Young-Ja Park Educator

Born in 1983 in Osaka, Japan.
Feeling not prepared enough to enter the work-force right after finishing the degree, Young-Ja went on to earn a master’s degree at The University of the Arts (Pennsylvania, USA). In the poor and lonely circumstance where she substituted green peas for rice and coped with hunger by chewing gum, she furthered her understanding and knowledge of museum education.

After completing the master’s program, Young-Ja began working as a museum educator at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, spending two hours everyday to commute from her home in Osaka. She endeavored to achieve building the platforms that allow the public to get engaged with the museum in various contexts by supporting schools teachers to provide art appreciation training programs, organizing workshops to coincide with the exhibitions, offering settings for encouraging intergenerational communication, as well as interdisciplinary approach in education. Among the programs she has organized at the museum, there is “Afterschool in Museum” (2014), a program for young people especially middle and high school students, which aimed to shift the people’s impression of museum.

Young-Ja joined the YCAM staff in April, 2015. Working in close cooperation with local schools, she is responsible for museum education, which includes duties such as organizing public programs and taking a role as a facilitator of the original workshops. Driving the vast land across the city of Yamaguchi with her car “Yama-chan”, she exerts herself to provide new contents for school education that maximize the use of YCAM’s capabilities and staff’s talents.