World museums owning Japanese Art collection;
About the cooperative museums for this exhibition
- Harvard Art Museum
- Cleveland Museum
- Seattle Art Museum
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- The Victoria and Albert Museum
- Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford
- Hamburg Craft Museum
- The Museum for East Asian Art, Cologne
https://harvardartmuseums.org/
Establishment: 1895
Special Features: The Harvard Art Museums unite three museums—the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler—under one roof.
Governing body: Harvard University, non-profit
Number of the whole collection: Approximately 250,000 objects
Areas of the collection: Paintings, sculpture, works on paper, decorative objects, coins, and artists’ materials ranging in date from antiquity to the present from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Number of the Japanese works: Approximately 9,000 objects
Countermeasure against COVID-19: The Harvard Art Museums remain closed as a cautionary measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with Harvard University, we are currently formulating a comprehensive re-opening plan that prioritizes the safety of the community and the museums’ staff.
Establishment: The founding date of 1913, and the opening date of 1916.
Special Features: Our permanent collection galleries are always free. We have 37701 works of art available for free download with Open Access. Our museum is unique in the US in that it was long led by director Sherman Lee, who had expertise in Asian art. Many directors specialize in Western art at US institutions.
Governing body: Private, with some government support and many donations. The museum is supported in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and made possible in part by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
Number of the whole collection: more than 63,000 artworks
Areas of the collection: worldwide (encyclopedic)
Number of the Japanese works: 2704
Countermeasure against COVID-19: The museum was closed from March until June 30, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From mid-November, 2020 to mid-January 2021, the museum was closed again. But the museum has been open at reduced capacity since mid-January 2021. Some exhibitions were postponed.
https://www.seattleartmuseum.org
Establishment: 1933
Special Features: Seattle Art Museum consists of three facilities in distinct locations: Seattle Art Museum in the heart of downtown Seattle, Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park and Olympic Sculpture Park near the waterfront. In February 2020, the Asian Art Museum reopened after a 2-year transformative renovation.
Governing body: Private
Number of the whole collection: Approximately 25,000 objects
Areas of the collection: Paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photography, and other art objects ranging in date from antiquity to the present from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Oceania and Asia.
Number of the Japanese works: Approximately 3,400 objects
Countermeasure against COVID-19: The museums were temporally closed from March to September, 2020. From September 11, 2020, Seattle Art Museum in downtown reopened to the public at a reduced capacity (25%) but closed again in November, 2020. In March 2021, the Museum in downtown reopened again at 25% capacity. The Asian Art Museum has been closed since March 2020, and is expected to reopen in May 2021.
Establishment: 1924
Special Features: Established through a gift of land from the Houston Art League in 1917, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, opened to the public in 1924 as the first art museum in the state of Texas. The Museum is now the largest cultural institution in the Southwestern United States.
Governing body: Private
Number of the whole collection: Approximately 70,000 objects
Areas of the collection: Worldwide (encyclopedic)
Number of the Japanese works: Approximately 1,700 objects
Countermeasure against COVID-19: The museum was temporarily closed from March 2020, but reopened with strict safety measures since May 23, 2020 as the first major art museum in the U.S. to reopen amid the pandemic of COVID-19
Establishment: 1852
Special Features: Initially called the Museum of Manufactures, its first home was Marlborough House near Buckingham Palace. In 1857 it moved to its present site and became The South Kensington Museum. The museum expanded rapidly and in 1899 Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new building designed to give the institution a grand façade. To mark the occasion, it was renamed The Victoria and Albert Museum in memory of the enthusiastic support Prince Albert gave to its foundation. The museum is familiarly known as the name of V&A. The museum was founded with the aim of making works of art available to all and to inspire designers and manufacturers. Today the V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design, and its mission continues to be the enrichment of people’s lives through the promotion of research, knowledge, and enjoyment of the designed world.
Governing body: The museum is a non-departmental public body of the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and a charity. It is governed by a Board of Trustees appointed by the Prime Minister.
Number of the whole collection: Over 2.3 million objects
Areas of the collection: The V&A has a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects that span over 5,000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium including paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewellery, and arms and armour. These collections are international in scope, with a particular focus on Britain, Europe and Asia.
Number of the Japanese works: Over 48,500 objects.
Countermeasure against COVID-19: Like most museums, the V&A has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It closed in mid-March 2020 but re-opened in late August. It closed again in November and, apart from a brief re-opening period, it remains closed at the time of writing (end of January 2021). The museum looks forward to welcoming back its visitors soon and launching exhibitions which have been postponed due to the crisis including Epic Iran, Bags: Inside Out and Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser. In the meanwhile the collections can be enjoyed through the museum’s website, YouTube and other social media channels, while the V&A Online Learning Academy offers any exciting range of talks, courses and workshops.
Establishment: The founding date of 1682, and the opening date of 1683.
Special Features: The Ashmolean came into existence in 1682, when the wealthy antiquary Elias Ashmole gifted his collection to the University. It opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum, in 1683.
Governing body: University of Oxford
Number of the whole collection: Over a million objects
Areas of the collection: Worldwide (encyclopedic)
Number of the Japanese works: Over 8,000 objects
Countermeasure against COVID-19: The museum has been temporarily closed due to COVID-19, but it is due to reopen on 17 May 2021 with social distancing measures in place. All visits to the museum will have to be pre-booked.
https://www.mkg-hamburg.de/en/
Establishment: The MK&G was initiated in 1866, is collecting since 1872 and opened in 1877.
Special Features: The museum was founded by the Patriotische Gesellschaft, a society of citizens. There are still many volunteers working in the museum—it is a museum for and by Hamburger citizens and open to everybody interested in applied arts, visual & material cultures and design.
Governing body: In 1999, the MK&G was transformed into a foundation under public law.
Number of the whole collection: The museum holds approximately 500.000 objects from 4,000 years of human history.
Areas of the collection: All of the collection include ancient arts and antiquities, European decorative arts and sculptures, modern and contemporary design & art, fashion & textiles, rare books, graphics, posters, photography & new media, musical instruments, East Asian art, and Islamic art.
Number of the Japanese works: There are approximately 12.000 Japanese works in the MK&G collection.
Countermeasure against COVID-19: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum was closed to visitors from March 14 to May 6, 2020. The museum is currently temporary closed since 2.11.2020. Some special exhibitions are prolonged and others have been postponed.
https://museum-fuer-ostasiatische-kunst.de/Start
Establishment: 1913
Special Features: Adolf Fischer who visited Japan in Meiji period and appreciated Japanese art gifted his collection to the City of Cologne, thereby the museum was founded as the first Asian museum in Germany. In 1944, the building of the museum was destroyed by war fire. In 1977, the museum was reopened at the building designed by Maekawa Kunio. Asian such as Japanese artworks from ancient through contemporary are owned and exhibited.
Governing body: The City of Cologne
Number of the whole collection: Approximately 7,000 objects
Areas of the collection: Asian Art and the other materials
Number of the Japanese works: Approximately 1,500 objects
Countermeasure against COVID-19: The museum was temporarily closed from March 2020, but reopened currently with strict safety measures.