July 26, 2001
Travel Grant Report:
To: the Office of International Programs
Objective of this Grant: To establish exchange programs with various Art Universities in Japan
San Diego State University does not have an exchange program with any accredited art universities in Japan for our students in the art major. Part of the reason is that the Japanese school system is different from ours. Students in Japan, who want to major in art, will go to an art university. All technical training in art disciplines such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, print making, designs, textile, films, music, animations, woodwork and furniture design are taught at art universities in Japan. Only art history and art theory are taught at both university systems.
Schools visited are: Musashi Art University in Tokyo,
Osaka University of Arts in Osaka,
Tohoku University of Art and Design in Yamagata.
Kyoto University of Art and Design in Kyoto and
Tokai University in Kanagawa
All the universities, except for Musashi Art University, are eager to start exchange programs with SDSU. The reason for the hesitancy of Musashi Art University is that they initiated exchange programs with five schools within last year, and the school budget would not be feasible to accept another new school at this time.
The following are the results of the each visit:
Osaka University of Art (OUA): Graduate and Undergraduate Programs
Visited: June 1, 2001
Enrollment: 7,600 students
The school is located in the rural part of ancient Osaka surrounded by many historic sites. The campus is spacious and has twenty buildings on the 240,000 square meters land. The entrance examination is very competitive.
The fourteen students from our school visited the school as part of “Study Tour to Japan” Program. President Dr. Fukada and Mr. Kambara, Administration director, greeted us warmly. Professors from the Textile design allowed us to join their students in making silk threads from silk warms and process of dyeing cotton fabric. We viewed their special collection of William Morris’ work.
President Fukada was impressed with our students and gave us an unprecedented offer. He could make a special amendment to the existing International Exchange programs and offer an experimental program.
His conditions are:
1. 1 or 2 students can be exchanged as an experimental case
2. Both schools expect to reciprocate the agreements and accept the same numbers of students under the same condition.
3. Free tuition and housing.
4. The OUA will run the program without official contracts. If both schools feel collegial and the program is workable, then the details will be worked out between the schools and both schools sign.
OUA has a sister school agreement with California College of Arts and Crafts and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the US and in China and Korea.
Recommendation:
I strongly feel that the experience at Osaka University of Arts is valuable for our students. The University has excellent art programs, facilities and excellent faculty members, who have communication skills in English. Not only would our students learn Japanese culture, but also they would develop sensibility to a different culture and stimulate their creativity.
Visited: June 18, 2001.
The meeting was with Mr. Takizawa Keizo, Administrative Director of the International Office and Mr. Hosoo, Chief Coordinator of the International Relations. They were cordial. They have recently established exchange programs with five foreign countries; however, it is still in the preliminary stage. Actual student exchange has not started yet. They are interested in starting a summer program with us, but it would be a long time before the program can be developed.
Recommendation:
We wait until they are ready to develop exchange programs with us.
Visited: June 20-21, 2001
Enrolment: 1546
Sister school with Kyoto University of Art and Design
This university was founded in 1991 as a private institution for art and design. The location is in the northern part of Japan in Yamagata. The school is on the hilltop overlooking the entire city of Yamagata. Environmentally, the school is in an excellent location. The air is clean and the city is less congested. It is about three hours train-ride to Tokyo.
TUAD welcomed me warmly. I had an opportunity to discuss our goals and ideas with university administrators of all levels. I gave a talk regarding our school system, school life on campus and how classes are taught in our school. President Yusuke Aida was eager to start a program with us. He would endorse the program. Dean Yoshio Mineta promised us he would also participate in the program as he is a sculptor himself.
Department Chair Professor Takao Makino, Art Historians Professor Chieko Shinozuka (Western Art History) and Assistant Professor (Japanese Art History) were enthusiastic to start the program. Professor Shinozuka was especially instrumental in arranging the meetings and setting the agenda for me. Mr. Katsuhiko Takahashi, executive Director for International Relationship and Ms. Kayo Shindo, Student Exchange advisor were ready to accept us.
The school has an exchange program with Konstfack Design School in Sweden since 1991. The program started with exchanging faculty members but with students started in 1994.
The agreements between TUAD and SDSU:
1. I have established a program called “Study Tour to Japan.” My colleague and I take art students to Japan every year. When we take our students next year, we take our students to TUAD for a two days visit and conduct a seminar together. Suggested agendas are: visiting culturally important sites such as the Jionji temple (National Treasure), 800 years old temple and viewing statues of Buddha and Shinto gods together, and afterwards, we will discuss about them in English. We will decide on the subjects beforehand and both schools will prepare for them.
2. Somebody from the International Exchange program will visit our campus and conduct their assessment.
3. We start the exchange program without a formal contract. If the program becomes feasible, we then form a contract between the school.
Recommendation:
TUAD has the right environment for our students. I highly recommend the exchange of students. The city is not congested, and living expenses are much less than at the metropolis. The school is equipped with the most advanced technology. Faculty members are excellent. Our students can benefit tremendously. Some concern was expressed by the exchange advisor regarding their students’ English is not strong enough to express their ideas at the presentation. I suggested such students could enroll in our American Language Institute for one semester. The inability of our students to speak Japanese is not as concerning because most Japanese students speak English.
Kyoto University of Art and Design, Graduate and Undergraduate
Visited: June 26, 2001
Enrollment: 2000
A sister school with Tohoku University of Art and Design
The school is located on the hillside of the Uryu Mountain on the east side of Kyoto city. It is near the Silver Pavilion where Shogun Yoshimasa built his villa in 1483 and near the Imperial villa. Many historically important temples, shrines and gardens surround the school. They are all in a walking distance. The school became a four-year university in 2000 after merging two schools, Kyoto Junior College of Art, founded in 1977 and Kyoto University of Art in 1991.
The campus sits on 33,000 meters-square. I met with my schoolmate, Dr. Mitsuru Haga, whose father is the president of the school. He and I talked extensively about the program. I was introduced to Chieko Kimura, Director of the Exchange program. The school has been working on exchange programs with Mexico, Turkey, China and Korea, but nothing has materialized yet. My visit was very timely. After our discussion, we came to the conclusion that we should start out with a faculty exchange program. We visited Japanese painting department and asked faculty members if they would be interested in teaching traditional Japanese painting techniques at SDSU. Their response was overwhelmingly positive. All instructors have English language skills.
One of their fortes is theatre, especially traditional Kabuki theatre. They recently built an impressive theatre that Kabuki can be performed. The school has a well-known Kabuki actor, Ichikawa Ennosuke, as a faculty member. As an exchange program, it was suggested that our faculty from the theatre department could go to their school and exchange teaching.
Recommendation:
I strongly recommend the idea of starting out the exchange program with our faculty members first.
Tokai University in Kanagawa, Graduate, and Undergraduate
Visited: June 28, 2001
Enrolment: 43,000
This university is not an art university. It is a four–year university, which was founded in accordance with American school systems. The university has an art department. Contrary to the other art universities in Japan, their art department is small, smaller than that of our university. However, the entire school is equivalent to our school size. The school is actively involved with exchange programs throughout the world.
Recommendation:
I recommend this school should not be limited to the art department, but opened to all students in all majors at SDSU.
I am in discussion with the director of our department. After we outline the proposal for the exchange programs for faculty and students, a meeting with the Dean and Assistant Dean will be scheduled.
All catalogues of schools are in the office of Art, Design and Art History department.