Save the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History

  • Author:
    n/a
  • Send To:
    Mayor of Ashiya, Ashiya City Council, and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (Monbu Kagaku sho)
  • Sponsored By:
    PoNJA-GenKon (Post-1945 Japanese Art Dicussion Group/Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai)
  • More Info at:
Are you the Author?
We, the undersigned, are writing to protest the Ashiya City's plan to privatize or sell or close the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History.

Since its opening in 1991, the museum has been instrumental in promoting Japanese modern and contemporary art as well as preserving Ashiya's local history. It has, however, always had an impact beyond the local, extending into the international. The museum has been a crucial voice in articulating a place for Japanese modern and contemporary art on the world stage by functioning as the archive and international center of academic research for Gutai, the foremost avant-garde art movement of post-1945 Japan.

We adamantly oppose Ashiya City's plan to privatize or sell or close this museum. Ashiya City will be harming its international reputation as a cultural city by closing the city's most active cultural institution. By silencing or crippling the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History's ability to disseminate information and scholarship about the Gutai, the city will also be squandering one of the most powerful tools of cultural diplomacy that has projected the image of Japan as a dynamic, creative, modern and international culture: the Gutai.

We implore Ashiya City to find an alternative to save the museum and its current functions intact. In its process of restructuring, Ashiya City should reexamine its priorities and acknowledge the importance of the Ashiya City Museum in putting the city on the world map and its critical role as the custodian of Gutai history.

We strongly urge Ashiya City to give serious consideration to this statement and sincerely hope that the city will reconsider its plans for the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History.

1197 Signatures

  • Midori Yoshimoto
    • city, state, country
    • Highland Park, NJ 08904
    • position
    • Gallery Director/Assistant Professor
    • affiliated institution
    • New Jersey City University
  • Ming Tiampo
    • city, state, country
    • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
    • position
    • Lecturer
    • affiliated institution
    • Carleton University
  • Reiko Tomii
    • city, state, country
    • New York, NY, USA
    • position
    • independent scholar
  • Joan Kee
    • city, state, country
    • Hong Kong
    • position
    • Visiting Scholar
    • affiliated institution
    • Centre for the Study of Globalization and Culture, University of Hong Kong
  • Hiroko Ikegami
    • city, state, country
    • Astoria, NY, USA
    • position
    • Graduate Student in the History of Art
    • affiliated institution
    • Yale University
  • Taro Amano
    • city, state, country
    • yokohama, japan
    • position
    • curator
  • SUGIMOTO Tatsuo
    • city, state, country
    • Aichi, Japan
  • Yoshihiko Yamabuki
    • city, state, country
    • Hiroshima, Japan
  • Koji TAKEGUCHI
    • city, state, country
    • Fukuoka City, JAPAN
    • position
    • assistant curator
    • affiliated institution
    • Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art
  • Ayelet Zohar
    • city, state, country
    • London, UK
    • position
    • PhD Student
    • affiliated institution
    • Slade School of Fine Art
  • Kazue FUJIMAKI
    • city, state, country
    • Itami, Hyogo, Japan
    • position
    • Assistant curator
    • affiliated institution
    • Itami City Museum of Art
    • comments
    • A
  • TAKEI Toshifumi
    • city, state, country
    • Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan
    • position
    • assistant curator
    • affiliated institution
    • Fuchu Art Museum
  • Koichi Kageyama
    • city, state, country
    • Tokyo,JAPAN
  • Martha Bari
    • city, state, country
    • Silver Spring, Maryland USA
    • position
    • Adjunct professor
    • affiliated institution
    • Hood College
    • comments
    • The Gutai gets more scholarly attention every year. It would be a tragedy if you lost control of the Gutai material.
  • Fabienne Delpy
    • city, state, country
    • San Francisco, CA, USA
    • position
    • PhD candidate
    • affiliated institution
    • Stanford University
  • Dr. Charles Merewether
    • city, state, country
    • Los Angeles, California, USA
    • position
    • Collections Curator
    • affiliated institution
    • Getty Research Institute, Getty Center
    • comments
    • To close the Ashiya Museum would be a catastrophic blow to preserving the history and legacy of Japanese culture.
  • Heather Farkas
    • city, state, country
    • San Francisco, CA, USA
    • position
    • student
  • TAKUBO Naoki
    • city, state, country
    • Osaka, Japan
    • position
    • Professor
    • affiliated institution
    • Kinki University
  • SATOW, Morihiro
    • city, state, country
    • Kyoto, Japan
    • position
    • Part-time Lecturer
    • affiliated institution
    • Doshisha University
  • Takekawa Nobuaki
    • city, state, country
    • Tokyo/Japan
  • Nobuhiro SHIIHARA
    • city, state, country
    • Tokyo,Japan
    • affiliated institution
    • Jissen Women's University
  • Kenji Kajiya
    • city, state, country
    • New York, NY, USA
    • position
    • PhD candidate
    • affiliated institution
    • Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
  • Hiroko Miki
    • city, state, country
    • Japan
    • position
    •  
    • affiliated institution
    •  
    • comments
    •  
  • Shinichiro OSAKI
    • city, state, country
    • Kyoto, Japan
    • position
    • Curator
    • affiliated institution
    • The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
  • Sudo Hirotoshi
    • city, state, country
    • Hirosaki,Aomori,Japan
  • Sachiko Osaki
    • city, state, country
    • Kyoto, Japan
    • position
    • Curator
    • affiliated institution
    • The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga
  • Gail Levin
    • city, state, country
    • New York, New York
    • position
    • Professor of Art History
    • affiliated institution
    • The City University of New York
    • comments
    • The economic value of this museum to the city's future should not be underestimated. The cultural investment will also pay dividends for future generations.
  • Sarah Teasley
    • city, state, country
    • Tokyo, Japan
    • position
    • Ph.D. Candidate
    • affiliated institution
    • University of Tokyo
  • Tamiko Nakagawa
    • city, state, country
    • London
    • position
    • PhD candidate
    • affiliated institution
    • SOAS, University of London
  • Antje Papist-Matsuo
    • city, state, country
    • Berlin, Germany
    • position
    • research associate
    • affiliated institution
    • FineFree University Berlin,Fine Arts Institute, Department for East Asian Studies
    • comments
    • В
  • JEFF ROTHSTEIN
    • city, state, country
    • NEW YORK, NY, USA
    • position
    • FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
  • Ferdinand Brueggemann
    • city, state, country
    • Cologne, Germany
    • position
    • Photo Historian
    • affiliated institution
    • University of Frankfurt, Germany
  • w
    • city, state, country
    • еcж
  • Masami Kittaka
    • city, state, country
    • Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
  • Vera Wolff
    • city, state, country
    • Universitaet Hamburg, Germany
    • position
    • Research Associate/ Ph.D candidate
    • affiliated institution
    • Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar/Archive for the Research of Material Iconography
  • Mayumi Kotani
    • city, state, country
    • Kyoto, Japan
    • position
    • post-graduate student
    • affiliated institution
    • Osaka University
  • KOKATSU, Reiko
    • city, state, country
    • 4-2-7.Sakura, Utsunomiya, Tochigi,Japan
    • position
    • Curator
    • affiliated institution
    • Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
    • comments
    • ?
  • Shannon Moore
    • city, state, country
    • Austin, TX, 78749
    • position
    • M.A. Candidate in Japanese Studies
    • affiliated institution
    • University of TX at Austin
    • comments
    • As a scholar of modern avant-garde Japanese art I was shocked to hear of this threat to a museum of Gutai works. Please find a means to save this museum!
  • Sachiko KIYOHARA
    • city, state, country
    • Nara, Japan
    • position
    • Assistant curator
  • Louise Cort
    • city, state, country
    • Washington, DC, USA
    • position
    • Curator
    • affiliated institution
    • Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution
  • Mika Kobayashi
    • city, state, country
    • Kyoto, Japan
    • position
    • Lecturer
    • affiliated institution
    • Osaka University of Art
  • Koichi Nishi
    • city, state, country
    • New York, U.S.
  • Jennifer Raab
    • city, state, country
    • New Haven, CT USA
    • position
    • Ph.D. Candidate
    • affiliated institution
    • Yale University
  • Bert Winther-Tamaki
    • city, state, country
    • Irvine, California USA
    • position
    • Associate Professor
    • affiliated institution
    • University of California, Irvine
    • comments
    • The Ashiya City Museum of Art and History is a precious resource for understanding of contributions of Japanese artists to what we know as modern art in the world today.
  • Hiroko Kikuchi
    • city, state, country
    • Boston, MA USA
    • position
    • Education
  • Justin Jesty
    • city, state, country
    • Chicago, IL, USA
    • position
    • PhD student
    • affiliated institution
    • University of Chicago
    • comments
    • Student of postwar Japanese art and film.
  • D. Dominick Lombardi
    • city, state, country
    • Valhalla, New York, U.S.A.
    • position
    • Art Critic - Artist - Educator
    • affiliated institution
    • The New York Times and Sculpture magazine
    • comments
    • Museum's that promote and collect local and contemporary art are essential in today's world, because they fulfill a spiritual and an intellectual need in all of us.
  • Rosina Buckland
    • city, state, country
    • New York, USA
    • affiliated institution
    • New York University
  • Sarah Cree
    • city, state, country
    • New Haven, CT, USA
  • Margaret Price
    • city, state, country
    • Potsdam, New York, USA
    • position
    • Acting Director/Curator
    • affiliated institution
    • State University of New York at Potsdam
    • comments
    • As the curator of a large collection of Japanese art from the mid-20th century, including a number of Gutai paintings, I view the role of the Ashiya City Museum as essential in maintaining archives, providing research and information on the Gutai to other museums and scholars worldwide. The museum should be considered essential to your national artistic heritage.