Posted on April 30, 2026.
LOS ANGELES – This year, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) presents Kibō Nobori (hope flags), an ongoing installation series by artist Faith-Ann Kiwa Young inspired by the Japanese tradition of koinobori, carp streamers flown in celebration of Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day).
May 1–12, 2026: Kibō Nobori Installation on view daily across campus
Kodomo no Hi Celebration: Sunday, May 3, 2026, 11 AM-3 PM
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC)
244 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
From May 1-12, three site-specific installations will be on view across the JACCC campus, including banners on the exterior of the main building, in the entrance hallway, and a participatory installation in the Tea Room.
The work reinterprets koinobori as a series of large-scale translucent flags layered with photographic imagery – including children at play, inherited patterns, and landscape elements. Moving with air and light, the flags create shifting fields of color and memory.
In the Tea Room, visitors are invited to reflect on what gives them hope, write it on a tanzaku, and place it within the installation, becoming part of the evolving work. During the Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day) Celebration on May 3, the artist will be present as the Tea Room serves as a meditative space for children to draw, play, and engage with the installation.
From 2022–2025, Kibo Nobori was presented annually as a vibrant Children’s Day celebration in Little Tokyo in partnership with the artist and Terasaki Budokan, bringing together music, performance, art, a marketplace, and family-friendly programming celebrating the creativity and diversity of Japanese American and AAPI communities.
In Spring 2026, Kibō Nobori enters a new chapter through a series of site-specific installations presented at the JACCC as part of Kodomo no Hi celebrations and AAPI Heritage Month.
Faith-Ann Kiwa Young is a Los Angeles–based, half-Japanese multidisciplinary artist whose work explores memory, presence, and collective experience through photography, textile, and installation. She is known for large-scale translucent fabric works, as well as painted and photographic compositions that transform light, movement, and space into immersive, contemplative environments.
Young earned her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University, studied photography at UCLA Extension, and Japanese language at Kanda University in Chiba, Japan. Her photography has appeared in The Economist, Rolling Stone, and Dwell, and has been published in two books.