The best way to understand a culture is to understand its language.
Blakemore Fellowships fund an academic year of advanced study toward professional fluency in an East or Southeast Asian language.
Tom and Frances Blakemore founded the Blakemore Foundation in 1990 to fund advanced study of Asian languages and to bring Asian art to communities in the United States.
Since then, we have awarded more than $22 million in fellowships to over 550 Fellows. Today they are at work in boardrooms, courtrooms, and clinics, as well as classrooms and research centers.
Fluency helps you pick up on nuance and build trust that grows into lasting relationships. It also helps collaboration move more smoothly, opening new possibilities for research and careers. Blakemore Fellowships give professionals and scholars a dedicated year of advanced study in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Khmer, Thai, or Vietnamese.
The Blakemore Foundation funds its own fellowships for advanced language study each year. We also offer named Blakemore Fellowships, created with partners who share our commitment to fluency and understanding:
Blakemore Freeman Fellowship, supported by The Freeman Foundation
Blakemore Kingfisher Fellowship, for future scholars, curators, and conservators of Chinese and Korean art, supported by the Kingfisher Foundation
Blakemore-ICWA Fellowship, a second year of field research and writing for select Fellows, with the Institute of Current World Affairs
Blakemore Fellowships
The Frances Blakemore and Griffith Way Asian Art Grants are awarded by invitation to bring Asian art to communities in the United States.
Asian Art Grants
We are deeply grateful to The Freeman Foundation and the Kingfisher Foundation, whose generous support makes many of our fellowships possible, and to the Institute of Current World Affairs, which offers select Blakemore Fellows an additional year in the field.