“TONO Cantabile”；Practical future creation activity for the next generation in TONO city by using Artistic Communication Technology.　

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Description

Intro

This is a collaborative project established after the Great East Japan Earthquake by two organizations- Mother Earth Project, a student musical group that organizes music events across Japan and Create the Future College in TONO, an organization based in TONO City that works on community building and human resource development. Utilizing the power of music to connect people as a communication tool, this skills development innovation program aims to maximize the creativity of junior high students by providing a space for them to interact and co-create with high school students, university students and working professionals of diverse backgrounds.

Objective of the practice

Our project serves to contribute to Goal 4: “Quality Education” and Goal 11: “Sustainable Cities and Communities” of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). First of all, community building and human resource development are two key factors in the post-disaster recovery and revitalization of cities. It is of paramount importance to develop new local leaders and to instill hometown pride in the children and young people. Secondly, as Japan faces an aging population with a declining birth rate, educational curriculum of schools in rural Japan should be supported and complemented by regional educational advisory boards. Hence, there is a need to develop new educational programs collaborated and cooperated across multiple stakeholders in a trust-based relationship. 
In the current compulsory education in Japan, children are trained in social adaptation with lessons created based on the foundation of development of human behavior and learning skills. There is a severe lack of opportunities for children to develop their personalities and wield creativity. This results in a discrepancy between the communication abilities between children living in rural and urban regions, which is a sign of the overemphasis in today’s education on the development of human behavior and learning skills. 
In order to solve this conundrum, it is crucial to bring in active learning programs that have been tested and tried in China and countries in Europe and North America. 
Our project is an experiment in revolutionizing the education by using the power of music and art to connect people. Create the Future College in TONO, carried out needs assessments at local middle schools and collaborated with the teaching staff and parents of the students. On the other hand, Mother Earth Project, consisting of students from Tokyo University of the Arts, designed the curriculum of the program that required professional knowledge. The specific aims of this program are created for middle school students to 1) create with an open heart, 2) artistically express the charms of TONO using sounds, 3) love their hometown and learn about compassion and sharing. We carried out workshops as part of this project for a year to develop creativity in them. Music and art touch people’s hearts and enhance communication. As a result, both the “teachers” and “students” learnt from each other, providing each other with diverse values, changing the way the young participants think and act in the face of a multitude of social problems. This is evidence that we had succeeded in providing “high quality education”. This would then lead to the development of local leaders, who will then spearhead the region into the future, creating “sustainable cities and communities” 
Through this project, we were able to maximize the potential of the community through communication using art, and augmenting the creativity levels of young people. This also served to contribute to an improvement in the educational system and regional revitalization, which are based upon one of the goals by TONO City government- to build an attractive educational environment and to raise the cultural sensitivities of the local residents

Partners

I. Mother Earth Project; Volunteer Group for making some relationship with　workshop and some performance. They are making good relationship between project member and community people or organization by using artistic communication after the eastern Japan great earthquake.

II. Create the Future College；Community college that Fuji Xerox has been established 6 years ago after the eastern Japan great earthquake in TONO City. The College is managed by Enterprise, Community, Public-sector and Researchers at the closed junior high school.

III. Junior High School and Citizens in TONO City

Implementation of the Project/Activity

I. Innovation Planning by College
Chief producer in college Planed brand-new active learning program which can support to create the song and body expression for junior high school students in TONO City beyond 3 years.

II. Preparation by Mother Earth Project Member
Core member of Mother Earth Project visited to TONO City for endeavor nature and industries in TONO City with College stuff. They dedicated to know some wonderful power spot in TONO City during 3 month, and designed workshop for students after the research.

III. Workshop by Mother Earth Project Member
Song creation；MEP core member support the song creation workshop for students of TONO West High School. And they educated how to sing a song the new melody or motif students made.

Composition and musical performance；MEP other member and special conductor took a lead of the composition and performance almost 5-6 times at TONO Junior High School.

Creation of body expression；Special dancers took some coaching the body expression at TONO East High School.

And college stuff payed attention for quality management and support all activities.

IV. Music event
Staged music event at the unveiling of “My Country, TONO” that created by high school students and Mother Earth Project

Results/Outputs/Impacts

This project had a huge impact on the various stakeholders involved- junior high school students in TONO City, the teaching staff, high school and university students from Mother Earth Project and the local residents in the region.

Creating Shared Value
I. For Junior High School Students
According to a survey conducted after our music festival in January, the junior high school students “enjoyed interacting with university students”, “learnt how to co-create new projects while working with one another”, “gained invaluable friendship” and “became more proud of their hometown”.

II. For Teacher
For the school teachers involved, they expressed their interest of continuing this project and voiced out the following comments. “This is an excellent education for post-disaster recovery”, “It was a great experience for both the students and the school”, “and we hope to adjust our schedules so as to continue this project”. We are optimistic that this project will carry on as the school supported us, commenting that this project provided “quality education”

III. For Moher Earth Project Members
They were happy to “interact with junior high school students and be immersed in the region through music”, and this project “gave them the chance to think about their future.” Through the workshop, the junior high school students realized the three aims of the project, mainly to “to 1) create with an open heart, 2) artistically express the charms of TONO using sounds, 3) love their hometown and learn about compassion and sharing.

IV. For Citizens
For the TONO city and local residents, we managed to co-create a concerto together with local junior high school students and university students engaging in musical activities from all over Japan. This leads us a step closer to realizing the city government’s goal “to build an attractive educational environment and to raise the cultural sensitivities of the local residents.”

V. For College
Through this project, using art as a communication tool, we can develop human resource development programs to groom future leaders to spearhead the revitalization of TONO, and to instill hometown pride in the junior high school students of the city. This project has just begun, but we are certain that this project plays a crucial role in community building and human resource development.

Enabling factors and constraints

I. Verbalized the issues of enterprise, public-sector, school and community before the workshop
II. Designed the solution of educational issues into the workshop, and managed the practice for the Cantabile among stakeholders.
III. Created the shared value among stakeholders, and positioned the educational program for the SDGs mainstream.
IV. Adopted some artistic performance for the new communication approach.
V. Mother Earth Project has conducted artistic exchange campaign in various areas. But the project could develop into the practical activity of sustainable community that SDGs put up through carrying on activity with an enterprise and public-sector.

Sustainability and replicability

Sustainable Planning
I. Our aim for the first year was to build a trust-based relationship with the various stakeholders and to collectively create “Furusato Tono Music Festival” with each middle school involved.

II. In our second year, we will realize educational reforms in the form of an integrated series of practical activities collectively organized with the region.

III. In our third year, our long-term aim is to let the region take initiative to organize this music event as a form of social activity, and also engaging other regions to join this activity.

Objectives
I. To Learn Social Skills: We aim to contribute to society by allowing children, at different phases of their growth development, learn how to connect deeply with society, learn how to love and treasure their friends, families and fellow residents, and to apply these skills and knowledge to their individual lives and to society.

II. To Learn Logical Thinking: We aim to train children so that they are able to think and act so as to realize one’s individual goal or to carry out one’s initiatives, so that they know how to act as part of a larger organization together with other people, and so that they are able to think critically about how to reflect and improve on the process so as to move closer to the goal.

III. To Learn How to Innovate: To train children how to always be critical and observant about their surroundings, environment and society, and to understand that critical thinking of problems is the key to change society for the better. To guide children to the right path of thinking so that they understand how the way they think and organizational activities have a great impact on society, and that they enjoy discovering the answers to their inquisition.

Conclusions

From questionnaire survey 
I. Mother Earth Project; 
 We would like to take a lead and make some performance especially workshop and music event not only some disaster area but also various areas in the world. In this year, some collaboration with an enterprise and community organization through were very exciting and wonderful experience. 
 
II. College； 
 We could understand business opportunity and succeed in our activity's inventing innovation by putting up SDGs. And we could recognized that music can be utilized as communication technology. So, we would like to have strong relationship between junior high school students and us. 
 
Challenge 
I. In the future, the Junior high school students will not only be playing music, but involved in the planning and running of the events, and the management of the music. We want the children to learn the joys of accomplishing something by themselves. 
 
II. In order to realize the above mentioned aim, we set our aim for the music festival to be an event for “TONO junior high school students to rediscover the charms of TONO and communicate them to the world”. We want the students to be involved in every step planning, management and running of the activities for achievement of high quality education. Members of Mother Earth Project will strongly support of this activities, teaching staff of local middle schools, graduates from junior high school, high school students, and TONO residents and our college in all TONO stakeholders.

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