Art Festival "Imabari Parabiënnale" Advocating "The Whole Town as a Community Center," Where Welfare, Culture, and Community Intersect, to Hold First Talk Event

Kurushima-kai Social Welfare Corporation (Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture) is officially launching the art festival "Imabari Parabiënnale," where people with disabilities, artists, and local residents co-create, with the main session scheduled for February 2027. As its kickoff, the first talk event, "What Artists Can Do in Local Communities ~Considering Diversity and Coexistence~," will be held on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, where the "Imabari Parabiënnale Opening Declaration" will be made. From that day, numerous art projects for the main session next February will begin to move in various locations throughout the city, including welfare facilities, shopping streets, and public spaces.

The "Imabari Parabiënnale" is an art festival that aims to bring diverse people together, transcending differences in disability, age, and position, through various activities such as art and expression. By using welfare facilities, shopping streets, and public spaces as venues, it aims to create natural encounters and dialogues within the community, opening up the town itself as a cultural space.

The background of this project is Kurushima-kai's desire to deliberately reclaim "incidental encounters" and "experiences of mixing" that arise between people in a modern society where efficiency and risk avoidance are advancing. It is not an art festival where one merely appreciates completed works, but one where local people themselves participate in nurturing culture. The characteristic of the Imabari Parabiënnale is its emphasis on this process itself.

At the talk event on May 20, the project's concept, background, and roadmap until February 2027 will be introduced, and through dialogue with the participating artists, we will consider "the role art can play in local communities" and "the potential for nurturing coexistence as culture." We encourage everyone to participate.

【Event Outline】
Imabari Parabiënnale First Talk Event
"What Artists Can Do in Local Communities ~Considering Diversity and Coexistence~"

■Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
■Venue: Imabari Hohohoza (1-3-3 Kyoei-cho, Imabari City)
■Capacity: 30 people (registration required, participation free)
■Content:
Imabari Parabiënnale Opening Declaration (Kiyohito Ochi, Chairman of Kurushima-kai Social Welfare Corporation, Project General Director)
Talk Session
Speakers:
Kiyohito Ochi (Chairman of Kurushima-kai Social Welfare Corporation)
Akira Tsuchiya (KOSUGE1-16, Artist)
Michika Isozaki (Artist)
Yusuke Kataoka (Musician)
Atsushi Nakano, Kazuomi Tanjo (Nuka Tsukurukotoro)
Guest:
Shotaro Arimon (Actor, Director, Playwright)
Facilitator:
Masashi Todate (Art Management, Cultural Policy)
Project Overview Presentation (Roadmap until February next year to be released)

【Why "Coexistence" Now?】
As the birthrate declines and the population ages, the nature of local communities is at a turning point. Meanwhile, in modern society, as efficiency and risk avoidance advance, and emphasis is placed on "no trouble" and "no hassle," human relationships are also being organized and fragmented.

While support and systems are being developed for people with disabilities, the elderly, children, foreigners, and those facing various difficulties, people are divided by "attributes," making it difficult to connect.

As a result, a sense of isolation and difficulty in living, stemming from "fewer opportunities to interact with strangers," "difficulty encountering different values," and "inability to connect with the community," is spreading throughout society. Kurushima-kai believes that precisely in such an era, "coexistence" is not a system or a slogan, but about creating a state in the community where "people can interact with each other."

Meeting someone by chance.
Having a slightly awkward conversation.
Doing something together.

Accepting differences in individual sensibilities and perspectives not as "differences" but as "richness." For diverse people to interact within the same community, including when things don't "mix perfectly."

It is in such seemingly inefficient, uneven, and inexplicable interactions that the feeling of "living together" is nurtured.

The Imabari Parabiënnale is an attempt to create such human relationships within the community through various activities such as art and expression.

【What is "The Whole Town as a Community Center"?】
Kurushima-kai's concept of "the whole town as a community center" is a vision to redefine all places in the city—not just welfare facilities and public facilities, but also shopping streets, vacant houses, parks, stadiums, and local cafeterias—as "open spaces" where people naturally meet, interact, and something new is born.

As a practical application, Kurushima-kai will hold the art festival "Imabari Parabiënnale," which aims to create human relationships within the community through various activities such as art and expression. In addition, the private community center "Gatchanko" is scheduled to open around the summer of 2026, utilizing a vacant space in Muroya-cho, Imabari City, and other regional initiatives.