Artist-in-School Programs in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture

From a Case Study of Year 2019

Abstract

This paper attempts to evaluate and analyze the practice of artist-in-school in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, from the perspective of school education and from the point of view of exploring the potential of art education conducted through collaboration between schools and art facilities. The target project is one planned by ATLIA, Kawaguchi Art Gallery located in that city since 2006, in which artists who perform art activities are dispatched as teachers to the drawing and handicrafts classes and arts classes of elementary and junior high schools to create and present works in a single unit. The author has been involved in these activities as a coordinator since 2011.

In 1. the main idea and purpose of this paper is clarified.

In the next 2., I discuss how the artist-in-school is positioned as an institutional project based on an overview of ATLIA, Kawaguchi Art Gallery.

In 3., I consider latest practical examples (implemented in elementary schools in 2019), present the purpose and overview of the projects, and explore the flow of the unit conducted in the school. I describe in detail how the classes were planned including what role the teachers, artists and coordinators played. Based on these factors, in 4. I attempt to identify the educational effects of the program through an analysis of the opinions and impressions from students and teachers who participated in the unit.