hanare×SocailKitchen

In Japan the number of "mini-cultural facilities" has been increasing. They are not art galleries or museums, but homes and nearby spaces which are opened up on a regular basis to host art exhibitions, workshops, lectures and social evenings. Typical examples of these facilities are Maemachi Art Center　(*1) in Yamaguchi prefecture and Kissa hanare (*2) in Kyoto.

These "mini-cultural facilities" intentionally leave their aims ambiguous, but ensure that freedom of expression is encouraged. In addition, they aim not to focus only on visitor numbers, and as opposed to public cultural facilities, they emphasize non-hierarchal relationships among those who organize and those who participate while obscuring clearly defined boundaries between the public and the private.

These features of "mini cultural facilities," affirming weakness and detaching from commercialism, have drawn attention because they reflect contemporary society. On the other hand, some people occasionally point out that openness and potential to be a wider social movement lacks for the fact that only closed-circle of people involved in art and culture make up the gatherings.

This talk session will offer an opportunity to re-examine how these places grow and evolve. As a case study, we will look at the nursery school movement which occurred in Kyoto in the 1960s. During that time, when a variety of social movements such as student movements remained powerful, a group of young female researchers opened up their own houses as co-operative childcare centers, which led to the setting up of two nursery schools, Akaimi Nursery School and Shugakuin Nursery School. There was creativity, ingenuity, and practice of direct democracy in this series of processes, which brought about a change in social frameworks. By studying the creative power and social practices found within them, we hope to get some ideas on how to make mini-cultural facilities look more attractive and cool.

Sakiko Sugawa (hanare) will interview Daiya Aida (an administrator at the Maemachi Art Center) and Masako Bando (a leader of the nursery school movement) at the Social Kitchen run by hanare.

*1) Maemachi Art Center (MAC)
An art center located in a two-story private house. Since they started the space where artistic exchanges take place, as well as being a guesthouse, their functions have been gradually expanding. Local kids hang out when workshops are held, and their parents make use of the art center where they hold their own activities. They are currently offering the art center as a child care facility. They readily admit that images of the art center differ depending on the users. While the frameworks keep changing, they aim to continue doing fun things. Another feature is that the organizers themselves keep changing, and that they interact with a variety of people.

*2)
Started as a weekly café in 2006, hanare is a project that collectively and dynamically seeks out ways of realizing a better world through various projects. It attempts to engage with the emergent social issues relevant to life today: food, art, politics, urban planning, cultural theory, farming, and more! hanare also works together with people from various fields who are experimenting with creative projects to find ways of practicing a new, spontaneous way of living. While hanare's work has its roots firmly in Kyoto, it also wishes to be a space with direct links to other regional towns and cities in the world, and an independent place where critique and creativity are nurtured.
hanare has organized and managed Social Kitchen since August 2010.

*3)
As part of the 15th anniversary celebrations for the founding of the "artscape" website, mini cultural facilities from all over Japan will be featured in "Dialogue Tour 2010".

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[Timetable]
Introduction: Brief overview about the event and introduction of the guests.

Part 1:
Topic: MAC (Maemachi Art Center) 19:00~19:30
Guest: Daiya Aida
Interviewer: Sakiko Sugawa (hanare)

Part 2:
Topic: The childcare center movement 19:30~20:00
Guest: Masako Bando
Interviewer: Sakiko Sugawa (hanare)

Part 3:
Discussion 20:30~21:00

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*This talk is part of the "Dialogue Tour 2010" conceived by artscape.
*For more details of "Dialogue Tour 2010" visit the following sites:
http://artscape.jp/info/1216069_2951.html
http://artscape.jp/dialogue-tour2010/1222360_3388.html
http://artscape.jp/dialogue-tour2010/1221335_3388.html

[Profile]
Daiya Aida
A museum educator born in 1976. He is a graduate of Tokyo Zokei University and the graduate school IAMAS (the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences). He has been working for YCAM (the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media) since 2003, and has been a resident and administrator at MAC (Maemachi Art Center) since 2009. He is responsible for creating a project called "Hikari Fujii / meet the artist 2010 -Create your own media-"(YCAM) and an original workshop called "walking around surround"(YCAM).

Masako Bando
Graduated from the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Science at Kyoto University in 1960. Completed a doctor's degree at the Graduate School of Science and became an assistant there in 1965. She became a professor of the Faculty of Arts at Aichi University in 1987, the dean in 1991, the director of the Aichi University Information Processing Center in 2001. Her specialty is elementary particle theory and nonlinear physics (traffic flow theory and economic physics). She opened up her home and started a child-care collective with female academic colleagues who wished to keep working while raising their children. A year later a nursery was then officially established at Kyoto University. The Kyoto University Nursery became a leader in child-care theory in Japan through practical activities to make the nursery better in a collaborative study involving researchers, parents, and child-care workers. Since then she is continuously worked on the positive social contribution of female researchers as a representative of the "Study Group for Leadership of Female Researchers" and "Female Researchers' Group: Kyoto". She became the director and (first) chairman of the Gender Equality Promotion Committee of JPS in 2002, the chairman of the "Japan Inter-Society Liaison Association Committee for Promoting Equal Participation of Men and Women in Science and Engineering" (consisting of 32 societies in the natural science field) in 2003, and the chairman of JPS in 2006. She has been the director of the Career Support Center for JPS after finishing her term as chairman. In March 2009, she established incorporated NPO "The Scientific Education Exchange: EINSTEIN" to support young researchers, and assumed the position of Administrative Director. She has written many books that include "Yojigen wo Koeru Butsuri to Soryushi (Physics and Elementary Particles beyond the Four Dimensional World)" (Co-authored by Masako Bando and Hiroaki Nakano and published by KYORITSU SHUPPAN), "Rikei no Onna no Ikikata Guide (Guide for the Lifestyles of Women in the Science Field)" (Co-authored by Masako Bando and Kazuko Uno and part of the Kodansha Blue Backs series), "Onna no Issho Series - Gendai "Kagaku wa Josei no Mirai wo Hiraku" (Life of a Woman - Modern Age "Science Clarifies the Future of Women")" (As a co-author. and published by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers), "Daigaku Saisei no Joken: "Taninzu Kogi deno Communication no Kokoromi" (Requirements for Regeneration of Universities: "The attempt to communicate in lectures with a lot of students")" (By Otsuki Shoten Publishers), and "Seisa no Kagaku (Science of Gender Difference)" (By Domesu Publishers).

How to participate: Email info@hanareproject.net

English Text Translated by Takaaki Yamane and Sandra Stevens