2015年3月のバックナンバー

2015.3.15

Art Boosts the Value of Local Regions and Inspires Change - The Power of Art to Connect Communities with the World

The Japan Foundation presents the Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship with the objective of providing support to organizations that engage in regional development through arts and culture and in intercultural exchange that takes advantage of regional characteristics. In fiscal 2009, a prize was awarded to NPO Green Valley Inc. of Kamiyama Town, Tokushima Prefecture, and in fiscal 2011 a prize was awarded to NPO BIRD Theatre Company TOTTORI of Shikano Town, Tottori Prefecture. The prizes were awarded in recognition of the efforts of these two organizations to implement activities focused on their respective regions that create connections that transcend regions or national borders. Such activities demonstrate the creative potential of local regions that suffer from depopulation.

2015.3.15

Young Artists Visit the United States: Reactions toward their Initiatives to Popularize Japanese Contemporary Art on a Global Scale

As part of the KAKEHASHI Project - The Bridge for Tomorrow, U.S. Youth Exchange Program, five young Japanese artists visited New York and Los Angeles in November 2014. Over a period of seven days, they went to local art museums, galleries, and art studios, and engaged in efforts to popularize Japanese contemporary art and modern Japanese culture through presentations of their own works. The group included participants at the VOCA (Vision of Contemporary Art) exhibition, which is considered a gateway to success in the field of contemporary art, and a finalist of the Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art. From this perspective, these artists are expected to lead the next generation, so the impressions and feedback they received from the exchange with young U.S. artists and relevant parties in the art world and from the presentation of their own works is a matter of great interest. After their return to Japan, we invited them for a talk moderated by Yukie Kamiya, Chief Curator of the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and advisor to the KAKEHASHI Project, at which they shared their impressions and the challenges they face.