The teachers’ programs, held every summer, are for teachers at elementary, junior, and high schools, and special education schools in Tokyo. Staff members and experts working at museums and exhibition halls prepare a variety of programs to provide ideas for regular class lessons, on how to teach, and for fieldtrips. Out of the six Tokyo municipality-run cultural facilities that participated in this program this year, we decided to report on the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, located in Ebisu.

Tokyo Photographic Art Museum offers a number of school programs. Today, we will be taking part in the “dark room photo development experience program” and “art viewing experience program.”

In the dark room program, we learned a photo development technique called “photogram,” in which shadows and shapes of various objects are transferred directly onto photographic paper. Depending on the shape of the object and how much light permeates, unexpected images appear in the photograph.

In the art viewing program, we first played the “colors, shapes, and words game” as a warm-up exercise. The participants then went to the exhibition hall and viewed the artwork individually for one minute. After that, Atsuko Takeuchi, museum curator in charge of education programs, began facilitating a dialog with the participants. Through this dialog, we learn what others noticed in the artwork, and this begins to shift our views.

All teachers at any of the elementary, junior, or high schools or special education schools, regardless of whether they are public or private, are eligible to take part in these programs. We invited you to give it a try. (Please note that all programs for the 2017 school year have already ended.)

Original text: Emi Sato
Photo: Shu Nakagawa