30-grant IRS sample) shows a median of $22,671, an average of $22,197, and a range of $500 to $39,215 — consistent with a single fellow's annual tuition-plus-stipend package. The foundation's own top-50 grantee list (which aggregates multiple years per recipient) shows cumulative fellowship totals from $28,095 up to $98,159 for fellows who received 1-5 disbursements, and the single largest relationship by dollars is institutional: Seattle Art Museum at $259,550 across 7 grants. Individual fellows are geographically dispersed by home institution rather than by the foundation's own location — California leads with 21 grantees, followed by Washington (13), Virginia (10), Illinois and Pennsylvania (8 each), DC and New York (7 each), Wisconsin (7), Ohio (6), and Michigan (5) — reflecting where strong Asian-studies undergraduate and graduate programs cluster, not a geographic preference by the funder. By program type, language study to Japan (Inter-University Center, Yokohama), Taiwan (ICLP, National Taiwan University), and mainland China (Tsinghua IUP) account for the large majority of named grant purposes in the sample, with Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand appearing less frequently.

As of today, July 26, 2026, the foundation's fellowship application window is open: the 2027/2028 academic-year cycle opened July 1, 2026 and closes December 30, 2026 at 11 p.m. Pacific, with awards announced in March 2027. The just-completed 2026/2027 cycle produced 9 Blakemore Freeman Fellows (Eura Choi and Loren Macon-adjacent Korean study at Seoul National/Sogang; David Sivan, Ashley Redhead, Harry Shaheen, and Sarah Zaunbrecher in Chinese at ICLP Taiwan; Emma Jean Hermacinski and Feli Xiao in Japanese at the Inter-University Center, Yokohama; Phong Hong in Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City; David Mendoza in Japanese at IUC Yokohama), 1 Blakemore Fellow in Chinese at Tsinghua's IUP program in Beijing (Justin This), and 2 Blakemore Kingfisher art-history fellows (Caitlyn Bains in Chinese at ICLP; Loren Macon in Korean at Sogang). On the institutional side, the foundation renewed its Frances Blakemore & Griffith Way Internship Program with the Seattle Art Museum for the 2025/2026 academic year, continuing a relationship dating back over a decade. No leadership changes were identified in the web research — the board (chaired by Mimi Gardner Gates, former Seattle Art Museum director, alongside longtime members including Robert A. Kapp, Kenneth B. Pyle, and Eugene H. Lee, who also serves as the foundation's C/O contact) appears stable. No major new program announcements beyond the existing Freeman, Blakemore, and Kingfisher fellowship tracks and the art-grant program were found.

For the language fellowships, timing is everything: the application window is open now (through December 30, 2026 for the 2027/2028 academic year), but you must separately apply to your target language program — ICLP or National Taiwan University for Chinese in Taiwan, the Inter-University Center in Yokohama for Japanese, Tsinghua's IUP for Chinese in Beijing, or Seoul National/Sogang/Sungkyunkwan for Korean — on that program's own, often-earlier deadline (IUC Japanese typically runs mid-January). Missing the language-program deadline can sink an otherwise strong Blakemore application. Reviewers are explicitly looking for a 'focused, well-defined career objective involving East or Southeast Asia' backed by stellar grades and recommendations — the required 3-4 page essay should read as a career narrative for a general audience, not a specialist pitch, since panelists come from law, trade, museum, and academic backgrounds rather than a single discipline. A common mistake is treating this as a study-abroad grant rather than a career-fluency investment: successful essays connect the specific language and program choice to a multi-year professional trajectory (academia, international business, law, government, journalism, NGO work), not a one-time cultural interest. If your third year of coursework is thin or nontraditional, don't self-disqualify — submit an OPI, JLPT, HSK, TOCFL, or TOPIK score via the Language Evaluation Form as substitute proof of advanced proficiency. Two letters of recommendation should come from people who can speak to intellectual and personal character, not just grades — a language instructor plus a research advisor or employer is a stronger combination than two professors in the same department. Only full academic-year plans (two semesters or three quarters) are eligible; do not propose a summer program or single semester. For the separate, invitation-only art grant program, there is no open call to apply into — the realistic approach is relationship-building within Seattle/Pacific Northwest Asian-art and museum circles (the Seattle Art Museum connection runs through board chair Mimi Gardner Gates specifically) or presenting a nationally significant East Asian art exhibition project, as the Smithsonian's $50,000 'Anyang: China's First Capital' grant shows they will fund outside Seattle for the right project. A direct introductory call to the foundation office (206-427-4838) is more productive than a cold written LOI for this track.