EGAKU for
Kids & Youth

We held the EGAKU Program for grade 3 senior high students of Denenchofufutaba Gakuen.

As part of their presentation on "The 26 Year-Old Me" as part of their graduation project, their teacher came up with the idea of integrating the EGAKU Program into the process thereby getting students to engage in deeper self examination and reflection.

To fit this into the class time, the three hour process was split into two parts. Although the students were frank in voicing what they felt and full of energy, as soon as the painting exercise started they fell silent and intently tackled the tough theme of "The 26 Year-
Old Me: My Heart/Soul". The first session ended as soon as they finished painting their works, so they were probably left in a daze patiently waiting for 3 weeks until the second part of the workshop.

The second part was held at 9201 Gallery.

As soon as they entered the studio they were totally engrossed in Kuni-san's artworks. The way they seemed to revel in this art space, all the while voicing their reactions to the artworks was particularly notable.

As a quick warm up we invited them to take a close look at one of the works from the "Early Works I" Exhibition before finally kicking off the second part of the workshop. We were able to see the students in action, observing "Hmm... this one's difficult" about a classmate's abstract form of expression all the while trying their best to understand it, looking closely; bashfully but sincerely talking about their thoughts, and giving respectful feedback on their friends' presentations.

Today we didn't have the chance to hear what each of them were thinking, feeling - but we look forward to hearing more at a later date.