by Jeff Bendix

Americans and Japanese often have had difficulty understanding each other's culture and way of life. But a new exhibit at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences provides at least a small window on everyday life in Japan, as seen through the eyes of school children.

"Life Images—A Child's View" consists of 43 paintings of scenes from school, life and community done in the late 1980s by elementary school students from the Japanese city of Odawara. Each picture is accompanied by a photograph of the child who drew it, along with a brief explanation in the child's words of what he or she is portraying.

The pictures are grouped into themes: "School," "Odawara," Families," "Sports" and "Festivals." The scenes the young artists portray range from lunch being served in school to garbage collectors at work to raking leaves in the yard. They are done primarily in watercolor or crayon.

The exhibit had its beginnings in the late 1980s when Edythe Zimmerman, a social worker on the University Counseling Service staff, was in Japan with her husband, a visiting professor.

"I've always admired Japanese children's art, and I thought it would be wonderful if we could exchange artwork between Japanese and American schoolchildren," she said.

Zimmerman initially had planned to mount a smaller cross-cultural exchange with the help of Juliann Weber, a local art educator. But the Cleveland Museum of Art heard of the plan and agreed to sponsor the program as part of its extension division.

The museum solicited participants from the Cleveland area, and found schools in Cleveland, East Cleveland, Shaker Heights, Warrensville Heights, Beachwood and Parma. After negotiations with the mayor of Odawara and the Cleveland-area schools, Zimmerman went to Japan late in 1989 with the art produced by the Cleveland children, and returned with the works of the Odawara children. When the museum closed its extensions division it turned the exhibit over to the Japan-American Society of Northeast Ohio.

The pictures from Japan were first displayed at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. In the years since it has appeared in libraries, hospitals, arts centers and a variety of other venues around northeast Ohio, Zimmerman said. This is its first time it is on display at CWRU.

Zimmerman went back to Odawara in 1998 and met with some of the young men and women who took part in the exchange as children.

"For many of them it was a transforming experience in their lives," she said. "I recall in particular one girl who had cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair. Her teachers said she was very shy and withdrawn. But when her picture was accepted for the exhibit, she came to believe she could do anything. When I met her again she had enrolled in a special education high school, and she was able to articulate how much being in the exhibit meant to her. It gave her a whole different outlook on life."

"Life Images—A Child's View" will be on display at the Mandel School through July 30.

 

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