In This Story
Reprinted with permission from the Pioneers Post (UK).
When Professor heard the British Council鈥檚 plan, he wasn鈥檛 entirely convinced.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know what to expect,鈥 said the professor of at the at 亚洲AV.聽
The British Council, the U.K.鈥檚 international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, had commissioned 12 artists to illustrate his聽paper that outlined a theoretical framework for cultural relations approaches to international development.聽鈥淎lthough it鈥檚 about art, and I work in that area,鈥 said Singh, 鈥淚鈥檝e just never had artists interpret a very academic paper.鈥澛
of the commissioned art opened in April at the Van Metre Hall Art Gallery at Mason Square, formerly Arlington Campus, in Arlington, Virginia. In addition to a panel discussion about art, culture, and global commerce, Elsie S. Kanza, ambassador of Tanzania to the U.S. and Mexico, delivered a keynote speech. The exhibit continues until May 13.
Like Singh, Kazz Morohashi was similarly hesitant when faced with turning the paper into art. 鈥淚t was a little difficult to get my head around it. Initially, I had to read it a couple of times,鈥 said the artist who is finishing her PhD in museum learning design at the Norwich University of the Arts in England.聽
But after a period of nine months working with Singh and the other artists, the Japanese-born, U.K.-based creative produced a work which somehow manages to distill some of the ethics and practices of new approaches to development work into a two-and-a-half-minute animated video about a toy rabbit and his floristry business.
The paper and art are the result of Developing Inclusive and Creative Economies (DICE), a three-year pilot program designed to foster cultural and economic agency launched in 2018.