AIR Bridge

AIR Bridge 2020

Linking Up Possibilities for Art and Healthcare

AIR Bridge is an initiative by ARCUS Project to share know-how and information on artist residencies with Fukuroda Hospital (Daigo, Ibaraki Prefecture), a psychiatric healthcare facility that launched its own AIR program in 2019. In 2020, Fukuroda Hospital was unable to hold its artist residency due to the coronavirus pandemic, so it altered its plans and held the following two programs instead.

Firstly, ARCUS Project sent Miyata Yuki to Fukuroda Hospital as a specially appointed coordinator to consider ways to engage with the challenges that emerged from running the AIR at the hospital the previous year. After taking time to understand the environment around the hospital’s AIR program, including the support offered to artists in healthcare institutions and residencies, and the relationships with patients and healthcare workers that develops through artistic practices, Miyata gave the hospital advice.

The second program comprised two online study sessions that considered the relationship between contemporary art and psychiatric care, featuring the person responsible for running the Fukuroda Hospital AIR program as well as a curator and artists. The sessions proved opportunities to deepen knowledge about the history of psychiatric care and about the AIR program at the hospital, and to build partnerships across the fields of art and healthcare. In order to broaden and deepen the discussions further, a public talk was subsequently held online with the same guest speakers, exploring the various roles and possibilities for art in psychiatric care as well as the potential challenges.

  1. 1 On-Site Coordinator Training/Research

    • Specially Appointed Coordinator | Miyata Yuki
    • Training/Research Period | September 3–19, 2020 (ARCUS Studio)
    • Assignment Period | October 1–17, 2020 (Fukuroda Hospital)

  2. 2 ARCUS Project & Psychiatric Care Facility Online Study Sessions

    Fukuroda Hospital Art Program

    Date | October 16, 2020

    • Presenters | Watanabe Keiko (Occupational therapist, Fukuroda Hospital), Uehara Kouo (Artist, Fukuroda Hospital)
    • Participants | Kawakami Shintaro (Psychiatrist, Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital), Miyata Yuki (Specially Appointed Coordinator, ARCUS Project), Imai Tomo (Curator, Arts Maebashi), Koyama Wataru (Artist)
    • Moderator | Ishii Mizuho
    The History of Psychiatric Care

    Date| November 20, 2020

    • Presenters | Shintaro Kawakami
    • Participants | Uehara Kouo, Miyata Yuki, Watanabe Keiko, Imai Tomo, Koyama Wataru
    • Moderator | Ozawa Keisuke

  3. 3 Online Public Talk: The Art of Taking Care of Your Mental Health

    Date|December 4, 2020

    • Speakers | Imai Tomo, Koyama Wataru, Kawakami Shintaro, Watanabe Keiko, Uehara Kouo, Miyata Yuki
    • Moderator | Ozawa Keisuke

Fukuroda Hospital

Fukuroda Hospital opened in the town of Daigo, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 1977. It incorporates a range of therapies into its patient treatment including raising animals, natural farming, art, and nature therapy. It launched its first art program in 2001. In 2019, it invited Sachi Miyachi and, from the Netherlands, Nina Glockner, for a residency run jointly by the hospital with the town of Daigo and Beautiful Distress.

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