SMA Teams Up with Unesco Asia/Pacific for Manga Competition
Tokyo, Japan - September 25th, 2019.
Saturday, 21st September was “International Peace Day”. It was also the launch of a pioneering collaboration between the SILENT MANGA AUDITION® and UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in the form of SMA's 13th manga competition.
With the theme “Together for Peace”, the collaboration aims to promote UNESCO's mission of building peace through “grassroots” means of Education, Science and Culture, alongside the SMA's goal of discovering and nurturing international manga talent in the form Silent Manga.
SMA Committee Chairperson, Shuichi Mochida highlighted the shared goals in bringing people together regardless of age, culture or language, “One of the characteristics of ‘silent manga’ is that it allows readers to share stories across borders and cultures, regardless of their native language.”
As part of this groundbreaking partnership, SMA13 will also feature a UNESCO guest judge who will choose an additional work to the SMA award winners that perfectly exemplifies UNESCO's mission. The winner of this special UNESCO Award will be invited to the Bangkok opening of the UNESCO / SILENT MANGA AUDITION® “Together for Peace” manga exhibition, held in the prestigious Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
Running from May 12th - 31st, the event will be supported by a printed exhibition catalogue featuring selected works from SMA13 that will be used as a teaching aid throughout the Thailand and greater Asia/Pacific region.
For the content of the eagerly anticipated SMA13 manga entries, Shigeru Aoyagi, Director of UNESCO Bangkok, the Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education said “Peace is not only about the absence of war or violence. True peace is sustainable and built on the foundation of justice for all peoples.”
“This is known as ‘positive peace’ creating an environment where people respect each other, and where people face no barriers due to their gender, race, ethnicity, religion or disability” he added.
Both the SILENT MANGA AUDITION® and UNESCO will support SMA13 with a series of “case studies” and reports throughout the “call for entries” period. With information on the invaluable work UNESCO is undertaking throughout the Asia Pacific region in their mission to build peace, the content should prove inspirational for manga artists submitting work to the competition.
The SMA13 “call for entries” period will run until January 31st, 2020.
