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\u201cMy early seven published peer-review research in English already highlighted the role of how big-scale art festivals like Setouchi Triennale can help to facilitate regional revitalization through art tourism and in-migrant micro-entrepreneurship,\u201d said the study\u2019s lead author Hiroshima University Assistant Professor Meng Qu<\/a> from the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences<\/a>\u2019 Department of Integrated Global Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNowadays, Setouchi Triennale has already become a successful model of art tourism revitalization for the Japanese government. There are more than 100 rural art festivals established in Japan influenced by this art rural placemaking trend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, under this type of optimistic background, Qu said that his research on big-scale art fairs showed that community-level outcomes are highly divergent between villages and islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome islands are revitalized by newcomers and art businesses. But on some islands, nothing has happened. This brought me another thought \u2014 large-scale art festivals revitalization is not the only option or panacea for diversified rural communities,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Together with Wakayama University Professor Joseph Cheer, Qu researched small-scale community-engaged bottom-up type of art fairs exemplified by Mitarai\u2019s Shiosai art fest. This week-long community art fete has been held since 2017 to rejuvenate the village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers explored the extent to which bottom-up art events in small rural communities can serve as a vehicle for sustainable development. And examined the specific challenges of employing bottom-up art events in small, rural community contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe links between art events and sustainable development in rural contexts where revitalization is pressing is becoming increasingly obvious,\u201d the researchers said in their paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFindings suggest that the Shiosai drives visitation to the area and has reinvigorated latent cultural heritage. The festival stimulates inward migration and enhances community resilience and vital social capital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers found that the festival puts a premium on upholding and considering local opinions as well as valuing the area\u2019s history, culture, and architecture. Activities are not limited to art but also in pursuits that help safeguard local collective memory through co-learning, reinvigorate dwindling agriculture through \u201chalf-agriculture and half-art crafts\u201d experiences, and enliven the atmosphere by revitalizing and re-using abandoned old buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The festival also attracted creative in-migrants and succeeded in nurturing social connections with artists from neighboring regions and partnerships with both local businesses and nearby universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Mitarai, the focus is on the local community playing a central role, emphasizing meaningful social engagement, co-creation, and co-development,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe nuanced focus on art festivals in declining rural areas helps advance festival studies where for the most part, focus has tended to be on urban and large-scale festival tourism developments or elite art placemaking in rural contexts towards community-engaged events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as the festival is driven from the bottom-up without external support, the researchers noted that the extent of future local-level involvement remains a critical success factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe implications suggest that community engagement is a vital ingredient in the mobilization of festivals in rural contexts, as well as in ensuring that sustainable development outcomes can be optimized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their study<\/a> is selected in the December 2021 special issue<\/a> of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. Their findings were first published online by the same journal in December 2020.<\/p>\n