The 7th annual benefit art exhibition, Art Party, is being held at the Kenmin Bunka Centre in Hiroshima, December 18th~22nd, 2009.
The exhibition presents works of art created by children in need from countries around the world. Every picture on display can be purchased for a minimum of ¥1,000 and 100% of the money is then returned to the children’s communities.
The exhibition enables children to play a positive role in improving conditions in their own communities, gives them an opportunity to express themselves through art, and promotes cross-cultural exchange between the child artists and adults and children in Japan who visit the exhibition.
The exhibition is full of vivid images depicting a wide array of topics and moods. The exhibition reveals the very different experiences that children from different countries can have; some of the pictures are peaceful and cheerful, others are troubled by violent scenes or expressive of the difficulties that the children face in their everyday lives in communities struggling for survival.
For visitors to the Art Party exhibition, the pictures enable them to enter for a moment into the worldview of children from less affluent societies. It is a stimulating, often very moving, and highly educational experience. Consequently, Art Party has become a popular and well attended event of the Hiroshima city “scene” at the end of each year and is sponsored by the Mazda Motor Corporation (which is based in Hiroshima).
The man behind the concept of “Art Party” is Adam Beck, who has lived in Japan since 1996. For the last seven years Adam has worked with Tomoko Watanabe of ANT-Hiroshima to organize the event.
So far, 32 children’s groups from 25 countries have contributed pictures to the Art Party exhibitions.
The project costs nearly half a million yen to run and it could not happen without the support of many generous donors. Also, the exhibition is staffed entirely by volunteers, including high school and university students. Visitors to the exhibition include Japanese and foreign residents of Hiroshima and people from other parts of Japan, as well as several groups of school children who come to find out about the very different lives of children from around the world.
For more details about Art Part, please contact: artparty@ant-hiroshima.org
The 2009 exhibition is being held at: Hiroshima Kenmin Bunka Centre, Otemachi 1-5-3, Nakaku, Hiroshima.
TEL 082-245-2311 / FAX 082-245-2315
The Kenmin Bunka Centre is located close to Sun Mall. If you come by tram, get off at Kamiyacho Nishi.
Check out the art work of previous Art Party exhibitions here: http://www.ant-hiroshima.org/artparty/
Read this Peace Seeds article about Art Party: http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/hiroshima-koku/en/special/index_20071211.html
