“Creative Well-being Tokyo Summer Session 2023” is being held with the aim of disseminating knowledge and networks acquired from last year’s International Conference on Open Access to Culture to domestic cultural facilities and educational institutions, and with the aim of promoting efforts to the realization of a symbiotic society.
With the theme this year of “Accessibility and Co-Creation,” the Summer Session will create an opportunity to reconsider understanding, awareness and values pertaining to accessibility in Japan. A total of eight talk sessions as well as lectures and workshops, exhibitions, and “performance x laboratory” events will provide a platform for creating new approaches to communication towards the realization of a symbiotic society through arts and culture.
From questions arising through knowledge and works of specialists in different fields involved in accessibility in Japan and overseas, we address issues of information accessibility and art experiences that anyone can enjoy; issues being encountered by cultural venues and facilities like galleries and museums, theaters and concert halls. Looking towards the Deaflympics being held in Tokyo in 2025, the event also offers an awareness-building program to increase understanding of information accessibility and deaf expression.
Guest experts and artists from various fields related to accessibility will discuss a comprehensive range of themes, including initiatives by cultural venues and facilities, and the use of cutting-edge technology.
Date/time: Saturday, July 29 – Monday, July 31, 2023
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Auditorium
Participation fee: Free
How to participate: Reservation required. First-come-first-served basis.
If you would like to take part, please apply from the dedicated Open Access to Culture Summer Session 2023 website.
Application deadline: Up to 30 minutes before the start of each program
Session 1 Opening/Greetings by the organizers/Cultural “social prescribing” and platforms for co-creation
Date/time: Saturady, July 29, 2023 13:15 -15:00
Speaker: Sawako Inaniwa (Senior Researcher, National Center for Art Research), Atsushi Nakano (Director’s Office, Business Division, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall), Tatsuya Ito (Specially Appointed Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts)
Moderator: Tsukasa Mori (Head of Project Coordination Division, Arts Council Tokyo)
Session 2 Expression by deaf people
Date/time: Saturady, July 29, 2023 15:30 – 17:00
Speaker: Kazunori Nemoto (metote-lab), Yuya Nishi (Deaf Art researcher)
Moderator: Natsumi Kanno (Re;Signing Project representative)
Movie screening “Le mani toccano il mondo” (“Hands Touch the World”)
Date/time: Sunday, July 30, 2023 10:00 -11:00
*60 minutes/Free
Session 3 A world encountered through touch
Date/time: Sunday, July 30, 2023 11:15 – 12:45
Speaker: Koko Okano (Director of the movie “Le mani toccano il mondo,” Vice Director of Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum), Kozue Handa (Part-time Lecturer, Meiji Gakuin University)
Moderator: Kazuji Mogi (Professor, Atomi University)
Session 4 Visitor-friendly art museums
Date/time: Sunday, July 30, 2023 13:30 – 15:00
Speaker: Toshio Takeuchi (Curator, Tokushima Modern Art Museum), Sachiko Kamei (Chief Staff, Tokushima Modern Art Museum), Junko Moriyama (Educational Program Coordinator, Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Gallery)
Moderator: Kaoru Ouchi (Head of Cultural Coexistence Section, Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery)
Session 5 Interactive co-creation experiences at theaters/concert halls
Date/time: Sunday, July 30, 2023 15:30 – 17:00
Speaker: Ryohei Kondo (Artistic Director, Saitama Arts Theater), Naoko Kaji (Head of Planning Division, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan)
Moderator: Mia Nakamura (Professor, Graduate School of Design, Kyushu University)
Session 6 Towards the Deaflympics
Date/time: Monday, July 31, 2023 10：00 – 11：30
Speaker: Yutaka Osugi (Professor, Tsukuba University of Technology), Genichi Shimizu (Director, Kita Noh Theatre)
Moderator: Satoshi Ezoe (actor)
Session 7 Information accessibility and technology
Date/time: Monday, July 31, 2023 12:30～14：00
Speaker: Natsumi Nakano (Science Communicator, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan)) , Akihisa Shitara (Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies, University of Tsukuba)
Moderator: Kazunao Abe (Professor, Tokyo Polytechnic University)
Session 8 Looking at co-creation through cultural practices
Date/time: Monday, July 31, 2023 14:30～16:00
Speaker: Yoshinari Nishio (Associate Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts), Asa Ito (Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Moderator: Tsukasa Mori (Head of Project Coordination Division, Arts Council Tokyo)
Lectures and workshops will be offered on six themes, providing a forum for participants to jointly think about and experience the information accessibility services and support needed in today’s society, as well as different forms of communication with a diverse range of people, with a view to improved accessibility and the realization of a symbiotic society.
Date/time：Tuesday, August 1 – Sunday, August 6, 2023
Venue：LBF Citizen’s Gallery 4, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Participation fee：Free
How to participate: Reservation required. First-come-first-served basis.
If you would like to take part, please apply from the dedicated Open Access to Culture Summer Session 2023 website.
Application deadline: Up to 30 minutes before the start of each program
Theme 1 Visual/physical language and communication
Date/time：Tuesday, August 1, 2023 13:30 – 15:30
Lecturer：Natsumi Wada (metote-lab)
Theme 2 Plain Japanese
Date/time：Wednesday, August 2, 2023 13:30 – 15:30
Lecturers：Tomoko Kaneda (Professor, Gakushuin University), Miki Inaba (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation “TSUNAGARI”)
Theme 3 Tactile support/haptics
Date/time：Thursday, August 3, 2023 13:30 – 15:30
Lecturer：Susumu Ouchi (Visiting Researcher, Istituto di Ricerca Italo-Giapponese, Seibi Gakuen College)
Theme 4 Visual impairment and arts appreciation programs
Date/time：Friday, August 4, 2023 13:30 – 16:00
Lecturer：Kenji Shiratori (visually impaired art enthuasiast)
Theme 5 The wheelchair as medium
Date/time：Saturday, August 5, 2023 13:00 – 16:00
Lecturer：Kazuhiko Hiwa (artist)
Theme 6 Deaf culture
Date/time：Sunday, August 6, 2023 13:30 – 15:30
Lecturer：Yutaka Osugi (Professor, Tsukuba University of Technology)
This exhibition will feature a display of works by contemporary artists and deaf artists, as well as information accessibility initiatives using cutting-edge technology. Also on display will be works that encourage understanding of the deaf and hearing impaired ahead of the Deaflympics.
Date/time：Saturday, July 29 – Sunday, August 6, 2023 9:30 – 17:30 *Reception opens until 17:00
Venue：LBF Citizen’s Gallery 4, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Participation fee：Free
“Physicality, diversity, and expression” Artist: Kazuhiko Hiwa
Hiwa’s work using over 60 wheelchairs poses questions about a variety of perceptions and bodily sensations, as well as questions about sharing and communication with others. His work presents an opportunity to obtain a multifaceted perspective on accessibility through encounters with a world of different attributes and backgrounds.
Co-creation activities/Artist: Yoshinari Nishio
An introduction to the activities of Kioku Shugei-Kan “Tansu,” a center for creative activity located in an old renovated tansu dresser store in Nishinari-ku, Osaka. It recreates the look of the shop, home to a fashion brand launched by artist Yoshinari Nishio in collaboration with a group of local elderly women who gather at Tansu, and features a display of the clothes they create using unique methods and materials. There may be days when the old ladies come over to act as store managers at the exhibition…
Information accessibility and devices
*A display of works by photographer Masanori Ikeda with high school students from a school for the blind who have experienced QD laser eyewear
An exhibition that considers information accessibility today using cutting-edge technology and devices that support the enjoyment and experience of arts and culture for visually impaired people. Incorporating expressive techniques together with the artist also provides an additional, creative perspective on technology and information accessibility.
“Deaf people and expression”
*Display of works by deaf artists nationwide
Through expressive forms and works including paintings, manga, and photographs, this exhibition will increase understanding of deaf education, including aspects such as deaf people’s perception, their worldview, and their forms of communication.
Project cooperation: Yutaka Osugi, Natsumi Kanno, Yuya Nishi.
An open research lab that looks at assistive technology for communicating works of art.
Working experimentally with people who have disabilities to apply information accessibility to works that incorporate multiple methods of expression, such as multilingual works and video /performance, will boost knowledge towards new practices in multicultural coexistence going forward.
Date/time：Tuesday, August 1 – Sunday, August 6, 2023 10:00 – 16:00
Venue：LBF Citizen’s Gallery 4, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Participation fee：Free
Workshops featuring audio and text -based assistive technology will be conducted by the metote-lab team with Joyce Lam. The workshops will explore ways to communicate Joyce’s lecture performance piece “On Family.” On the last day (August 6), there will be an accessible screening of the lecture performance.
Summer Session 2023 Office
TEL: 080-4827-1239（Weekdays and Saturdays/Sundays during the event period 10:00 – 18:00）
E-mail: hello@creativewell-session.jp
*Those who require accessibility support and cannot apply through Peatix should contact the Office by telephone or email.
*Please refrain from making direct inquiries to the venue.
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Talk Session：Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Auditorium
Lectures & Workshops, Exhibitions, “Performance x Laboratory” events：LBF Citizen’s Gallery 4, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
