Wall Art Festival 2014 Briefing Session
On May 13 (Tue) from 18:30 – 20:30, the briefing session for the Wall Art Festival 2014 was held.
The Wall Art Festival is a festival that began with the desire to do something for the education of children in India and to convey to the villagers what art can do and how much fun school can be. In the farming villages of India, school education is still limited, for there is little regard for educating children and many children are unable to attend school because their parents are away working in different provinces. With the aim of spreading education, artists from both Japan and India use as canvasses the classroom walls of schools in such small villages to paint modern art and traditional Indian wall paintings. The art festival has been held every year since 2010 at schools in India.
Using slides and videos, the briefing session at Tsukuba University reported on the 5th Festival held in 2014. Ichiro Endo, the futuristic artist and Akira Kamo, the painter, were invited as guest artists, as were Okazu-san (Kazunori Hamao), the India-coordinator of the project, and Akiko Ohkuni, the representative. The 4 of them were invited as guests. They spoke about why they are working on the educational support in India and about the effect art has on the support effort. The session was very enlightening and helpful for future guidance.
Before the briefing session, for about 1 hour from 16:30, there was a “Future Dragon Big Sky Kite” performance by Ichiro Endo. At the multi-purpose grounds of the Institute of Health and Physical Education, a chain of kites with dreams of Indian children drawn on was flown up in the Tsukuba sky!
Ichiro Endo’s “Mirai e Go (Go for Future)” was also on exhibit in the inner garden of the School of Art & Design building, setting the mood for the briefing session.
The next project will be the EARTH ART PROJECT on Aug. 10 and 11, 2015 at a school in Ladakh region where children of nomads go to school (5000m above sea level). The planning is already ongoing and participating artists have been decided. They are looking for 12 art volunteers who will be helping the artists with their works and holding workshops with the children while working on organizing the exhibition. Those who are interested please check out the website below. (Ono) 


EARTH ART PROJECT Website
http://earth-art.info/volunteer-2014/
Related URL
Wall Art Festival http://wafes.net/

Wall Art Festival Blog http://blog.livedoor.jp/wall_art/

Blue Bear Inc. http://www.blue-bear.co.jp/
Facebook page: Wall Art Festival https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wall-Art-Festival/369068276466528?fref=ts
Motion Gallery https://motion-gallery.net/projects/wallartfestival2014/walls/4420?fb_action_ids=722940924412593&fb_action_types=og.comments&fb_source=aggregation&fb_a