MOL Sunflower Launches Industry-Academia Collaboration with Osaka University of Arts

MOL Sunflower (President: Hirotoshi Ushioku, Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) has launched an industry-academia collaboration with the Osaka University of Arts (Location: Kanan-cho, Minamikawachi-gun, Osaka Prefecture) to exhibit paintings created by students on the company's Kobe-Oita ferry route.

This initiative aims to create cultural value utilizing youthful sensitivity and creativity, and to provide new experiential value in ferry travel. Works created specifically for this project by Osaka University of Arts students will be exhibited in the deluxe rooms of the "Sunflower Gold" and "Sunflower Pearl," which operate on the Kobe-Oita route, providing passengers with the opportunity to spend their travel time more enrichingly.

For students, this serves as a valuable opportunity for their work to be displayed in actual commercial spaces and viewed by many, fostering a learning environment connected to the real world.

For the company, this initiative serves to enhance the appeal of onboard spaces and contributes to culture and human resource development through partnerships with educational institutions.

[Comment from Osaka University of Arts] Thank you for inviting us to participate in this industry-academia collaboration. We are very grateful.

The students involved in the creation of these works expressed their thoughts on the ferry journeys between Kobe, Oita, and the Seto Inland Sea through their paintings. We hope you will appreciate these works and that they will help you enjoy your ferry trip to the fullest.

We would like to continue our activities while valuing the connection between art and society.

Through the "Sea Road" that is the ferry, MOL Sunflower connects people, regions, and cultures. We will continue to commit ourselves to creating sustainable and attractive ferry journeys while valuing partnerships with educational institutions and local communities.