ART AND CULTURE EXCHANGE: USING CHILD ART FOR EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Art and Culture Exchange (ACE) is an educational project that focuses on collecting and exhibiting art, photographs and viewpoints of children from various countries. The project has been developed since 2008 and there are now institutional contacts in Japan, Canada, Vietnam, China and Australia. The project is organized primarily by undergraduate students studying English language, education and inter-cultural communication at a Japanese university. Other participants include regular full time university students and lifelong learning students in Japan as well as staff members and children at institutions in several countries. ACE activities support the teaching of art, social sciences and foreign language, implicate a wide range of people in community service and encourage understanding among people of various cultures, ages and walks of life. This ongoing and expanding project shows promise as a model for educational activity at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and as a model for inter-generational and inter-cultural co-operation. There are also plans to use the project for art therapy in health care settings.