The ISE Cultural Foundation has made remarkable contributions to the promotion of friendship and mutual cultural understanding between Japan and the United States by supporting numerous artists.

ISE was founded in 1983 by endowments from three corporations of Ise Group Inc.: Ise America, Seaboard Foods and Seaboard Farm in the United States. Under the strong leadership of Ms. Tomi Ise, Director of the ISE Cultural Foundation, ISE has supported artists and scholars.

As a Japanese nonprofit gallery in New York, the organization has promoted cross-cultural exchanges in the arts, mainly in visual arts. Its mission is to foster the development of Japanese aesthetics and culture as well as to deepen the mutual understanding between Japan and the U.S. from within a demographically and ethnographically diverse society such as New York.