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Stephen D. Bloom, the long-time transformative CEO of the Portland Japanese Garden, will join the United States-Japan Foundation as a Senior Fellow in September.
In that capacity, Bloom will advise the Foundation's leadership and board on strategies to expand impact and visibility, with a particular focus on the US-Japan Leadership Program.
"Steve has demonstrated, more than anybody else, the vision for reimagining and expanding the role of civil society in the U.S.-Japan space, as well as the capacity for realizing that vision," said Jacob M. Schlesinger, USJF president/CEO. "We are excited to work with Steve as he helps us do the same for our organization and our partners."
“It is an honor for me to join the USJF team in the work that they do to advance the U.S.-Japan partnership," Bloom said. I have long admired the people and the work of USJF for the impact they have had and look forward to contributing whatever I can to advance their important mission."
In addition to his work with USJF, Bloom is advising the Nobel Peace Center on how to amplify its mission of fostering global conversations around peace, dialogue, and shared humanity.
During his tenure at the Portland Japanese Garden, from 2005 through 2024, Bloom changed not only the landscape of Portland but the international field of Japanese gardens and the global conversation around the art and importance of cultural diplomacy.
A prolific fundraiser, Bloom raised more than $75 million in support of the Garden and the US-Japan Cultural partnership. Under his leadership, attendance at the Garden grew from 100,000 to 500,000 annually, and its staff increased from 17 to more than 150.
Bloom is responsible for the creation of the Japan Institute in 2020, a sibling organization of Portland Japanese Garden, with a vision of being the leading global platform outside Japan for sharing the nation’s greatest gifts with the world, including its culture, art, design, and unique connection to nature. The Institute is based in Portland but presents programming on six continents.
The symposia have engaged individuals and organizations such as the Nobel Peace Center, Japan’s Imperial Family, The Mandela Foundation, The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, The Apartheid Museum, and the Atomic Bomb Museums and Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
One of Bloom's signature initiatives at the garden was the Cultural Crossing project, an endeavor that saw the opening of a new $37-million Cultural Village designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
This project – Kuma's first in North America – won more than 20 local, national, and international design awards and recognitions, and was selected by Architectural Digest as the best designed building project in the history of the State of Oregon.
Bloom also launched the North American Japanese Garden Initiative which over the past decade has brought together for the first time the international Japanese garden field through the creation of the North American Japanese Garden Association, where he served as founding Board President.
In 2018, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the Garden Society of Japan bestowed for the first time ever to a foreigner honorary membership to Bloom. In 2015, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it was awarding the Foreign Minister’s Commendations in Honor of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. The award was given to individuals and groups with outstanding achievements in the promotion of friendship between Japan and the United States. Bloom was awarded this prestigious recognition along with 27 other individuals.
Bloom began his career as an aspiring symphony orchestra conductor having attended fellowship programs at the Aspen Music Festival and Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Festival. Bloom served in conducting roles for the Buffalo Philharmonic and Sacramento Symphony before transitioning into management, serving as President of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, and Executive Director of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra.
The United States-Japan Foundation was established in 1980 with the mission of improving relations between the two countries. It has since given out more than $100 million in grants and oversees the US-Japan Leadership Program with a network of 500 fellows from the two countries.
