Contemporary society worldwide is entering an era of diminished social solidarity and social division (Stichweh, 2021). Japan is no exception. Divisions based on diverse factors such as economic power, background, and generation have intensified in recent years, and political polarization is advancing (Inamasu, 2025). It means that even when sharing the same physical space, what people see, hear, and construct from these experiences differ. People occupying the same space and time are, in effect, living in "different worlds." What potential does art hold in such a stratified modern society where these layers lack intersection? Asher (2007) suggests art has the potential to open boundaries between diverse groups differing in discipline, generation, faith, and culture. Art can not only bridge differences but also create new communities that encompass them (Asher, 2007). In fact, unlike academic skills learned in school, art allows anyone to engage in creative activities grounded in their inherent aesthetic literacy (Ishiguro, in press). Moreover, the creative process and the resulting work do not presuppose comparison or competition with others; one can engage in it, prioritizing one's own preferences. For these reasons, art activities also have a healing effect, offering a helping hand to those suffocating under evaluations based on values that privilege certain groups within existing society. Furthermore, artistic activities demand the activation of imagination not only from the creator but also from those who appreciate the creative process and the work itself, fostering the ability to see the unseen and hear the unheard (Greene, 1995). Art activities can also provide opportunities to critically examine current value systems and the unjust distribution of power and wealth.
This study reports on a Social Art Workshop conducted with members of the general public. The Social Art Workshop was held to bring together people who would not normally meet to create art together. This workshop was neither designed to teach specific skills nor to produce "excellent" works intended to receive favorable evaluation from others. By creating an environment that activates everyone's aesthetic literacy (Ishiguro, 2026), the workshop aimed to foster a gentle sense of solidarity through creative activity. The workshops reported here were held four times in 2023. The workshops took place in a private studio in central Tokyo, with each session involving a small group of 6 to 9 participants. I came to host these workshops after being invited by Rie Osogoe (Valjakka, 2022), an artist who advocates for socially engaged art and has been providing free art supplies to people experiencing financial hardship with her own funds. These individuals in financial hardship were people who lined up for free meals at parks near major Tokyo stations. Osogoe had set up an open-air studio there, offering them the chance to paint.
Additionally, participants included those who applied openly and those who attended the annual intensive university course "Designing Art-Based Learning Activities," which I led. Each workshop session had a designated theme, and participants were free to create works within it. The workshops sequentially produced clay sculptures, watercolor paintings, paper-cut collages, and paper-drama (Kamishibai). There were two collaborative sessions and two individual creation sessions. During creation, participants often freely chatted and supported each other. Osogoe and I assisted with the creative process.

This research was conducted by the presenter in 2023, focusing on the activities of the Social Art Workshop held approximately once every three months, four times a year. The Social Art Workshop involved engaging in creative activities while enjoying the shared presence of people who happened to be in the same space. Its primary purpose was to create a common space where participants could freely converse while enjoying art-making. Workshop participants varied from session to session, ranging from a minimum of six to a maximum of nine people, including the facilitator and the studio owner. Among them, three were regulars at the studio who had previously received meals at the soup kitchen. The rest were general participants; some joined after taking my intensive university course for middle-aged and older adults, "Designing Art-Based Learning Activities." Before each workshop session, participants were provided with an outline of the activities to be conducted. They were informed that participation could be discontinued at any time and that audiovisual recordings would be made, but would be used solely for the reporter's research. That personal information would not be disclosed. Only those who agreed to the research consent form participated. The first session focused on "Rediscovering Self-Image Through Artworks and Words," where participants were asked to create a clay figure of themselves. This process involved not only reconsidering "what I am" during creation but also viewing each other's work and sharing comments. The second session, themed "Creating My Tree. Then, Everyone's Forest Takes Shape," began with group discussions about what kind of forest to create. Participants then individually made their trees, culminating in a forest created as a flat collage. The third session, "Creating a Street," began with participants discussing what kind of street to build. They then created the street on a large sheet of paper by directly drawing the street scene on the flat surface or attaching three-dimensional elements to it on the spot. The fourth session, themed "Creating a Personal History Kamishibai," required each individual to create a paper theater (kamishibai) that narrated their personal history up to that point using pictures and text. Kamishibai is a traditional Japanese storytelling format (Ishiguro, 2017) featuring pictures and narration for each scene, familiar to most who grew up in Japan. Each session was designed to foster a creative environment focused on "self," "others," and their relationship.

Through the four workshops, participants found significant value in the opportunity to speak with "people from another world" whom they would not normally have a chance to speak with directly. A conversation that relies solely on language emphasizes direct relationships when it occurs face-to-face and requires sharing the unseen images it represents. However, with the artwork serving as a third element mediating the relationship, the interaction became indirect, seemingly making it easier to talk. Furthermore, participants realized each possessed rich aesthetic literacy, and those struggling with their creations increasingly sought more advice from others. While individuals facing financial hardship are often socially marginalized, no such asymmetry was observed here. Language tends to reveal embedded values and social hierarchies, but through the artwork, mutual understanding seemed to develop through the creative process and the resulting work. Of the four social art workshops, two focused on creating individual pieces and two on collaborative works. These not only provided opportunities to revisit their pasts but also to diffract (Murris & Bozalek, 2019), where memories, present circumstances, anxieties, and hopes for the future, and discourses with others in the moment, intertwined with the artwork. This process allowed participants not only to examine their experiences from the past to the present critically but also to envision the future. The workshops could have been a learning opportunity involving onto-epistemological transformation, encompassing not just understanding what it is, but also one's own way of being. However, this workshop only heightened the temporary relationships among participants on the day itself; it did not involve jointly examining the social contexts behind each participant, nor did it become an art activity aimed at social transformation (Kakembo, 2025). The relationship between the workshop space and the society outside it remains a topic for future consideration.

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