Thoughts on the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum Facing a Crisis of Survival: The Difficulty of "Continuing" a Museum
My hometown, Shizuoka Prefecture, has many wonderful museums.
My parents, who were in their late twenties and loved driving, took me everywhere in the prefecture and even to neighboring areas like Hakone every weekend when I was a child—to art museums, history museums, large parks with archaeological sites, zoos, aquariums, the sea, the mountains, and camping trips.
Perhaps unintentionally, thanks to them, I grew up to be an adult who loves the space and atmosphere of museums, as well as Mount Fuji and the flora and fauna.
In April 2002, when I left Shizuoka for further education, a truly wonderful space was born in the prefecture.
The Vangi Sculpture Garden MuseumandClematis no Oka.
Twenty years after opening, the museum is scheduled to close from January 2023 for large-scale renovations.
However, due to financial difficulties, it has been on the verge of collapse for the past few years.
A space so wonderful that it is unparalleled in the world, where sculptures and gardens fuse together, is about to disappear... Such a heartbreaking situation is looming right before our eyes.
I would be happy if even one more person could learn about the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, and if you could visit Clematis no Oka, as there are facilities that remain open even while the museum is closed.
Requesting support from Shizuoka Prefecture, including free transfer of ownership
Please make your voices heard by Christmas
First, I am very sorry to ask, but I have a request for everyone reading this.
For the costs of the large-scale renovations starting in 2023, the museum itself conducted crowdfunding, and in May 2021, it gathered nearly four times the initial target amount of support.
However, unfortunately, this did not improve the financial difficulties, and more than a year ago, at the end of October 2021, we requested support from Shizuoka Prefecture, including the free transfer of the facility.
The prefecture is also considering the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum as a candidate site for the relocation of the Cultural Affairs Division within the Sports, Culture and Tourism Department as part of the "Next-Generation Prefectural Office Concept" to decentralize the functions of the main prefectural office, and they have stated that they will reach a conclusion within the 2022 fiscal year!
I have been following this news in the Shizuoka Shimbun all along.
With the end of the 2022 fiscal year fast approaching, the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum is currently widely soliciting opinions on its website regarding whether to keep the museum in existence and, if so, what form it should take. I have also responded.
The collected voices are scheduled to be submitted to the Shizuoka Prefectural Assembly through the museum.
Whether you have visited or not, I would be happy if as many people as possible who love the space of a museum and love culture and the arts could make their voices heard.
The deadline is 16:30 on Sunday, December 25th.until.It takes about 2 minutes to answer.
Please!!!
Just the other day, an article appeared onBijutsu Techo Web.
If you don't mind, I would be even happier if you could share this not only with yourself but also with those around you...
What is the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum?
It is the world's only private museum dedicated to the Italian contemporary figurative sculptor Giuliano Vangi, and it is accompanied by the Clematis Garden, a garden where over 250 species of clematis and flowers bloom throughout the four seasons in harmony with Vangi's outdoor sculptures.
In addition to the permanent exhibition of Vangi's works, the museum has regularly held special exhibitions by contemporary artists themed around "gardens," "living things," and "trees," and has continued activities "unique to this place", such as "workshops to enjoy the seasons with the five senses," making the most of the garden museum environment.
Click here for the official museum video.
Just watching it makes me want to fly out to the site...
The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum was born from the founder's vision and desire to 'create a museum like a public square where everyone who visits feels happy.'
It is said that when planning the Clematis Garden, they looked to museums with gardens, such as the Musée Rodin and the Fondation Maeght in France, for inspiration.
Because it is carefully maintained daily by gardeners, it is truly beautiful every season, no matter when you visit, and just walking through it is healing.
Furthermore, they continue to implement initiatives that make the museum a comfortable place for everyone, valuing the cultivation of a 'sense of wonder' in each visitor.
For example, at Mr. Vangi's request, all outdoor sculptures can be touched by hand.
Also, following an exchange with the Omero Tactile Museum in Italy, the special exhibition 'Stones are Necessary for Everyone' was held, allowing people to appreciate works by touching them (tactile appreciation), regardless of whether they have visual impairments.
Akiko Okano, who organized this special exhibition, later directed and filmed the movie 'A World You Can Touch with Your Hands.' Screenings began across the country in November 2022.
Just the other day, a screening and talk event were held as a commemorative project at the 'DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow' exhibition currently being held at The National Art Center, Tokyo (I wanted to attend...!!!).
I really want to see it somewhere somehow.
Tupki Tabata and I hope it will be screened at museums and movie theaters in Tokyo as well.
In addition, 'NaviLens' has been introduced, which allows visitors to listen to audio explanations of the works and serves as a means of guiding visually impaired people around the premises.
The museum regularly hosts various workshops, gallery tours, and talk events, but the 'Workshops to Feel the Seasons with the Five Senses,' aimed at children up to the lower grades of elementary school, is a wonderful initiative unique to this museum with its garden and art collection.
While cherishing the harmony created by the garden and the sculptures, it is truly a place where anyone can feel at ease and happy. That is the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and the Clematis Garden.
What is Clematis no Oka?
At the time the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and the Clematis Garden opened, several museums that were originally in this area, along with restaurants and a museum shop, were combined into a single complex cultural facility.
That is 'Clematis no Oka.'
Located on the hill in the Buffet Area are the Bernard Buffet Museum and the Inoue Yasushi Memorial Museum, which opened in 1973, and the Buffet Children's Museum, which opened in 1999.
These three facilities, along with the adjacent cafe & shop TREE HOUSE, will continue to operate after 2023. Please, by all means, come and visit!!!
Located below the hill in the Clematis Garden Area are the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and the Clematis Garden, as well as the photography museum that opened in 2009, IZU PHOTO MUSEUM.
I was particularly happy when this IZU PHOTO MUSEUM was first established.
The design was handled by none other than Hiroshi Sugimoto and Tomoyuki Sakakida's New Material Research Laboratory. I believe this was the first building completed after they were established in 2008.
At the time, I already loved Hiroshi Sugimoto's work, so I was so excited: A photography museum in Shizuoka! At Clematis no Oka!!!
IZU PHOTO MUSEUM is a museum that focuses on special exhibitions of contemporary artists.
In the past, it has held brilliant exhibitions featuring artists such as Seiichi Furuya, Rika Noguchi, and Tazuko Masuyama.
Also, I have very fond memories of the workshops held by Rinko Kawauchi, Theri Weifenbach, and Manabu Miyazaki.
But unfortunately, it has been closed since the autumn of 2018... *tears*
The last time I was able to visit was for the 20th Anniversary Special Exhibition: Michio Hoshino's Journey in the summer of 2018. I really want to go inside again...
NOHARA BOOKS, which I loved, has also closed.
In addition to IZU PHOTO MUSEUM, the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and Clematis Garden will be closed by the end of the year, which means the restaurants and shops in the same Clematis Garden area will also be closing.
What made me sadder than anything else was the closing of the museum shop, NOHARA BOOKS.
It is a shop I loved and always stopped by whenever I visited Clematis no Oka.
Although the name is "BOOKS," it is a dream-like space packed with a wide variety of carefully selected items, including not just books, but works by artists such as Naho Iino, stationery, postcards, bags, small accessories, interior goods, children's toys, and lighting fixtures.
A shop with this much sense is truly a rare existence, especially in the eastern Shizuoka area.
NOHARA Co., Ltd., which operates the shop, also runs a publishing business and has produced many exhibition catalogs for the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and IZU PHOTO MUSEUM.
Above all, the original goods from Clematis no Oka that you can buy at this shop are wonderful. Believe it or not, the art direction is handled by KIGI!!! And they have been doing it for a long time!!! I am so happy...
They have really made so many cute things, like tin badges, tote bags, and postcards.
I love it so much that I have introduced it on note before (in the latter half of the article).
There is only a little time left to shop at NOHARA BOOKS.
They will close after Christmas 2022... It is truly sad.
I was truly devastated when I first heard the news on Instagram.
I was thinking about whether I could somehow make it back home, but it doesn't seem like it will happen...
Thinking I should at least do something, I shopped at their online store the other day.
The online shop will, of course, also be closing.
Moreover, it will be a bit earlier than the physical store,operating until Tuesday, December 20th.Please take this opportunity to click away and buy lots!!!
By the way, what did I buy?
Two exhibition catalogs I had missed out on.
The catalog for last year's special exhibition 'Everyone Needs a Stone,' and...
The ceramic artist Taizo Kuroda, who had been creating pottery for a long time around Jogasaki in East Izu.
The catalog for 'Taizo Kuroda: White Porcelain,' which was held in 2019 as the museum's first special exhibition.
The MABATAKI NOTE, a collaboration design between artist Yasuhiro Suzuki and Tsubame Note that I had bought before and loved (it's half price, can you believe it!!!)
And the concept book for the 20th anniversary of the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and Clematis Garden
*Currently, it can only be purchased at the NOHARA BOOKS storefront and online shop.
For the KIGI-designed pin badges, I chose the Clematis design out of the four available.
December 2022, the very end. I will treasure these...
Summary
I read the concept book that arrived from NOHARA BOOKS right away, and I couldn't sit still, so I opened my PC thinking I had to write this article!!!
I would really appreciate it if you could cooperate with the survey by Christmas.
And I would be very happy if you continue to visit the Buffet Museum and the Yasushi Inoue Memorial Museum, and keep an eye on the future of the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and Clematis Garden from 2023 onwards.
What I thought about while filling out the survey was the difficulty of continuing to operate a museum.
I do not know the details of why the IZU PHOTO MUSEUM has been closed for so long.
However, to keep a museum running, you need manpower, appropriate funding, and the prospect of a continuous stream of visitors.
To protect the artworks, you need air conditioning and security, and large-scale renovation work also occurs periodically.
Not limited to the unexpected situations that the whole world has faced in the last few years, private museums in particular can quickly fall into financial difficulty due to all sorts of unforeseen events, such as natural disasters or changes in the operating entity.
As a citizen who loves museums so much that I transferred to university as an adult to study the curator course, what can I do?
It is something I have been thinking about constantly for the few years since I saw the news about the financial difficulties, but I don't think I'm likely to find an answer anytime soon.
To be honest, I wrote some rather severe things in the survey...
Why the Vangi Museum in this location?
In the 20 years since it opened, how much has the artist's name recognition in Japan improved?
To increase the number of visitors and improve the financial situation, what kind of initiatives were taken, and how seriously were they pursued?
Even if the free transfer to the prefecture is realized in the future, the challenges will likely remain the same.
I would like to continue to watch over and visit the museum so that it can continue to operate firmly.
Lastly, but not least.
Please let me introduce a part of the 'Conclusion' text from the concept book.
The existence of art, flowers, and plants may not bring direct solutions to social chaos or various problems, but I believe that each experience that occurs in this place can generate the strength to face society.
I sincerely hope for a warm future for this society, so that the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum can continue to be a 'public square for everyone' that brings happiness to all who visit.
If you found this interesting or thought 'I see, so that's how it is!', I would be very happy if you could click the heart mark at the bottom.
You can click it even if you don't have a note account or aren't logged in.
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