Do Ho Suh: Passage/s
Solo Museum Exhibition by Do Ho Suh, World-Renowned Leader of Asian Art
Dates: Saturday 2 June – Sunday 14 October 2018

Yuko Mohri: Assume That There Is Friction and Resistance
Internationally Acclaimed Artist’s First Solo Exhibition
Dates: Saturday 27 October 2018 – Sunday 24 March 2019

Sanbongi Night
The museum brought Sanbongi Kouta Night brought back after a four-year hiatus. Together with local cafés and restaurants, Towada residents gathered to dance in a big circle, creating an enchanting summer night festival.
Date: Saturday 25 August 2019 18:00–20:00
Location: Towada Art Center Art Square

Talk by Ryuei Nishizawa: “How Architecture Shapes the City” (Japanese)
The museum presented a special talk by Towada Art Center architect Ryuei Nishizawa. He spoke about the effects that art can have on cities and local communities, highlighting some of the museums and community facilities that he has designed.
Saturday 28 April 2018 14:00–16:00
Location: Towada Civic Cultural Center
Organized by: City of Towada, Towada City Board of Education

Open Music Square Monthly Concert Series
The museum hosted a monthly concert series in the Cube to highlight the variety of musical talent in Towada. A total of 10 groups captivated large audiences of all ages, performing a wide range of music, from Japanese oldies to classical compositions.

Letters from Children
Every year the museum is visited by many children from nurseries and grade schools in Towada. Over the years, the museum has received many wonderful thank you letters from those children, who have written about the things they experienced here. Their unique perspectives and honest commentary are so heartwarming that we have compiled them in an online gallery where we can share them with the world.
Published: Friday 22 February 2019

Family Ticket
Art and its many expressions are the perfect way for families of all shapes and sizes to connect with each other. To encourage art appreciation and critical thinking, the museum presented special Family Tickets to every elementary school student in Towada so that they can come and enjoy the museum together with their families.

Multilingual Signage
To make the Towada Art Center more accessible to an ever-growing number of international visitors, we have created all-new signage for the museum in Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified).

A Mini Tour of The Pianos of Towada (Japanese)
This project was designed to shed light on daily life in Towada and propose a new kind of local tourism. The museum invited composer Makoto Nomura to perform a number of small improvisational concerts on several different pianos throughout Towada. Nomura made eight stops over two days, performing in private homes, a church, and even a nursery school, his original compositions highlighting the charm and character of each location.
Dates: Tuesday 5 March – Wednesday 6 March 2019

Video: Kazuya Ishikawa

The Shopping Arcade & The Museum (Japanese)
We have commissioned a number of restaurants and cafés to create museum-inspired menu items to celebrate the last 10 years of collaboration between local businesses and the museum. Plenty of new and exciting ideas came about by discussing past projects with store owners and residents of Towada’s shopping arcade, and this project has encouraged visitors to the museum to venture out into the shopping arcade, strengthening the connection between the two.
Dates: Monday 1 April – Saturday 31 August 2019

Hiroshi Fuji

Born in 1960 Kagoshima, Japan. Graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts. After lecturing at the Papua New Guinea National Art School, joining an urban planning group, establishing the Fuji Hiroshi Design and Production Studio, and serving as director of the Towada Art Center, he is now a professor and vice president of the Akita University of Art. He has been involved in many art projects and exhibited his work extensively both in Japan and internationally. In 1992, he established the Fuji Hiroshi Design and Production Studio and turned his attention to the community (chiiki), employing methodologies that combine collaboration and appropriate technologies in pursuit of ways to elicit artist expression.

*photo by Kuniya Oyamada

Nadegata Instant Party

The group, consisting of artists Tohru Nakazaki, Daisuke Yamashiro, and art manager Tomoko Noda, began their collaboration in 2006. They embed themselves within a local community, create a “trigger” as a starting point or springboard for the project, and open it up to the community in the process of making it a “reality”. They always involve the area’s residents in their creations, and film the creative process of bringing their “stories” to life. These documentary films are displayed alongside their installations.

Jun Kitazawa

Born in 1988 in Tokyo, Japan. Artist and president of Jun Kitazawa Office Yakumo. Working together with administrative agencies, educational institutions, medical institutions, private companies, NPOs, regional organizations all over the world, he organizes art projects that come in close contact with people’s lives. Through this work he hopes to build a culture of creativity within society by cultivating a place where questions about community and everyday life can be asked. His projects in recent years have put an emphasis on continuity and aim to integrate with local culture and become a part of everyday life.

*photo by CULTURE

This book is a partial English translation of Chiiki āto wa doko ni aru? [Where is Chiiki Art?] (ed. Towada Art Center, Tokyo: Horinouchi Publishing, 2020), published as a record of the titular project that was held at Towada Art Center from 2018 to 2019.
The book is available in PDF format and as POD on amazon.

Nobuyuki Ueda

Born in Nara Prefecture in 1950. Inspired by Sesame Street, he moved to the US upon graduation from Doshisha University. He received his M.A. from the Central Michigan University Graduate School before moving to the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where he obtained his Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.). He specializes in educational technology. He has helped create countless environments for studying art and learning environment design, all centered around the idea of “playful learning.” From 1996 to 1997, Ueda worked as a guest researcher at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education、and from 2010 to 2011 was enrolled at MIT Media Lab as a visiting researcher.

February 18 (Sat)
School for Teachers — Rock Your Class with Playful Learning (Japanese)

Ricca Fukuda

Sweet and confection researcher. Graduate of Musashino Art University. Her recipe books include Wrapping Food (フードを包む) and Delicious Frozen Desserts All Year Long (一年中おいしいアイスデザート), and she is the author of many columns, including Manga Kitchen (まんがキッチン) and Hoodlums Always Wreck the Table (ゴロツキはいつも食卓を襲う). She has also produced her own confections and kitchen apron.

February 24(Fri)
School for Professionals — Pickle Installations with Local Vegetables (Japanese)　※FULL

Ryoji Arai

Illustrator and picture book author. In 2005, he was the first Japanese person to be awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international children’s and YA literary prize founded by the Swedish government. He continues to work across genres and is currently the artist director on the Yamagata Biennale.

February 25 (Sat)
School for Parents and Children — Having Fun Together (Japanese) ※FULL
February 26 (Sun)
School for Professionals — Picture Books and Me (Japanese) ※FULL

Sachiko Sugiura

Born in 1966, Sachiko Sugiura is a social designer and professor in the Department of Arts and Culture at Musashino Art University. Graduated from Ochanomizu University with a major in Philosophy, Ethics, and Art History. Studied Education at University of Wales Cardiff. After working as a education program a coordinator at the 1st Yokohama Triennale, a public program curator at the Mori Art Museum, and a program coordinator at the Kyoto University of Art & Design, Sugiura has served as an associate Professor of Musashino Art University since 2012. She has been in her current position since 2014.

Sugiura is head of Museology & Appreciation Education for teacher certification renewal training at Musashino Art University. Also, in collaboration with a neighboring junior high school, she has long led a social design project that works to create connections between junior high and university students in the area.

March 5 (Sun)
School for Teachers — Nurturing Communication with Appreciation Education (Japanese)

CANVAS (Akifumi Kumai and Atsuo Terada)

CANVAS is an NPO which aims to nurture the soil that cultivates rich ideas by providing a place of creation and expression for children.
Since its founding in November 2002, CANVAS have held workshops in various spaces across Japan, including art museums, elementary schools, and after-school facilities.

March 19 (Sun)
School for Parents and Children — Mischief Studies (Japanese)

Fukazawa Art Laboratory (Isamu Joseph Yamazoe and Kabu)

A sculpture and greening laboratory operated by Isamu Joseph Yamazoe and Cab in Setagaya-ku’s Hukazawa area. Hukazawa Art Laboratory has hosted sculpture classes for children, staged landscaping and greening projects, art events and exhibitions both domestically and internationally. Recent activities include (BEPPU PROJECT), an artist dispatch program to elementary and junior high schools, sculture program (CANVAS), Greeting Greens project (artists and children), Hammer-Head Studio (BankART 1929), and Water and Land – Niigata Art Festival 2015 (Maruyama Junko + Kabu).

March 23 (Thur)
School for Parents and Children — Art & Design Camp (Virtual 3 Days, 2 Nights) (Japanese)