Japan has inspired us all, now is it our turn to "Inspire Japan."
The Sunshine Coast creative community is invited to ‘Inspire Japan’ through participating in a local event with a worldwide audience on April 16. The Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance and The Jewellery and Art Gallery at Carrington’s will host an interactive soiree with presentations in the Pecha Kucha style format.
Pecha Kucha Night was devised by Tokyo based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003 to enable young designers to meet, network, and show their work. There are now over 400 centres worldwide participating in Pecha Kucha Nights and they have been happening on the Sunshine Coast since late 2009. The Tokyo based organisers have now invited the global community to participate in a worldwide Inspire Japan Pecha Kucha and fundraising event on April 16 and the Sunshine Coast has leapt on board.
THINK / PARTICIPATE / DONATE / INSPIRE
On March 11, Japan suffered what has been described as a 1000 year event. The earthquake and tsunami destroyed 400km of coastline, killing over 10,000 people, leaving 400,000 people homeless, and has triggered a nuclear situation that is still unfolding. The Pecha Kucha Night organisers in Japan are inviting communities to participate in a global PechaKucha Day - Inspire Japan. As Klein and Dytham say “Let's all come together and show Japan that the creative world is thinking of them, that all is not lost, and that it is possible to stand up and rebuild, even in villages and towns which have been completely destroyed. With creativity and passion, anything is possible.”
Proceeds from Inspire Japan will go directly to Architecture for Humanity (AFH), who PechaKucha supported last year with Global PechaKucha for Haiti. From that global event Architecture for Humanity raised $80,000 which has gone to the design and construction a school in Haiti. Architecture for Humanity has already established a base in Sendai and is working with a local reference group on the four phases of rebuilding a community; Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Economic Development.
Community members can contribute an image for presentations on the night, do a presentation or donate money. So the Pecha Kucha format is just 6 minutes 40 second for each presenter and so you get to see a snapshot of people’s work, ideas or passions in a compact little package.
The local community is invited to participate by sending through a putting together a presentation, contributing an image for a communal presentation, contribute goods for auction, donate money or come along on the night.
Presentations could be simply about things that inspire us, or Japan how it has inspired you, great ideas or solutions that help deal with the issues at hand whether earthquake, tsunami or nuclear - and the road to recovery. On the 16th of April 100's of 20x20 presentations will be made around the world, these will all be streamed live and then uploaded online to make a database of positive inspiration for Japan.
Sunshine Coast folk can also contribute through visiting the fashion industry ‘Off the Rack’ day that will be held on April 16 as well at Coolum Civic Centre from 8 am. There you can contribute by making a small donation or purchasing a raffle ticket, at the door if you so choose. The raffle prize is a rare Japanese kimono valued at $1000+ from the private collection of Donna Webster, of Kimono Collections.
Date: Saturday April 16
From 6.00 pm
Entrance: $30
The Jewellery & Art Gallery at Carringtons, Suite 3/26 Sunshine Beach Rd, Noosa Junction
Contact details:
Julie Carrington, The Jewellery & Art Gallery at Carringtons Ph: 54852390 or 54492977 (wk)
Sue Davis, The Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance, 041 8763428 (Mob)
Email images 1024 x 768 pixels (that can drop straight into a powerpoint presentation)
www.thecreativealliance.org
