Posted on 03/21/2002 9:14:41 AM PST by summer
In Partnership With the Wakayama Perfectural Government First Lady Columba Bush and Art Scholarship Winners Participate In International Youth Cultural Exchange
WAKAYAMA CITY, JAPAN First Lady Columba Bush and two winners of the First Lady's Art Recognition Scholarship, who are serving as ambassadors of the arts will participate in an International Youth Cultural Exchange Exhibition in Wakayama City, Japan,on Sunday, March 17. The First Lady and her student ambassadors, Virginia Munday, from Polk County, and Christopher Adkins, from St. Johns County, will be the honorary guests at the opening ceremony at an arts exhibition promoting Friendship through the Arts.
"As First Lady of Florida, it gives me great pleasure to be in the Prefecture of Wakayama- - Florida's sister state, for the International Exhibition of the Florida's First Lady's Arts Recognition Program," Mrs. Bush said. "We are most pleased that Wakayama Prefecture has taken the opportunity to host a joint exhibition of artwork from our students from Florida and students from Wakayama."
In collaboration with Arts for a Complete Education / Florida Alliance for Arts Education (ACE/FAAE), the First Lady has awarded 24 art scholarships for $1,000 to students in visual arts, music, dance and theatre since 2000. The Arts Recognition Program recognizes students from six regions of the state identified by the Department of Education. The students must use the scholarships for higher education in an art form.
The exhibition will display artwork from some of the more than 350 applicants who applied for scholarships this year. They will be on display in Wakayama from March 17 through April 22, 2002.
Mrs. Bush, Wakayama's Governor, the Honorable Yoshiki KIMURA, and Wakayama's First Lady will preside at the opening reception for the exhibit. Florida and Wakayama signed a sister-state agreement seven years ago to enhance the cultural, educational and commercial ties binding the two regions.
The First Lady's exhibition is an effort to build relationships between Florida's art students and Wakayama's art students. This program is made possible by a grant awarded to the Florida-Japan Linkage Institute at the University of West Florida by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and is co-sponsored by the Jikei-American Center at the University of West Florida. This cultural exchange program is in partnership with the Culture and International Affairs Division of Wakayama's Prefecture Government.
While in Wakayama, the student ambassadors will stay with a host family, interact with Japanese high school students and will visit Japan's National Treasure, the Koya Mountains.
The mission of the Jikei American Center is to strengthen the understanding and cooperation between the people of Florida and of Japan by building educational, cultural, economical and political relationships. The Jikei-American Center is based at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.
And some of the BEST fish, raw or cooked, that can be taken from the wonderful Pacific Ocean. I kid you not.
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