OHIO faculty Chris Thompson and John Sabraw unpack how students from OHIO and two Japanese universities are forming a bridge between cultures through art making. Students from Chubu and Iwate Prefectural Universities met with OHIO College of Fine Arts and College of Arts & Science students in January and generated a creative spark for the making of a mural that will adorn a 48-foot seawall in Tarō, Japan, a project conceived in September 2019 called the U.S.-Japan Global Engagement Project. Tarō resides in the Iwate Prefecture which was devastated by a 2011 tsunami that claimed more than 15,000 lives. More than just a massive art project, the collaboration gives the students real-world experience in and through the arts while honoring the victims and highlighting the region’s environmental fallout that has ensued.
