The World’s Largest Creative Event, Workshop Collection

　Once a year, the streets of Hiyoshi in Kanagawa Prefecture suddenly come alive with the sound of children’s excited cries. It is the time of year when the Workshop Collection, a fair featuring creative and expressive workshops for children, takes place. Now in its ninth year, the event will bring together 100 workshops from across the country, making it one of the largest creative events in the world.
　The unifying theme is “Create.” There are many activities in the world that involve listening, investigating, and learning, but all the workshops taking place here are centered on actively creating, presenting, and communicating. It is a festival of creation and communication.

　At past events, the venue has been filled with lively workshops of all kinds.
Using “Viscuit,” a revolutionary tool developed by NTT Laboratories that allows you to program simply by drawing pictures and arranging them in order, participants created large, moving images. A candy kingdom, the interior of the Earth, the sky… Fathers, mothers, and children brought their own unique worlds to life and displayed them on a large screen.
　NHK Creative Library also took part. Participants created a mini-animation featuring the popular character “Domokun.” Cute animals, beautiful scenery, the universe, dinosaurs—they mixed footage shot by a professional cameraman with computer graphics in whatever way they chose to create a background, before bringing Domokun onto the stage. It felt exactly like being a TV producer.
　In TBS TV & Radio’s “Let’s Become a TV Announcer and Read the News!”, participants read various news items about different programs at Workshop Collection alongside a real announcer. With the cameras rolling, it felt just like being a real announcer.
　At the Suntory Museum of Art’s workshop, participants used tablet computers to create their own original designs in the style of Nabeshima ware, a type of pottery from the Edo period. This innovative approach to cultural engagement blended Japanese art with digital tools.
　There were also other workshops incorporating various types of digital technology. Children from Japan, Australia, Mongolia, and around the world worked together to create a virtual environment, chat, and connect with one another. Children built an original augmented reality robot, controlling it with their own bodies. Children created original musical instruments using the iPad 2. Children designed computer characters and created games for them. Children created their own unique web browser and their own digital newspaper. Children used digital tools to convey the sense of touch.

　Of course, there were other activities on offer besides digital ones. The range was broad, including sculpture, drawing, science, electronics, music, physical expression, moving images, nature, and the environment.
　In paper cup artist LOCO’s workshop “Connect with the World via String Telephone!”, string telephones hung down from the ceiling on both the left and right. Using these simple materials—paper cups and string—participants were able to feel their connections with others and experience the joy of connecting with the world. They could talk not just with one other person, but with 10, 100, or even 1,000. The participants were surprised by just how many strings were stretched out around the room.
This space was a perfect microcosm of the Internet—and perhaps, of the world. Although we don’t usually notice it, we are all connected. If we nudge one cup, all the cups sway. We are all connected by strings, and if just one of these is cut, communication cannot take place. By connecting with the world, we will build one world together.
　The entire venue came together as one, in high spirits. Boom, boom, swish, swish. Everyone formed a circle and improvised percussion instruments in the “Drum Circle” ensemble, a workshop led by Pecker of the Orquesta Del Sol.
　In this free-form communication session, participants used the most primitive, accessible instruments—ones anyone can play right away—to express themselves. Each person conveyed their feelings in their own way through rhythm, experiencing a sense of unity as they shared this time together.
　Omelets, pizza, cake: one after another, children created items for a restaurant menu out of colorful clay. Atelier Murette, a sculpture and painting school, offered this workshop where participants could freely mold the clay and mix it into dozens of different shades to make miniature food. The children were glued to their desks for a long time.
There were so many appealing workshops lined up that it’s impossible to introduce them all… Making shoulder bags out of satchel leather. Crafting a fantasy octopus out of newspaper. Creating sculptures from pinecones and other natural materials. The traditional craft of “Tsumami zaiku,” in which fabric is intricately folded to create decorative objects. Soft toys made from towels without using a needle or thread.
　Assembling a time capsule for thirty years from now. Spatial art using clothespins. Hakoshiki, who transforms animals, dinosaurs, food, flowers, cars, and everything else into boxes. Creating original powdered toppings for rice. Making lenses for single-lens reflex cameras. Painting a giant picture in time to music. Choreographing a dance in which the dancers’ bodies form characters. Making cool stools out of empty boxes that once held plastic bottles. 　

　Nizo Yamamoto, who served as art director on the background scenery for *Laputa: Castle in the Sky*, *Princess Mononoke*, *The Girl Who Leapt Through Time*, and other animated films, led a workshop titled “Let’s Draw a Cloud Together.”
　Yuichi Kimura, the picture book author who created *One Stormy Night…*, the *Baby’s Play Picture Book* series, and more than 500 other famous picture books, held a workshop titled “Let’s Make a Pop-Up Book.”
　Comedians Razor Ramon HG (Razor Ramon), Wacky (Penalty), Yosuke Ohchi (Dienoji), Joyman, Mouchu Gakusei, Lion Onishi, Kazuyuki Sakuma, GO! Miyagawa, Dekkachan, Tekken, and 5 GAP worked one-on-one with children in the “Yoshimoto Kids Comedy Workshop.”
　Kazuma Shirasaki (“Mikan Seijin”), Pyocotan (“Nishi Nippori Bruce”), and Makoto Ota (“Ms. Kyanpachi of 3rd Grade Class B!”)—professional manga artists whose digital comics appear in the Shonen Takeshi web magazine on Fuji Television’s website—worked together with participants in the “Let’s Make Flip Animations!” workshop. The workshop was produced by Shinji Fukuhara, who has worked on “Ugougoluga” and other programs.
These were just a few of the many exciting workshops available.

The children were completely absorbed in the workshops from morning until night. Their faces showed deep concentration as they worked on their creations. They played a lot and learned a lot. Seeing their children like this brought big smiles to their parents’ faces as well. Through word-of-mouth recommendations from parents looking for a new learning environment for their children, Workshop Collection has grown into a two-day event attracting 100,000 visitors.