Cultural Identity and Informal Education

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Cultural Identity and Informal Education

• Misako Okuyama
• Roehampton University

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Autobiographyin this research

• To recall personally significant emotional and
  aesthetic experiences that the artists believe
  influenced their present circumstances.
• It is written in their own words and edited.

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Cultural Identity

• Cultural identity is the (feeling of) identity of
  a group of culture, or of an individual as far as
  she/he is influenced by her/his belonging to a
  group or culture (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cul
  tural identity)

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Informal Education

• Includes learning at home, in community places,
  from general media coverage in every day life,
  and it often involves self-learning.
• Although teachers in informal education settings
  may not have formal qualifications, this does not
  mean that they have less experience and knowledge
  of pedagogy than formally trained teachers.

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Informal Art Education

• teaching by artists and/or arts organisations in
  informal education settings, such as museums,
  galleries, community centres, youth centres, as
  well as by family members at home.
• Some of the artists projects in this research
  also took place in formal settings i.e. schools

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6 Culturally Diverse Women Artists in London

• Teri Hilton
• Thurle Wright
• Jennifer Lewis
• Meera Sharon Chaude
• Fatima Djabri
• Misako Okuyama

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Teri Hilton

• Teris identity as she explained it is a mixture
  of Jamaican (Afro Caribbean, Asian and European
  influences) from her grandparents and parents who
  came to England from Jamaica, and British
  culture. She is strongly aware of this
  multicultural identity and represents it in her
  artworks?mainly photography, silk print and
  painting. Recently she has emphasised gender and
  racial issues in monochrome photographs.

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Teris Autobiography

• As a young woman, my mother enjoyed contemporary
  pursuits like 'following' the latest fashion,
  listening to music (soul reggae) watching
  cultural programmes (Omnibus, South Bank - social
  issues and the arts, documentaries, period
  dramas) (Teri Hilton)
• My mother was political and supported the
  American Black movement in the sixties. I
  recall this accurately, as I painted one of the
  leaders (Angela Davis) at school (Teri Hilton).

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Thurle Wright

• Thurle was born in Zimbabwe, Africa, and has
  lived in different places around the world, such
  as Australia, Germany, Denmark, France and
  England. She was influenced by her English
  parents and educated in schools based on the
  British system wherever they lived. This is
  because her grandparents and parents valued their
  own English culture. She feels neither English
  nor Australian. From having lived in different
  cultures, she learned how to adapt to other
  cultures quickly, in particular, languages. This
  experience influences her artworks which are
  based on language.

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From Thurles Autobiography

• Our books, films, television, clothes, food etc
  were all imported from England. England was
  looked up to as the bastion of civilised culture.
  My paternal grand- parents were English Methodist
  missionaries, carrying with them all the
  upstanding English morals and values that they
  equated with the father land (Thurle Wright).
• My mother is an avid reader and would read to us
  from the adult novels that she enjoyed I
  remember The Iliad and the Odessey taking up
  the majority of one summer (Thurle Wright).

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Jennifer Lewis

• Jennifer is a painter, designer and maker. She is
  a Caribbean descent, was born and has lived in
  East London. Influences on Jennifers artwork
  include colours, textures, the history, religion
  and folklore of Africa and the Caribbean.

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From Jennifers Autobiography

• My mother was religious and I was sent every week
  to study with a lovely missionary. Ms Cooley who
  introduced me to Japan where she had worked. We
  studied Japanese culture at her house and she
  found me a pen pal. I think this was when I
  became aware of Japanese art and especially wood
  and paper cuts as she often gave us gifts from
  her travels (Jennifer Lewis).

• My mother was not good at cooking, so my father
  used to cook fresh Caribbean red foods. fried
  fish and roasted red fruits. I like his cooking
• (Jennifer Lewis).

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Meera Sharon Chaude
Meera was influenced by parents whose values and
beliefs are Hindu. Her artwork is inspired by
both the Hindu religion and European stories.
Because she grew up as a British born Asian girl,
she creates hybrid characters from these two
cultures, such as Alice in wonderland, Hanuman
the monkey god, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and
Kali the destroyer.
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From Meeras Autobiography

• I consider myself a British-born Asian. I had
  spent a large proportion of my childhood and
  teenage years feeling confused about my identity
  and home base as well as my cultural beliefs. I
  grew up in the 1980s in what was then a
  predominantly white working class town racism
  was a huge issue.
• In Kenya I grew up with an incredible amount of
  colour, which I think has influenced my work. My
  Gran and my mothers family love cooking and
  preparing food and it was something I grew up
  with.
• Food is important to me too I enjoy preparing
  and cooking food and find it a creative activity
  this I felt is a direct influence from my
  cultural upbringing (Meera Sharon Chaude).

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Fatima Djabri

• Fatima was born and grew up in Paris, France, she
  is a French North-African who was influenced by
  both her parents culture and French culture.
  Because she has lived in an Algerian community in
  France, Algerian cultural forms such as music,
  dance and food surrounded her. As an Algerian,
  she experienced a lot of discrimination in France

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From Fatimas Autobiography

• At home, we spoke Arabic with my parents and
  French among the children. My parents have kept
  the same way of life they had in Algeria. Their
  culture and religion was very present in every
  day life. They fasted during the Ramadan period,
  scarified a sheep during second Eid. My mother
  kept her traditional clothes and never learnt any
  French so she was totally cut off from French
  society (Fatima Djabri).

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Misako Okuyama

• Misako, I am a cosmopolitan Japanese woman who
  was born and grew up in Tokyo, Japan, I was
  strongly influenced by my parents, and have
  learned diverse cultural values and beliefs
  through living in world cities, Paris, Montreal
  and London.

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From Misakos Autobiography

• Since my father is critical and stubborn about
  his own ideas, he valued Japanese culture and
  life style against the vogue when most Japanese
  were imitating western life styles. Our family
  eats Japanese traditional breakfast sitting on
  Tatami around a folding traditional round table
  while many other families take western breakfast
  sitting on chairs. Most rooms in their house were
  Japanese style interiors with paper screens and
  Tatami while many other Japanese houses were
  decorated with curtains and carpets when I was a
  girl.
• My mother also taught me different kinds of
  Origami. Yakkosan (Samurai wearing a trouser
  called Hakama)_ was the first Origami she
  taught me how to make. When my father bought
  Origami books for me specially new designs or
  very difficult ones for a little girl, I was very
  happy. I enjoyed challenge of struggling ways of
  manipulating Origami papers to make difficult
  designs.

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Findings

• These artists cultural values and beliefs were
  influenced particularly by their parents and/or
  grandparents in childhood.
• They have developed their artistic and cultural
  identities through being involved in aesthetic
  activities at home and in community settings.
• Because they had more opportunities to interact
  with other culture, these artists have more
  global perspectives of culture than their
  parents.
• These cultural identities are self-defined and
  have been constructed through interacting with
  other cultures.

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Cultural Identity Implication for Research into
Informal Education

• More research that links formal and informal
  education
• More education research using anthropological and
  sociological theory
• More qualitative research in arts educational
  activities in informal settings.