1. Cultural Identity and Informal Education Misako Okuyama Roehampton University

2. Autobiography in this research  T T T To recall personally significant emotional and aesthetic experiences that the artists believe influenced their present circumstances. IIIIt is written in their own words and edited.

3. Cultural Identity  Cultural identity is the (feeling of) identity of a group of culture, or of an individual as far as she/he is influenced by her/his belonging to a group or culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cultural identity)

4. Informal Education  Includes learning at home, in community places, from general media coverage in every day life, and it often involves self- learning.  Although teachers in informal education settings may not have formal qualifications, this does not mean that they have less experience and knowledge of pedagogy than formally trained teachers.

5. Informal Art Education  teaching by artists and/or arts organisations in informal education settings, such as museums, galleries, community centres, youth centres, as well as by family members at home.  Some of the artists’ projects in this research also took place in formal settings i.e. schools

6. 6 Culturally Diverse Women Artists in London  Teri Hilton  Thurle Wright  Jennifer Lewis  Meera Sharon Chaude  Fatima Djabri  Misako Okuyama

7. Teri Hilton  Teri’s identity as she explained it is a mixture of Jamaican (Afro Caribbean, Asian and European influences) from her grandparents and parents who came to England from Jamaica, and British culture. She is strongly aware of this multicultural identity and represents it in her artworks 、 mainly photography, silk print and painting. Recently she has emphasised gender and racial issues in monochrome photographs.

8. Teri’s Autobiography  As a young woman, my mother enjoyed contemporary pursuits like 'following' the latest fashion, listening to music (soul & reggae) watching cultural programmes (Omnibus, South Bank - social issues and the arts, documentaries, period dramas) …(Teri Hilton)  My mother was political and supported the American ‘Black’ movement in the sixties. I recall this accurately, as I painted one of the leaders (Angela Davis) at school (Teri Hilton).

9. Thurle Wright  Thurle was born in Zimbabwe, Africa, and has lived in different places around the world, such as Australia, Germany, Denmark, France and England. She was influenced by her English parents and educated in schools based on the British system wherever they lived. This is because her grandparents and parents valued their own English culture. She feels neither English nor Australian. From having lived in different cultures, she learned how to adapt to other cultures quickly, in particular, languages. This experience influences her artworks which are based on language.

10. From Thurle’s Autobiography  Our books, films, television, clothes, food etc were all imported from England. England was looked up to as the bastion of civilised culture. My paternal grand- parents were English Methodist missionaries, carrying with them all the upstanding ‘English’ morals and values that they equated with the father land (Thurle Wright).  My mother is an avid reader and would read to us from the adult novels that she enjoyed; I remember ‘The Iliad and the Odessey’ taking up the majority of one summer (Thurle Wright).

11. Jennifer Lewis  Jennifer is a painter, designer and maker. She is a Caribbean descent, was born and has lived in East London. Influences on Jennifer’s artwork include colours, textures, the history, religion and folklore of Africa and the Caribbean.

12. From Jennifer’s Autobiography  My mother was religious and I was sent every week to study with a lovely missionary. Ms Cooley who introduced me to Japan where she had worked. We studied Japanese culture at her house and she found me a pen pal. I think this was when I became aware of Japanese art and especially wood and paper cuts as she often gave us gifts from her travels (Jennifer Lewis).  My mother was not good at cooking, so my father used to cook fresh Caribbean red foods. fried fish and roasted red fruits. I like his cooking  (Jennifer Lewis).

13. Meera Sharon Chaude Meera was influenced by parents whose values and beliefs are Hindu. Her artwork is inspired by both the Hindu religion and European stories. Because she grew up as a British born Asian girl, she creates hybrid characters from these two cultures, such as Alice in wonderland, Hanuman the monkey god, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Kali the destroyer.

14. From Meera’s Autobiography  I consider myself a British-born Asian. I had spent a large proportion of my childhood and teenage years feeling confused about my identity and home base as well as my cultural beliefs. I grew up in the 1980’s in what was then a predominantly white working class town; racism was a huge issue.  In Kenya I grew up with an incredible amount of colour, which I think has influenced my work. My Gran and my mothers family love cooking and preparing food and it was something I grew up with.  Food is important to me too – I enjoy preparing and cooking food and find it a creative activity – this I felt is a direct influence from my cultural upbringing (Meera Sharon Chaude).

15. Fatima Djabri  Fatima was born and grew up in Paris, France, she is a French North- African who was influenced by both her parents’ culture and French culture. Because she has lived in an Algerian community in France, Algerian cultural forms such as music, dance and food surrounded her. As an Algerian, she experienced a lot of discrimination in France

16. From Fatima’s Autobiography  At home, we spoke Arabic with my parents and French among the children. My parents have kept the same way of life they had in Algeria. Their culture and religion was very present in every day life. They fasted during the Ramadan period, scarified a sheep during second Eid. My mother kept her traditional clothes and never learnt any French so she was totally cut off from French society (Fatima Djabri).

17. Misako Okuyama  Misako, I am a cosmopolitan Japanese woman who was born and grew up in Tokyo, Japan, I was strongly influenced by my parents, and have learned diverse cultural values and beliefs through living in world cities, Paris, Montreal and London.

18. From Misako’s Autobiography  Since my father is critical and stubborn about his own ideas, he valued Japanese culture and life style against the vogue when most Japanese were imitating western life styles. Our family eats Japanese traditional breakfast sitting on Tatami around a folding traditional round table while many other families take western breakfast sitting on chairs. Most rooms in their house were Japanese style interiors with paper screens and Tatami while many other Japanese houses were decorated with curtains and carpets when I was a girl.  My mother also taught me different kinds of Origami. Yakkosan (Samurai wearing a trouser called ‘Hakama’)_ was the first Origami she taught me how to make. When my father bought Origami books for me specially new designs or very difficult ones for a little girl, I was very happy. I enjoyed challenge of struggling ways of manipulating Origami papers to make difficult designs.

19. Findings  These artists’ cultural values and beliefs were influenced particularly by their parents and/or grandparents in childhood.  They have developed their artistic and cultural identities through being involved in aesthetic activities at home and in community settings.  Because they had more opportunities to interact with other culture, these artists have more global perspectives of culture than their parents.  These cultural identities are self-defined and have been constructed through interacting with other cultures.

20. Cultural Identity: Implication for Research into Informal Education  More research that links formal and informal education  More education research using anthropological and sociological theory  More qualitative research in arts educational activities in informal settings.