I elected to take a virtual tour of a powerful art movement, Kids Guernica. Kids Guernica is an international art project in which students ranging from K-12th grade complete a peace mural on a 3.5 m x 7.8 m canvas—the same size as Picasso’s Guernica. Kids Guernica is a non-profit organization that begun in 1995 under the collaboration of Abe Toshifumi, Takuya Kaneda, and Tom Anderson. The first murals executed were peaceful offerings between Tom Anderson’s art education program in Tallahassee, Florida and Abe Toshifumi’s program in Tokyo for the fiftieth anniversary since the end of World War II. In 2000, Kids Guernica’s International Committee was established and under the leadership of Takuya Kaneda— a Professor at Otsuma Women’s University in Japan and is presently the home base to the organization. After an exhaustive search, I was unable to find the names of other members on the Kids Guernica International Committee.
Since 1995’s first murals, more than 160 peace murals have been created internationally within forty countries. Kids Guernica provide teachers with guidance and prompts to assist educators in helping develop a peace mural with their students. The requirements of the project is that the mural is Picasso’s 3.5 m x 7.8 m and that the painting is a “moveable mural”. The concept behind being a moveable mural is its metaphorical representation of accomplishing world peace through the moving of separation—since murals represent painting directly on a wall as binding and holding the painting hostage. Since its birth, each year the Kids Guernica International Committee holds an exhibition of Kids Guernica paintings created by various countries. Countries that have held the exhibition over the past eighteen years are the following: Nepal, Japan, Italy, France, Austria, Indonesia, and Greece. In their blog Kids Guernica highlight various mural paintings created internationally since the start of the blog in 2009.
I chose to complete my virtual tour of Kids Guernica because I was interested in a program that has created an international movement across various continents in the art education field. I am passionate about programs where art has a purpose and a message greater than the individual self. Since taking the virtual tour, I am interested in planning, and completing a Kids Guernica mural with my own art students. The concept of creating and exchanging a peaceful proposition internationally is an impactful, and memorable experience that you cannot duplicate in any other way within the classroom. The mural painting and exchange almost becomes that of a pen pal where you are learning about the way similar concepts are represented differently among various cultures. Tom Anderson, Professor of Florida State University, noted within his writings that there was a noticeable difference in the organization and execution of the murals between Japan and the United States.
Kids Guernica Blog: http://kids-guernica.blogspot.com/Links to an external site.
Kids Guernica by Tom Anderson: http://poieinkaiprattein.org/guernica-youth/kids-guernica-international-in-japan/the-start-of-kids-guernica-by-tom-anderson/Links to an external site.
Kids Guernica International Exhibition: http://kids-guernica.blogspot.com/2009/08/history.htmlLinks to an external site.
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