Activity

-Special Exhibition at the Prime Minister’s Office of Thailand-2019

Japan-Thailand Exchange Art Exhibition

The Japan-Thailand Exchange Art Exhibition – Special Exhibition at the Prime Minister’s Office of Thailand was held on Saturday, January 10th, 2015.

The exhibition was held in conjunction with events for National Children’s Day in Thailand and the opening day was blessed with good weather, filling the expansive grounds of the Prime Minister’s Office venue with what seemed like tens of thousands of children and adults (government officials, parents and guardians, etc.) under a clear blue sky.

National Children’s Day is one of the yearly events in the calendar of the Kingdom of Thailand, a day on which many events are held all over the country, not just at the Prime Minister’s Office. The festivities are on an extremely large scale.National Children’s Day in Thailand is celebrated on the 2nd Saturday of January every year and at this event there were special activities such as children being allowed to sit in the Prime Minister’s chair and both children and adults were treated to free food from numerous food stands which were very crowded.

In this way, National Children’s Day in the Kingdom of Thailand is regarded as a day on which to entertain the children who are our future and the enthusiasm of the Thai government for the education of children is apparent. It was strongly felt that it was the embodiment of the policy to support the children grow into adulthood who will contribute even more to society.

Even though it was such a special day, the Japan-Thailand Exchange Art Exhibition was held at the Prime Minister’s Office, something unprecedented in Thailand. Because National Children’s Day is a Thai event and has nothing to do with foreign diplomacy, up until this year, there had been no exchange with foreign countries and no foreign guests. (According to Counsellor Shigeki Kobayashi, Head of the Cultural Public Relations Department at the Embassy of Japan in Thailand, one of the supporting organizations of the exhibition)

It was none other than the subtitle theme of the exhibition, ‘Art Education through Japanese Art on National Children’s Day in Thailand’, that made it possible to hold the exhibition. The keyword of education and the presence of Japanese artists who work in art education without doubt opened the door to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Up until now, the World Art and Culture Exchange has established international exchange not only with Thailand but also with the US, Europe and other countries in Asia from the art education perspective and it can be said that the enthusiastic activities of the Japanese artists that have led to the success of such interaction created this result.

Moreover, the system of celebrating Children’s Day as a national event is rare in the world and it must be even rarer to have an event organised by the government. It may have been the stance of such a country that was a factor in the holding of this exhibition having been welcomed by the Thai government.

On the morning of the same day, 9 Japanese artists and their attendants entered the exhibition venue at the Prime Minister’s Office and participated in the opening ceremony of the National Children’s Day celebrations as a whole. Panadda Diskul, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, gave the National Children’s Day opening address, which was telecast through nation-wide network. In his speech, the Minister welcomed the Japanese artists and added that he would be inviting government officials from other offices as well as cabinet ministers to come and appreciate the exhibition.

After the speech, Nobutoshi Akao, Senior Advisor of the World Art and Culture Exchange, was invited to the stage where he handed over to Minister Panadda Diskul the catalogue of works presented by Japanese artists for Thai Prime Minister’s Office collection.

Following this, Counsellor Shigeki Kobayashi and the Japanese artists were also invited on to the stage and the ceremony ended with a commemorative photo of all the participants.

Prior to the above ceremony on the same morning, Minister Panadda Diskul came to the exhibition room and thoroughly observed each work, asking detailed questions about the works to the respective Japanese artists who politely gave answers to these enthusiastic questions.Visit of the Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office to the Exhibition 

In some cases, the Minister returned to works he had already seen, demonstrating his interest in art.

After viewing all the works in accordance with the route, the Japanese artists, their attendants and other related people all gathered around the Minister to take commemorative photos, to end his tour of the exhibition.

Art Session

People to people exchange in Thailand, the country of smiles, ended with this Art Session.On the afternoon of the same day, a steady stream of Thai children and their parents and guardians arrived at the venue. The children came to the venue to take part in the Art Session in which the children and the Japanese artists created art on large sheets of paper together. A total of 67 children and 9 artists participated in the one-and-a-half-hour-long exchange art session. The results of this exchange that exceeded the boundaries of generations are obvious from the photos.