On October 14th, the Ichikawa City art event "Edrock Kawamu" was held. More than 30 students from the School of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences were involved in running the event as part of the school's open-recruitment active learning program.
"Edrock Kawamu" is an event that aims to revitalize the local area by creating a one-day "river museum" space where people can enjoy music and art on the Edogawa riverbed in Ichikawa City. The students have been participating since 2019, and this year they collaborated with the organizers, the Edrock Executive Committee, and became more deeply involved in the operation of the event.
Preparations have been underway in cooperation with the executive committee for over six months prior to the event. For example, they were responsible for requesting and obtaining sponsorship from local businesses and updating the official social media accounts. When updating social media, students prepared the content to post while checking with the executive committee, interviewed artists and sponsoring businesses, and posted the articles. Students were also responsible for much of the advance preparation for the art production using approximately 3,000 balloons.
As part of their activities, they were also involved in the management of pre-events. In the project to exhibit photos by Edrock Kawamu at Ichikawa City South Library, students were mainly involved in everything from planning to management, installation and removal. Students also worked as hosts and assisted with management at the pre-event "Art Workshop" organized by the Ichikawa Citizens' Cultural Network. The works created there were used as part of the art on the day.
On the day, the students were in charge of various administrative tasks, including setting up the venue, updating social media, supporting the music booths, interviewing artists, selling merchandise, reception, preparing the parking lot, and dismantling. In their free time, they enjoyed themselves with the food trucks and samba, helping to liven up the event for the 2,000 visitors who gathered under clear skies.
This time, as the supervisor, I communicated with all the students and considered how to assign roles that would allow each student to play an active role according to their strengths and characteristics. By being particularly conscious of proactively engaging with the executive committee, I think I gained the ability to concretely convey my opinions and suggestions. I was also able to build relationships that allowed us to exchange opinions regardless of grade or position, and a community with the event participants. In the future, I would like to contribute to revitalizing my local area.
Suzuka Tanaka, 3rd year, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (graduated from Akita Commercial High School)