Faculty and staff of the Lively Arts general education course have planned Arts in Small Spaces to commemorate the 125th anniversary of UMass' partnership with Hokkaido University. Arts in Small Spaces will begin October 10 with a symposium, "Japanese Garden Design," at 6 PM in Bezanson Recital Hall, followed by a dedication ceremony in Durfee Conservatory at 8 PM. Dr. Shoichi Fujita, Vice President for International Affairs, and his predecessor, Dr. Fusao Tomita, will represent Hokkaido University. John and Miriam Jenkins developed the idea for Arts in Small Spaces during Jenkins' appointment, by President Norihito Tambo, as Visiting Foreign Professor to the Hokkaido University Center for Research and Development in Higher Education. The project's name reflects the widespread Japanese custom of creating miniature gardens in the limited spaces available in homes, apartments, and shops. Such ancient sites as Ryoanji Zen Rock Garden, Heian Jingu Gardens, and Shugakuin Imperial Villa of Kyoto inspire these tiny gardens.

Artist Thomas Matsuda and John Tristan, Director of Durfee Conservatory, will involve the Lively Arts students in designing, creating and installing a miniature garden in Durfee conservatory, based upon principles of traditional Japanese garden design. Student participation has historical precedent. According to John Tristan's A History of the Durfee Conservatory, Japanese exchange students Geamon Youchi, Saitaro Naito, and Tenataro Yamao worked in 1872-73 under the direction of Levi Stockbridge to plant a garden outside Durfee using plants of their native land. Durfee served as architectural model for the Hokkaido University Conservatory in Sapporo.

The Fine Arts Center and the Department of Music and Dance co-sponsor The Lively Arts, in cooperation with the Art Department and Department of Theater. Each semester some two hundred forty students enroll, including residents of Western Massachusetts and Greenfield Community College students register through Continuing Education. Jenkins' assignment in Japan was to help Hokkaido University implement a new General Education Curriculum modeled upon the UMass program and recent recommendations from the University Task Force on General Education that Jenkins chaired. As a result, Hokkaido University decided to include the arts in its curriculum, establish a course in "The Lively Arts," and establish an arts consortium with Fuji University for Women and Hokkaido University for Education. A Cooperative Education Arts Exchange Program with UMass is proposed for 2002-2003.

For more information on Art in Small Spaces or on the Lively Arts program, call the Lively Arts Office at (413) 545-0030.