Pupils acted as guides at Kokeshi Exhibition

The Kokeshi Exhibition, on display at the Yorkshire Craft Centre in Bradford from 8-31 March 2010, explored the story of a Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki, and her friends, following the atomic bomb that devastated the city of Hiroshima in 1945.  ‘Kokeshi’ is a type of traditional Japanese doll that symbolises friendship.

The Kokeshi Exhibition uniquely involved using pupils as guides.  These specially trained youth interpreters, or ‘Kokeshi Ambassadors’, guided school groups through the exhibition.  Education Bradford first tried this model of training youth to be ambassadors to act as exhibition guides with the run of the Anne Frank + You exhibition at Cartwright Hall and Art Gallery in Bradford in 2009.  At that time over 50 ‘Anne Frank Young Ambassadors’ were trained.  These Ambassadors have gone on to peer educate other primary and secondary school pupils, passing on their skills and knowledge to others who took on the role of Bradford’s ‘Kokeshi Ambassadors’.

The Kokeshi Exhibition featured a multimedia big picture show, children’s art work and posters based on materials donated to Education Bradford by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and banners and panels on loan from The Peace Museum, Bradford.  The exhibition was curated by staff from Education Bradford’s Diversity and Cohesion team and Carlton Bolling City Learning Centre as part of a wider community cohesion initiative.

The exhibition ran from 8-31 March at the Yorkshire Craft Centre at Bradford College.

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