This is the index for information about the 2008 Kamiyama Artist in Residence Program. We’ll keep it updated as events unfold.

News

October 22 – Andrea did a school workshop at Kamiyama Junior High.
Karin and KAIR supporter Mr. Mori went to express their appreciation to the Aiharas, the owners of the land where Karin's outdoor sculpture is placed.

October 21 – Andrea did a school workshop at Hirono Elementary school. (see pictures and a report in Japanese here)
Karin and KAIR supporter Mr. Mori went to get some bamboo to use in Karin's outdoor sculpture.

October 16 – Karin did a school workshop at Kamiyama Higashi Junior High. (see pictures and a report in Japanese here)

More KAIR 2008 News…

This Year's Schedule

September 6: KAIR 10th Anniversary Art Walk and Exhibition
September 6: Welcome Party and KAIR Reunion (more info)
September 7: Panel Discussion: Looking Back on Ten Years of KAIR (more info)
September 8-13: Artist Orientation
Sept. 8: Staff/Artist Meeting
Sept. 9: Shopping for Supplies
Sept. 11: Official Greetings with the Mayor
Sept. 13: Tour of Kamiyama
Sept. 14: Tour of Tokushima Prefecture
September 27: International Cooking Party (more info)
October 12: Open Atelier Day (more info)
October 14 – November 9: School Workshops (more info)
November 2 – 9: KAIR 2008 Final Exhibition (more info)

The application period for KAIR 2009 is from October 2008 to March 2009.
More information about KAIR

KAIR 2008 participating artists:
– Aki Rika (Tokyo)
– Aki Rika's Kamiyama Diary
– photos tagged with the keyword "Aki Rika"
– Karin van der Molen (Netherlands)
– Karin's Kamiyama Diary
– photos tagged with the keyword "Karin van der Molen"
– Andrea Dezsö (USA)
– Andrea's Kamiyama Diary
– photos tagged with the keyword "Andrea Dezsö"

News, continued…

 

 

October 16 – A feature about the Kamiyama Artist in Residence program will be on Tokushima local TV (Shikoku Hoso, Channel 1) tonight at 6:16pm.

October 14-15 – A delegation from Kamiyama went to Shodoshima to meet with some people who will be starting an Artist in Residence program there next spring. Delegation members included KAIR 2008 participant Aki Rika, who grew up in Shodoshima, Andrea Dezsö and her husband Adam, Keiko Ishihara from Berkeley, California, Claire Tanaka and her daughter Sofie, Green Valley Alpha Male Shinya Ominami, Mr. Mori from Cotton Field Campground, Akira Nikishima from e-Front internet services, KAIR foster dad Mr. Aihara, and 2005 KAIR participant Mutsumi Uchiyama. Read Aki Rika's musings on the trip.

October 12 – The Open Atelier Day was held today with a fabulous turnout, with many people coming all the way from outside Tokushima to see the artists in their studios..

October 11 – Mr. Onishi, the cameraman, came to take pictures of the artists at work this morning.

October 9 – Meeting about the Open Atelier day at Shimobun Atelier. (Chan's report in Japanese)

October 8 – Karin started laying aoishi stones at the cinnamon tree site. (Claire's report)

October 7 – Karin held a workshop at Josei High School. The first of three.

October 6 – Aki Rika went to get bamboo and rice stalks. (Aki's report in Japanese)

October 4 – Andrea did another day of indigo dyeing at Mr. Maeno's. (report in Japanese)

October 3 – Andrea went to the Ono Sakura Outdoor Theater to talk about fusuma-e illustrations.

October 2 – Karin poured concrete at the cinnamon tree. (Karin's report) Andrea did indigo dyeing at Mr. Maeno's place.

October 1 – Today was supposed to be the day Karin poured concrete at her cinnamon tree project, but it was postponed because of rain. Andrea went to Mr. Maeno's place talk about doing some indigo dyeing. He explained about a variety of techniques. She'll go and do some work there tomorrow.

September 30 – Andrea went to a meeting about one of her school workshops. It looks like it's going to be fun.

September 29 – TV people came from Shikoku Hoso today. They first interviewed the artists at the Kaizen Center, then went to shoot footage at Shimobun Atelier and Yorii-za. In the afternoon, everyone went to the Ono Sakura Outdoor Theater to watch the fusuma karakuri.

September 28 – The three artists went with Tsuyoshi to the  Sunday market in Tokushima City and to the seashore. (report in Japanese) That night, they went to see Mutsumi's lanterns at Kichijo-in during their annual candlelight ceremony. (report in Japanese)

September 27 – Today was the long-awaited International Cooking Party! The KAIR artists plus Keiko and David from California started preparations at about 3pm. Keiko said, “It’s like Kamiyama Iron Chef!” Indeed it was. Everyone was busy cooking and taking pictures. (see the report)

September 25 – Rika Aki has started her Yoriiza Origami Project. Yoriiza looks like it’s going to become a lively place in the coming weeks. (report in English here)

September 24 – The artists have submitted their ingredients lists for the Cooking Party. The menu is pretty much set! Foods from five different countries, plus dishes by local residents. Also, Andrea’s international driving permit arrived ! (see Claire’s report here)

September 23 – Karin talked with Mr. Kawano of Kawano Construction about laying the cement at her cinnamon tree project. (see Nikolai’s report here

September 22 – Karin went to have a meeting about one of her school workshops. Andrea went into the woods. Andrea says she’s going to use some of the tree bark she found in the woods in one of her works. The woods were full of mosquitos!

September 21 – Today was the monthly Awafu Forestry Management day. All the artists participated as well as the usual gang. (See article in Japanese)
Karin started work on her project by the cinnamon tree. (See report here)

September 18 – This morning, Rika Aki, Karin, and Pat went to look at Uetsuno’s Yasaka Jinja. Everyone’s ateliers and exhibition spots have mostly been decided. Keiko Kudo and Andrea went shopping for supplies and rented some videos for Andrea’s research. They mostly rented Japanese horror films.Andrea and Karin have started posting their own updates here on the Kamiyama blog.

September 17 – Karin and Pat and Mr. Mori went to some of the local stoneworks to look for some stones to use in Karin’s installation. They also cut some kazura vines for use in a different work. (Karin’s diary entry)

September 16 – Keiko and David arrived from California! KAIR 2008 is getting more and more exciting. (Chan’s article about their arrival)

September 14 – Artists do the Tokushima prefecture tour. They visited the Awagami Factory (traditional Japanese paper workshop) in Yamakawa and the Ai no Yakata (traditional indigo dye workshop) in Aizumi. (report in Japanese here)

September 13 – Artists do the Kamiyama Tour. This year's route was Higanji → (walk) → Amagoi no Taki waterfall → BBQ by the riverside and play in the river → Kamiyama Kobo pottery studio. (report in Japanese here)

At night, Andrea and Rika Aki watched the Yorii-za Ningyo Joruri rehearsal.

Andrea's reflections on the tour: "It was an excellent day. A lovely temple and hiking and BBQ and swimming. I also did some shopping at Kamiyama Kobo. And watching the ningyo joruri at night too. But when we started swimming in the river, everyone was so surprised! Ha ha ha!"

It sounds like everyone had a good time.

Rika Aki said, "The air is so good here. I didn't get tired at all."

September 12 – This was the night of the Douniyah concert at Rakuon Rakujitsu. Karin, Pat, Andrea, Emma, and Dennis all headed up. Recently the three artists got interested in the Thai pants that Chan, Makoto, and Mr. Miyagi have been wearing, so they bought some in the Rakuon Rakujitsu shop. Karin and crew are very interested in the old farmhouse that is Rakuon Rakujitsu. Andrea, who spent the night there last week, gave a tour of the Goemon-buro bathtub and other highlights. (a report of the concert in Japanese)

September 11 – Today was a visit to town hall and Josei High School.
The vice-principal and Mr. Nakano showed everyone around the martial arts gym andn the other facilities. The artists were very moved by the sight of the students hard at work. Karin will be teaching a class at the high school later on in the program and she seems to be looking forward to it.
After lunch, Karin, Pat, and Andrea took a map (a Japanese map) in hand and left for an adventure in Ishii. Listening to their story later, the map was perfect and they made their way all the way into Tokushima City.

September 10 – Claire was working at the Kaizen Center today, so Claire and Keiko went to lunch at Hidenoya. Liz and Andrea were already there when they arrived. Hidenoya is getting so international these days! Rika Aki also showed up and had lunch with C and K. Afterwards, they went to look at the sake warehouse.
That afternoon, Liz and Andrea came to the Kaizen Center office and Liz scanned her portraits while Andrea printed out the application for her international drivers' license.
Liz will go home tomorrow. She will spend her last night at her Kamiyama "father"'s house tonight. (See the report in Japanese here – with plenty of pictures!)

September 9 – Starting in the morning, all the artists went into the city with Iwamaru Jr to go shopping for art supplies and anything else they needed for their apartments. After they came back, they went to Chan Cafe and Koko took them on a walk around Oawa-yama.

September 8 – After having lunch at Hidenoya with Karin, Pat, and Andrea, we took Karin and Pat to see Yorii-za and the Sake Warehouse. Mrs. Goto showed us around the Sake Warehouse and explained everything. Karin and Pat seemed quite interested.
Afterwards, Mr. Nikishima came to try and fix the internet connection. As soon as it got connected, Andrea phoned her father on Skype and Pat called his brother. First they walked around the room with their laptops, and then the two of them said, “we’re going to show them the rice field!” and took their computers outside of Shimobun Atelier. Karin, Ms. Aki, and Mr. Nikishima sat inside and drank coffee and laughed while they imagined what the neighbors must be thinking of the sight of two people standing in the rice field, speaking to their computers in a foreign language.
Everyone seems to love Shimobun Atelier! It looks like it’s going to become a very lively place.

September 7 – We had the KAIR 10th Anniversary Symposium today with special guests Liz Roth, Kazuyoshi Yoshizawa, Oscar Lloveras, Mutsumi Uchiyama, and Naoko Hayashida. Mr. Adachi from the Tokushima Modern Art Museum also dropped in and offered his comments. Tasty bagel sandwiches, rice balls, banana cake, and coffee were provided by Chan and Koko.

September 6 – Tonight we had the welcome party for KAIR 2008. Karin van der Molen and her husband Patrick arrived today, and so did Rika Aki. Yoshi and Liz (KAIR 2003) both had some of their recent work on display.

September 4 – Today, Liz Roth had her final day of the 24 Hours/24 Portraits project. She made nine paintings at Matsuba-an, the café. "There are still so many people I want to paint! What am I going to do?" said Liz. At night, she went with Andrea to have dinner at the Rakuon Rakujitsu (Miyagi Family) house.

September 3 – Kazuyoshi Yoshizawa (2003 KAIR Participant) has finalized his travel plans. He will arrive in Kamiyama on September 5 at around 1pm.

September 2 – Andrea went to see the ningyo joruri puppets at the Shimobun Kominkan community center today. She was able to watch a short performance as well as hold the puppets, which are used by the Yorii-za puppeteering group. She tells us that afterwards she was able to borrow some books on ningyo joruri from Emma.

Also on September 2, Liz Roth started her 24 Hours/24 Portraits project with an eight hour stint at local diner, Hidenoya. She is scheduled to be at Michi no Eki on the 3rd, and Matsuba-an Cafe on the 4th.

September 1 – Andrea, Chan, and Mr. Mori had a little meeting about Andrea's plans for her work, and then they took her on a tour around the town. Big sister Liz has also been showing Andrea around – we hear they went to Matsuba-an for coffee, and to the Sato hardware store for supplies, and to Somabito Gallery, where Andrea bought her own set of chopsticks! That evening they went with Mr. Mori up to Shosanji, the 12th temple in the Shikoku 88 Temple pilgrimage.

August 31 – Andrea has arrived a couple days ahead of schedule. She tells us that she and her son had a great two weeks travelling around Tokyo and Osaka. Talking with Liz, they discovered that Andrea lives just three blocks away from where Liz used to live. Small world!

August 30 – Liz Roth arrived in Kamiyama last night and shared the Ise house with the Musabi interns for her first night. They seem to be getting along great!

August 27 – Andrea is in Kyoto with her son now and it sounds like they are having a good time. She says she can't wait to come to Kamiyama. We're looking forward to meeting her too!

August 26 – The KAIR 2008 participants' arrival dates have been finalized.
Andrea will arrive on September 2.
Karin and Rika will arrive on September 6.

August 22 – 2003 KAIR Participant Kazuyoshi Yoshizawa will be arriving in Kamiyama for a short visit on September 5. Liz Roth (also from 2003) is scheduled to arrive on August 29.

August 18 – A meeting of the KAIR Committee was held.

August 16/17 – Cleaning of the Shimobun Teacher's Housing
（See a short report here)

July 30 – Karin's travel schedule has been finalized. She and her husband will arive in Kamiyama on September 6th.

July 25 – Rika's travel schedule has been finalized. She will arrive in Kamiyama on September 5th. She says she's been busy testing new models of her works that will be made during her stay in Kamiyama.

July 10 – Andrea's travel schedule has been finalized. She'll spend some time in Tokyo with her son starting on August 22, and come to Kamiyama on September 9.

July 4 – The project Karin has been involved with recently has finished, and now she's starting to work on getting her tickets in order and doing other preparations for her Kamiyama residency. (Incidentally, our friend Cornelia (KAIR 2005) was also involved in the same project, and Karin tells us that Cornelia was at her side when she got the news that she had been chosen for KAIR 2008!)

April 26-27 – The Artist Selection Committee has chosen this year's participating artists.

March 1 – Submission deadline.

See Kamiyama's Art Points of Interest (Google Map)