Community art festivals and sustainable rural revitalisation

Abstract

The links between art events and sustainable development in rural contexts where revitalisation is pressing is becoming increasingly obvious. The village of Mitarai is an example of a small peripheral community in Japan faced with the impacts of depopulation, ageing and socio-economic decline. The urgency to stem further regression has seen art emerge as an antidote for community strengthening. Since 2017, Shiosai, a week-long community art festival has taken place with the underlying aim to rejuvenate the area’s diminishing fortunes. It exhibits artworks paying homage to local islandscapes (Cheer, Cole, Reeves & Kato, 2017) and employs local cultural heritage as key elements. The extent to which bottom-up art events in small rural communities can serve as a vehicle for sustainable development is examined. Findings suggest that the Shiosai drives visitation to the area and has reinvigorated latent cultural heritage. The festival stimulates inward migration and enhances community resilience and vital social capital. However, as the festival is driven from the bottom-up without external support, the extent of future local-level involvement remains a critical success factor. The implications suggest that community engagement is a vital ingredient in the mobilisation of festivals in rural contexts, as well as in ensuring that sustainable development outcomes can be optimised.

Keywords:

• Rural revitalisation
• community art festivals
• community development
• sustainable tourism
• social capital

Acknowledgement

This research was assisted by the Mitarai community as well as Shiosai Executive Committee. Special thanks are due to Simona Zollet and Adina Staicov for their assistance. Additional thanks are also extended to Mitarai Community, Mitarai Gallery, Mitarai Art Farm, and respondents to this study. Finally, we acknowledge Dr. Kim Dunphy whose work has helped shape the conceptual framework for this article. She passed away on 14 October 2020. Vale Dr. Dunphy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meng Qu

Joseph M. Cheer is a research professor in sustainable tourism at Centre for Tourism Research, Wakayama University, Japan and Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash University, Australia. He is board member International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on Tourism and Leisure and Global Change, Critical Tourism Studies (CTS) Asia Pacific and Association of American Geographers Recreation, Tourism & Sport group. His research draws from trans disciplinary perspectives, especially human/economic geography, cultural anthropology and political economy, particularly in the Asia Pacific. His work emphasises resilience building, sustainability and social justice.

Joseph M. Cheer

Meng Qu is a Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate at the Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences at Hiroshima University, Co-convener at Small Island Cultures Research Initiative (SICRI), and research director at Art Island Centre, Japan. A member of Hiroshima University's TAOYAKA Program for Leading Graduate Schools, he currently oversees an interdisciplinary research project on marginal island communities in the Seto Inland Sea region of Japan.