Hitotsubashi University Japanese Studies in English Lecture Series 2016

Building a World Class Collection of Japanese Art in the American Midwest: The Minneapolis Institute of Art at 100

Speaker: Aaron Rio, Minneapolis Institute of Art

A century since its founding, the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) maintains a collection of Japanese art that includes nearly 8,000 works ranging from prehistoric to contemporary, placing it among the top five collections in the United States. Mia's permanent display space for Japanese art--fifteen galleries and nearly 1,000 square meters--is the largest in the Western world. The museum has held dozens of special exhibitions focused on the arts of Japan. Yet the museum, its collection, and its story are relatively unknown in Japan. This talk will introduce Mia and its Japanese collection, examine how in one century a museum in America's Upper Midwest was able to build one of the top collections of Japanese art outside of Japan, and explore how the taste of individual donors has impacted the perspective of Japan and its arts offered to museumgoers.

Presenter bio:
Aaron Rio is Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Curator of Japanese and Korean Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. He earned his PhD (2015) in Japanese art history from Columbia University. His speciality is in medieval Japanese painting.

Date: April 18 2016 (Monday)
Time: 17:30 – 19:00
Venue: Faculty building 3, East campus, Hitotsubashi University
(第3研究館東キャンパス)

For venue map, see
http://www.hit-u.ac.jp/eng/about/direction/guide/campus/e-campus/

The talk will be in English (no translation), and is free of charge. All are welcome to attend.

For more information, contact Sonja Dale (sonja.dale@r.hit-u.ac.jp)

Hitotsubashi University, Graduate School of Social Sciences / Faculty of Social Sciences
http://www.soc.hit-u.ac.jp/ (Japanese homepage)

http://www.soc.hit-u.ac.jp/ (English homepage - currently under construction)