New Orleans Japan Fest 2008
Japan Fest, the largest annual celebration of Japanese culture in the Gulf South, was held at the New Orleans Museum of Art on Sunday, October 19. Crowds gathered for the opening ceremony on the steps of NOMA and were treated to Japanese traditional dance as well as a performance by the dynamic Kaminari Taiko Japanese drumming group. Activities, performances and demonstrations continued throughout the day and attracted over 3,000 visitors to the festival.
Inside the museum, guests had the opportunity to experience tea ceremony demonstrations, ikebana displays, introduction to Zen meditation, martial arts demonstrations, anime exhibits, an Asian market and much more. Attractions in City Park included a Japanese food tent, JET Alumni Association sponsored Japanese dress-up and photo tent, and periodic performances by Kaminari Taiko and other Japanese performers. Two lucky festival-goers each won a roundtrip ticket to Japan compliments of Continental Airlines in this year’s raffle.
This year’s festival also highlighted the exhibit, “Coping with Katrina: Artwork from the NOMA-Hyogo Children’s Art Therapy Initiative”. Following Hurricane Katrina, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan gave a generous gift to the New Orleans Museum of Art to implement the Hyogo-NOMA Children’s Art Therapy Initiative. This gift allowed NOMA to hire a full-time art therapist to provide weekly art therapy sessions in New Orleans Public Schools. The exhibit showcases children’s work from the art therapy groups as an example of how they have processed the trauma and loss from Hurricane Katrina through art-making.
Japan Fest is organized by Japan Club of New Orleans, New Orleans Museum of Art and the Consulate-General of Japan at Nashville. This year’s festival was generously sponsored by Continental Airlines, Port of New Orleans, World Cultural Economic Forum, Zen-Noh Grain Corporation, Zen-Noh Unico America Corporation, CGB Enterprises, Inc. and Chugoku Marine Paints.
 |
 |
 |
 |