Museum holds curator internship

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum concluded its 2022 curator internship on August 21. Twelve recommended interns from a number of Japanese universities took part in the program. The program’s curriculum included a series of lectures by TFAM curators, pre-exhibition preparations, artwork management and artwork handling. The six-day internship ended on August 28.

TFAM holds special art appreciation program for local Hachioji elementary school students

On August 27, students from the Toyo Elementary School, their guardians and other elementary school kids in the city of Hachoji, took part in a Tokyo Fuji Art Museum community art appreciation program. The children scrutinized the characters featured in the “Moomin Comic Strips Exhibition” and participated in other activities that included creating short stories of the artworks displayed in the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition.

Students from elementary school in Hachioji visit museum

On June 22, fourth-grade students from Utsukidai Elementary School in Hachioji toured the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum as part of its ongoing art appreciation outreach program for children. Divided into groups of five, the students viewed the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition and “Moomin Comic Strips Exhibition.”

Tree sapling from atomic bombing of Nagasaki planted on museum grounds

On May 14, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum held a special tree-planting ceremony on its grounds, an occasion made particularly meaningful as the persimmon kaki tree sapling came from a mother tree that survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945.

Held under the auspices of the nonprofit “Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project,” the ceremony was attended by Masayuki Ebinuma, the arborist who in 1994 treated the then-fragile bombed tree back to health and succeeded in producing seedlings; and artist Tatsuo Miyajima, who originally displayed its saplings in an art exhibition appealing for peace and was later instrumental in the project’s founding in 1996. In addition, students from the Toyo Elementary School in Hachioji City and other children from the museum’s neighborhood took part in the event. Later that day, Faculty of Fine Arts Dean Katsuhiko Hibino of the Tokyo University of the Arts joined Messrs. Ebinuma and Miyajima in a panel discussion.

Given its founding commitment to peace and the SDGs, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum asked to take part in the project, which has gone global with some 30,000 children planting the kaki tree saplings at more than 312 schools in both Japan and 26 other countries from 1996 to 2019.

Students from two Hachioji schools tour museum

On March 4, students from two schools in the Hachioji municipality—fourth graders from the Yui First Elementary School and third-grade junior high students from the Tate Elementary and Junior High School—toured the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum as part of its art appreciation outreach program for children. They split into small groups to view the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition, interacting with university students enrolled in a museum education course at nearby Soka University, who served as their docents.

Museum concludes online art appreciation course for Kyoto high school

On February 19, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum’s online art appreciation course for freshmen attending the Kyoto City Dohda Senior High School of Arts ended. Having gone through consultative classes in December 2021, the students split into small groups to examine in detail the works they viewed, coming up with creative ways to display the works in a unique exhibition of their own. For the final class, each group designed original posters while presenting slides and maquettes of their proposed exhibition room.

Sixth graders from Nibukata Elementary School visit museum

On December 17, sixth graders from the Hachioji City Nibukata Elementary School visited the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum as part of its art appreciation outreach program for children. To open, the students split up into small groups to view the “Ancient Egypt—Creation of the World” exhibition. They then took part in a “Gallery Talk” session on “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition hosted by students taking a museum education course at Soka University, where the children were encouraged to use their imagination to create stories on individual works.

Nibukata Elementary School students on art appreciation visit

On December 3, students from the Hachioji City Nibukata Elementary School visited the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum as part of its art appreciation outreach program for children. The fifth-graders viewed the “Ancient Egypt—Creation of the World” exhibition with students taking a museum education course at Soka University serving as docents.

Students from local elementary school take part in museum’s art appreciation program

On October 30, students from the Hachioji City Toyo Elementary School visited the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum as part of its art appreciation program for children. The children were accompanied by their guardians and educators from the city and other schools.

Divided into three groups, the students learned the differences between an angel and cupid; they also studied sculptures by Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) and Aristide Bonaventure Jean Maillol (1861-1944), comparing them to “The Age of Bronze” sculpted by Rodin, which they had viewed on an earlier visit to TFAM.

Museum holds online class with Kyoko high school

On September 13 and October 1, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum conducted an online lecture with students of the Kyoto City Dohda Senior High School of Arts. The class, “How to Build Out an Exhibition,” was held for freshmen and included presentations on museum back-office operations as well as tips on developing art exhibitions.