This project aims to create opportunities for healing and communication through art at Chiba Children’s Hospital, located in Midori-ward, Chiba City. The project will provide a place of emotional comfort and self-expression for all those who spend their daily lives in the hospital, including children who are forced long-term hospitalization, anxious families, and the doctors and nurses who work under stress every day.

In FY2024, a workshop was first held for hospital staff as a preliminary project. Through creative experiences and dialogues such as knitting and sewing, the workshop was positioned as an introduction to explore the future direction by listening to staff’s current situation and thoughts.
In FY2025, they plan to welcome curators and collaborating artists to develop workshops and exhibitions that reflect the voices of the field, while considering the characteristics of the hospital. Regardless of the intensive presentation and exhibition period of the Art Triennale (September-November 2025), the program will be implemented flexibly according to the conditions of the hospitals and patients.

The core activity is artwork using dolls created based on the “Kiwanis dolls” used in the medical field.
Children create their one and only “alter ego” by putting fabric and coloring on the doll. The doll is then used as the main character and taken pictures of scenes such as “going home,” “exploring the hospital,” and “running errands. By sharing these photos with the children, this program is designed to allow them to “relive” the experiences of others while in the hospital room.

The plan is to avoid the use of needles and focus on safety-conscious expressive methods such as “ sticking” and ” painting. In addition, in order to accommodate the restrictions of a sterile environment and the physical condition of each patient, the project will carefully consider whether and when to implement the project, while working closely with the hospital. This project is also an attempt to connect and grow relationships between people through art, and to reconsider art as a means of gentle comforts for those who are isolated or experiencing anxiety.

【Guest Artists】Chiho Okuno
Visual artist. Born in Kyoto in 1998. Currently pursuing a PhD in Advanced Art Expression at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts.
Through reinterpreting personal experiences via creatures with unconventional bodies such as rabbits, sea turtles, crabs, and mermaids, or by introducing motifs reached through an associative process similar to a chain of thoughts, the artist creates works that shift the original context and explore alternative causalities.
Recent major exhibitions include the solo exhibition ‘Stepping Back from Memory’ (GALLERY b. TOKYO, 2025), TOKAS-Emerging 2024 | Tomoe Okuno Solo Exhibition‘New Body Training: I Want to See My Back’ (Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, 2024), Tokyo Biennale 2025 Pre-Action ‘Travel Companion’ (CREATIVE HUB UENO “es” · Slit Park Yurakucho, 2024), and ‘Manga Circle’ (Art/Empty House Duo, 2024).
Major awards include the Akira Tatehata Award Prize at the Art Award Tokyo 2024 and the Heisei Art Award.