CAT (Collaborative Art Team) | Yoichi Umetsu
Dates: Sunday, January 15, 2023 - Thursday, February 23.
Venue: Sokyo Annex
CAT (Collaborative Art Team) is a children's leadership and teamwork group that engages with the arts. Through discovery, collaboration, research, curation, writing and exhibition, children take the lead in exploring "what is art" and "what is collaboration." Through the powerful tool of art, children learn to connect with society and shape the future for themselves. CAT’s mission is to bring children of different ages and diverse backgrounds together to create, and to engage in activities at the intersection of art and society. We believe children’s voices should be included in public spaces and communities around the world.
For the CAT art events, we invited Yoichi Umetsu as a special guest artist. In August 2022, children visited his exhibitions and studio in Shigaraki which is one of the six old kilns, and created ceramic works. In September, children worked together on a large drawing in Osaka. In October, we worked on individual drawings, wrote artwork statements, and shared ideas for invitations, video, and the organization of the exhibition at Sokyo Annex, Kyoto.
The culmination of this project, CAT's inaugural exhibition, “Fantastic Art by Kids”, will be held at Sokyo Annex, Kyoto from Sunday, January 15 to Thursday, February 23, 2023. The exhibition represents all the works created by children through CAT's art projects. In this exhibition, the CAT artists created the exhibition for themselves to enjoy. The children, ranging in age from 6 to 17, worked independently and collaboratively on these artworks alongside the artist, Umetsu. They were provided the same materials that the artist was using: clay, glaze, paper, and paints. It is noteworthy that no explanations or instructions were given to the children by the artist, the organizers, or any other adults, in keeping with the important mission of CAT, which is to honor the independence and leadership of children. In this exhibition, both Umetsu’s works and the children's works are displayed together without any separation. In the collaborative process of large drawings, there were times when they were unintentionally covered by other children's works. We believe that this happening provided an opportunity to consider the relationship between art and human history from a broader perspective.
At this exhibition, only works by children who are happy to sell their works will be sold. We would like to enhance the standing of children’s creativity in the public. Half of the profit will go to the children who created the works, and the other half will be used for future art projects for children. We hope that this art project will be a good introduction for the children to understand the gallery system as well as how the business works in our society. The exhibition will focus on children taking risks, confronting new challenges, and taking the initiative in making all decisions.
This CAT initiative has been selected for publication in a book, “Children's Museology” with Monica Patterson, Associate Professor at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University Ottawa, Canada and Ceciel Brouwer, Research Associate at the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the School of Museum Studies at the University Leicester, UK.
CAT's art events and this exhibition have been made possible through the generous donations of Marukawa Co., Ltd. and other supporters. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude. We would also like to thank Jun Imoto, Ayaka Azumi, and Rikuto Hong for their energetic assistance with CAT's art projects.
CAT Participating Artists
Eilis Ahearne, Eoin Ahearne, Ayaka Azumi, Helene Bigot, Maru Bong, Nury Bong, Matsuri Cram, Ruby Crislip, Enam Dzorkpata, Alexa Erofeyev, Maya Etzrodt, Donovan Fujita, Maelyn Yzuki Fujita, Haru Fujiwara, Naomi Igaki, Miu Imoto, Manaka Iwaki, Elina Jones, Hyo-Jin Kim, Teaheon Kim, Taeyong Kim, Clark Le, Emma Tanaka-Lee, Jane Lee, Yoonjae Lee, Xianghan Lei, Xiangzhi Lei, Jessie Lin, Yui Minami, Kent Narita, Ryu-François Sakamoto, Seisuke Sasaki, Kanori Satake, Ritsuka Satake, Anamika Singh, Sofia Sova, Yuna Takumi, Justin Wi, Kohei Yamaguchi, Wakano Yamaguchi, Naomi Yusa
Special Guest Artist: Yoichi Umetsu
“Children will soon become adults. But adults will never become children again. What should adults do for children? I believe that children's imagination is cultivated in areas that adults are not allowed to enter. In other words, I still don't know what to do.”
CAT Organizers
Jennifer Henbest Calvillo, Osaka International School of Kwansei Gakuin/
Atsumi Fujita, Sokyo Gallery
