Live 'performance' of prize-winning chalkboard art (黒板アート) to be held in Shizuoka, July.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a high school or junior high school in Japan will know that when it comes to the end of the year, homeroom class students like to get artistic, with the chalkboard (黒板)! Where their counterparts in The West have probably skipped the last day of school to hang out down the parks smoking cigarettes and getting pregnant, Japanese students take to producing works of art where once there were boring equations and grammatical structures.  

We use the phrase ‘word of art’ losley; for the most part these chalk boards are a canvas for a mad combination of name scrawling, peace signs (the Japanese two-fingered ones), and animefied student/teacher portraits. By the end though, every inch of the board is covered, and it leaves a striking impression.

Kokuban Art Koshien

We usually associate the name ‘Koshien’ with the storied high-school baseball tournament held in Hyogo every summer. This year though, saw the first Kokuban Art Koshien (黒板アート甲子園), which took place over the period of March 7 - April 8. 97 schools created 157 works of chalkboard art, many of which are quite frankly mind blowing. You can see the prize winners on the Kokuban Art Koshien homepage here.

Live Event

This summer, department store giant Marui (IOIO) will be hosting ‘live chalkboard art’ from one of the Koshien winners, 静岡県立科学技術高校美術部 (Shizuoka Kenritsu Kagaku Gijutsu Kōkō Bijutsu Bu / Shizuoka Prefectural Science, Technology and Art High School Art Department) in their Shizuoka branch. The students at the school picked up a prize for their piece of chalkboard art which imagined the classroom and corridor as a train station; the tickets and train ultimately transporting them to their dreams.  

The event at the Shizuoka Marui will give visitors a chance to have a go at some chalkboard art themselves, and provide a unique opportunity to see it done live by people who really know their stuff. The students will be creating an artwork to completion on a 10 m long board.

Performance dates and times: 

July 15 (Fri): 15:00 - 18:00

July 16 (Sat): 10:00 - 18:00

July 17 (Sun): 10:00 - 18:00

July 18 (Mon): 10:00 - 18:00

Shizuoka Marui 2F: 6 - 10, Miyuki-machi Aoi-ku, Shizuoka-shi, Shizuoka-ken, 420-0858 

Tel: 054 252 0101

Web: http://www.0101.co.jp/036/

Map: 

Have you ever seen any of Japan’s chalkboard art? Drop us a line below.

Source and images: PR TIMES

Twitter: City_Cost_Japan

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