Concept

What is art for the hospital project “Yasashii Bijutsu”?

Meet the Needs of the Community

It is truly questioned “How to Spend” the time within the hospital where crucial activities are repeated and “What is the Ideal Environment” for the hospital, in relation with the growing interest in advanced medical technologies in this aging society. In order to meet these earnest needs of the community, “art for the hospital project” was established with the purpose of creating a “Medical Environment Providing for Comfort” and a ”Hospital Transmitting Culture Open to the Local Community” from the viewpoint of the communication with patients and the regional characteristics of the hospital.

As an Educational Program

Some volunteers in campus gathered on “Sharing Life”, which is the foundation spirit of Nagoya Zokei University, and started this project as an extracurricular activity in 2002. The project is run by students on a voluntary basis under the guidance of teaching staff in charge of the project, and the duties are shared by the students using each expertise background on art and design. Thus by realizing the collaboration among segmented fields of art and design, this project has been bringing up art and design specialists with “Social Skills” required at the real worksites.

Feature of art for the hospital project

This project features a consistent communication with the community residents and patients for a long period, as well as the artwork contribution and temporary exhibition. Each participant puts effort into his art production with a firm motivation, by getting in contact with hospital patients and feeling their pain for himself. What is the meaning of life for people in pain? And what can he do about it? All the project members are dealing honestly with the questions on these days. Based on the practical experience at the hospital, students are expected to improve their skills including ability to find their own problems and solution, communication skills, management skills and presentation skills indispensable for the art and design specialists of the next generation.

In this project, we have experienced collaborations in 3 hospitals, which are different from each other in their characteristics (acute phase type, convalescent type, etc.) and in their regional conditions (rural area, urban area, etc.). Each hospital showed us the same vision “A Hospital of Cultural Transmission Based on the Community”, and as a response to such request, we have actively adopted the theme of “Seasons”, “Climate” and “Culture” in this project. Furthermore, we are now publishing information magazines with an effort to propose a “Life with Easy Access to Art and Design” in the area surrounding the hospital, by making the hospital as a core facility of cultural transmission.

“Life” Related Art & Design

We heard from medical staff of every department and section that “Cleanliness is very important factor for a medical facility to keep the trust high, but will lack the human warmth”. The significance of cross-field interaction and collaboration between medical service and art/design lies on a deep involvement with “Life”. By bringing the art and design, traditionally linked to such system as art gallery and museum, to “Hospital” directly linked to “Life”, this project questioning the medical facility’s functionality is greatly entrusted with a mission to develop the next-generation art/design potentials.

Director Nobuyuki Takahashi

Director, artist

  • Nobuyuki Takahashi
  • born in 1967
  • graduated Aichi Prefectural University of art and design master course
  • • organized +Gallery with two artists
  • • assosiate professor Nagoya Zokei University of Art &Design