/ARTS WEEKLY/JAPAN: 21st Century Museum Shows the Way to Oldies

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 24 2005 (IPS) - Dare to breakaway from tradition and be different. That’s the challenge thrown by a new Japanese museum to its older counterparts, as they struggle to survive with falling visitors and dwindling budgets.

”It’s been a long and difficult road to stay alive. But new moves to combine the viewing of conservative art with entertainment is proving to be commercially successful,” says Hiroyuki Ochiai, curator at the new Kanazawa 21st Century Museum, in central Japan.

Recently, the museum gained the spotlight in Japan after it reported a huge increase in the number of visitors following an experimental programme where exhibitions were geared towards children rather than adults.

Last October the museum launched its first exhibition featuring a series on modern architecture and technological innovations that allows visitors to participate in the exhibits, such as walking through or sitting on sculptures.

The push to involve the active participation of visitors in an exhibition is a far cry from tradition where museums only allow quiet viewing, with the touching of exhibits completely banned. The 21st Century Museum is more like a curiosity shop, an agglomeration of objects and spaces that suggest their own logic and connections.

The museum initially targeted a total of 38,000 elementary and junior high school students, who received free invitations. Discounts were also available to their parents and siblings, if they wanted to tag along.

”The new viewing system marked a landmark step away from the old pattern and instantly drew many visitors as a result. By inviting children we also managed to increase attendance substantially,” Ochiai tells IPS.

And the museum curator is all smiles these days.

To date, more than five million children, he says, including their parents and siblings have visited the 21st Century Museum since it opened about a year ago. This is phenomenal compared to the average 500 visitors a year for most Japanese museums.

So far since opening, the museum has managed to generate over 200,000 U.S. dollars in entrance fees.

One tactic used by the museum is to encourage repeated visits by children, by offering them generous discounts.

One of the favourite exhibits is a sofa in the middle of a ”rain forest” made of wire, where visitors are able to take a nap while enjoying deep forest sounds.

In addition, the museum also has cafes and restaurants and even libraries open to the public – to enable families to spend the whole day together in the museum.

”The move to allow people to enjoy exhibits not just by seeing them from afar but also being able to touch and spend time with them is really a radical change that is welcomed. Museums need to change with the times,” explains professor Shinichi Ueyama, who teaches art design at Keio University.

Ueyama reveals that a key reason for the financial misfortunes of Japanese museums is the deep-rooted policy of spending heavily on the structure of the building rather than the exhibitions themselves.

”Museum budgets put a lot of emphasis on beautiful buildings. But the hardest part is getting people to keep visiting it and nothing has been done on that front,” he says.

Adds Ueyama, ”The days when museums are left to stuffy officials are long gone. Japan needs a healthy injection of stimulation such as more participation of younger artists and ordinary people.”

Minoru Sagame, an official at the Kawasaki city office, a suburb of Tokyo, agrees with this analysis, pointing out that the city is now in the throes of coming up with new plans to save four public museums that are facing crucial financial problems.

”We realise the importance of appealing to visitors to keep coming in order to keep the museums operating. We are looking into inviting non-profit organisations and Kawasaki residents to take part in the management of the museums,” Sagame tells IPS.

But for the Kanazawa 21st Century Museum, it seems like all systems going full steam ahead.

This July, the museum is planning a new exhibition by popular young U.S. artist Matthew Barney.

Barney has created work that fuses sculptural installations with performance and video. His singular vision foregrounds the physical rigors of sport and its erotic undercurrents, to explore the limits of the body and sexuality – a definite appeal to contemporary Japan.