LOOKING BACK AT 2024 WITH RADIO ARTS
Meet Joann and Jess- the Co-Founders of Radio Arts!
Above: Jess in the middle, Joann on the right
Joann and Jess spent the entire year with us at our community center doing a lot of amazing things (all for FREE!) for the community to enjoy. From photobooth pop-ups, cyanotype workshops, and collaging and origami hangouts, there were plenty of ways folks could tap into their artistic side, learn a new hobby, and make friends. Before the year is over, we wanted to sit down and ask them about their experience with us and highlight the incredibly important and unique work they’ve done. See 2024 through their eyes after being immersed in the BudoCommunity and learn more about our project together!
What is Radio Arts and what is the project you've been doing at Budokan?
Make it stand out
“Radio Arts is an organization committed to fostering and supporting community arts practices. We are invested in highlighting and uplifting existing spaces, histories, and their memories through accessible arts programming and conversations.”
“Radio Arts has been tuned into the Terasaki Budokan this year bringing up to 35 different art activations, events, and workshops to the community center in Little Tokyo. The title of this collaboration, 1,000 Paper Memories, took its final form/flight as paper cranes folded with special origami paper- each pattern composed with cyanotyped works from the community members of the Budokan using collected art, photos, poetry, scans, letters, wishes, and ephemera.
1,000 Paper Memories will be installed in 2025 in time for Terasaki Budokan’s 5th Anniversary.”
What were some of the ways you connected with the Budokan community?
Make it stand out
“The first art activation Radio Arts brought to the Budokan was for Valentine’s Day♡. It was the first of 18 photobooth and art collecting pop-up workshops in the Lobby. Our goal was to catch every participating group of the Terasaki Budokan twice and gather as many images through the first phase of this project. This was a beautiful time of introducing the project, learning and listening to the space, and getting to know the wonderful participants of the Budokan. This project passed through the hands of Budokan’s athletes, musicians, visitors, security, staff, youth, seniors, and more!”
Above: Joann folding cranes with seniors from our free senior programming
Make it stand out
“In the summertime we introduced 8 Cyanotype workshops in the Community Room, where participants and visitors were encouraged to participate and create a collage from the community-generated pool of images. Hundreds of collected images were used to create the cyanotyped origami paper. Radio Arts again invited the community to 8 paper crane folding workshops with the goal of folding 1,000 cranes. At Haunted Little Tokyo, we approached the finale of folding the senbazuru.”
Above: Jess showing the cyanotype process to one of the workshop attendees
What is your favorite memory of working at Budokan?
“The first day of the PeeWee Basketball Clinic was really special to witness! So many kids coming into the space, their jerseys like dresses around their ankles, with so many different expressions. Some ran in with a ball in their hand ready for the court. Some hid behind the legs of a safe adult, too shy to say hello. Everyone was asking where the bathroom was! By the end of the day they had all gotten the chance to practice shooting hoops, working as a team, and running the court (a ring of teen volunteers lined the walls to toss back all the basketballs that went flying past the hoops). It would be for many a formative experience that might spark something lifelong in them! It was very cool to see. We were able to take a lot of portraits for the project that day — snapshots of so many ‘firsts’ for so many kids. Many of those faces can be seen popping out of the wing of a crane or two.”
Above: Team Budo participating in the Radio Arts pop-ups from the photo booths, to collaging + writing notes, to cyanotypes
Why is a project like this important?
“We were very excited when the Budokan shared their desire for a senbazuru. While generally the senbazuru is meant to grant a single wish, it felt like a beacon of wishing in general. By holding space for memories, names, and faces, the community can commemorate what they feel they’ve lost. By capturing people’s wishes, we can create something that reminds us of all the hopes and visions the community has for its future.”
A group of Little Tokyo Table Tennis (LTTT) attendees creating letters and collages
What does Budokan mean to you?
“I am reminded of a conversation we had while doing an art activation in the lobby one day. William, a security guard at the Budokan, was sharing why the space was so important to him. He told us how working in this space he got to see everyday people caring for one another. Children caring about teammates, parents coming together to cheer them on, seniors finding and making community. He told us that being there was healing for him. Community spaces hold so much for us all. They are transformative on every level. In my time, I’ve seen the Budokan serve as a place to play, a place to learn about losing and winning, a place to feel connected in rhythm with your own identity. Much like our project, it is a collection of memories, faces, and people that reflect the past, future, and present of Little Tokyo’s thriving and diverse community.“
