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Sacred Spaces and Experiences

Top left: ‘Sakamoto and the Monks of Hieizan’. Photo: Andrew William   Top right: “VITRIFIED” (2018) Etsuko Ichikawa. Photo: Peter Kuhnlein   Bottom left: ‘A Walk among 1,200 Buddhas’. Photo: Andrew William   Bottom right: ‘Broken Poems of Fireflies’ (2020) Etsuko Ichikawa. Photo: Alec Miller

Program dates and times: Monday, July 11th to Thursday, July 14th 

Curated and led by EARC program leader Melanie King, this series of standalone online workshops considered the sacred across different spaces, expressions, and, experiences across East Asia and beyond.  Designed for secondary teachers in Social Studies, History, Art History, Art, Language Arts, English, Religious Studies, and Visual Culture, each workshop focused on the sacred as expressed from the past through to present through different forms of expression and intention.

Session 1: Monday, July 11

What is sacred?

Melanie King, Art historian and EARC program leader

Session 2: Monday, July 11

Japanese Art: A Unique Combination of Shinto and Buddhism in the Visual Arts

Dr. Yukiko Shirahara, Visiting Professor, International Christian University, Tokyo

Session 3: Tuesday, July 12

Buddhist sites, colossal figures, and meritorious acts

Melanie King, Art historian and EARC program leader

Session 4: Tuesday, July 12

A Walk Among 1,200 Buddhas

Andrew William, An Design, Kyoto

Session 5: Wednesday, July 13

Sonic Artifacts from Japanese America

Paul Kikuchi, Music Faculty, South Seattle College

Session 6: Wednesday, July 13

Sakamoto and the Monks of Hieizan

Andrew William, An Design, Kyoto

Session 7: Thursday, July 14

Visual poetry for future generations

Etsuko Ichikawa, Multi-media artist, filmmaker, and activist

Session 8: Thursday, July 14

Remembering and Forgetting: Memorializing as a Sacred and Political Act

Melanie King, Art historian and EARC program leader

Kathleen Krauth, Teacher, The American School in Japan and Co-Founder, JapanCraft21

Benefits

Teachers received two free WA OSPI clock hours for each workshop session attended

This program was sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington, and funded by a Freeman Foundation grant in support of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA).