Meeting of Japanese Art Specialists
February 5 (Fri.), 2021
Online MeetingFebruary 5 (Fri.), 2021: Meeting of Japanese Art Specialists
Purpose: This meeting was an opportunity for experienced curators of Japanese art from North America,
Europe, and Japan to exchange information and discuss challenges pertaining to their work.
Venue: Held online
Chairperson: Mr. Kawano Kazutaka (Tokyo National Museum)
Facilitator: Ms. Kito Satomi (Tokyo National Museum)
Participants from North America
Dr. Laura Allen (Asian Art Museum of San Francisco)
Dr. Frank Feltens (Freer Gallery of Art)
Dr. Andreas Marks (Minneapolis Institute of Art)
Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)Dr. Rhiannon Paget (The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida)
Dr. Aaron Rio (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Mr. Stephen Salel (Honolulu Museum of Art)
Dr. Sinéad Vilbar (The Cleveland Museum of Art)
Dr. Xiaojin Wu (Seattle Art Museum)
Participants from Europe
Dr. Rosina Buckland (The British Museum)
Mr. Menno Fitski (Rijksmuseum)Dr. Daan Kok (National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden)
Dr. Mary Redfern (Chester Beatty)
Ms. Wibke Schrape (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg)
Dr. Anna Savelyeva (The State Hermitage Museum)Dr. Khanh Trinh (Museum Rietberg)
Dr. Ainura Yusupova (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts)
Ms. Yamada Masami (Victoria & Albert Museum)
Participants from Japan
Mr. Kawano Kazutaka (Tokyo National Museum)Ms. Kito Satomi (Tokyo National Museum)
Mr. Frank Witkam (Tokyo National Museum)
Ms. Melissa M. Rinne (Kyoto National Museum)
Ms. Mary Lewine (Nara National Museum)
Mr. Shirai Katsuya (Kyushu National Museum)Ms. Emura Tomoko (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties)

Conference outline
The conference was held online this year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting wasshorter than usual owing to the participation of people in several different time zones. However, with faceto-face meetings difficult due to COVID-19, the event provided a valuable opportunity to exchange
information and build networks.
The conference examined two discussion topics. Each topic involved a 3-minute introduction followed
by a discussion and exchange of information.
Discussion topic 1: Sustainability and Curatorial Work
Menno Fitski (Rijksmuseum)
Introduction
The Doughnut Model is a method of visualizing the state of the planet. It shows excesses andshortfalls when it comes to environmental problems and social issues. The goal is to get the overall shape
as close to a doughnut as possible. The important idea is that the system is linked. The solution in one area
may lead to problems in others, so we need to think about the health of the system as a whole.
Nitish Soundalgekar of the Rijksmuseum transformed this model for museum usage. Here we see theresults for the Rijksmuseum. The department responsible for planning exhibitions is underperforming due
to the large amount of trash produced and also because the tight schedule for exhibition rotations causes
stress for a lot of people.
So how should we link this to curatorial work?
One way would be to rethink our local connections. We could invite local people and curators fromother departments to participate in our curating while also exploring other museum collections nearby. This
could shed new light on local collections, make more of these collections, and find new stories. By
improving the use of our collections, we could find new appealing ways to connect to audiences.
Discussion points
・In terms of sustainability and the environment, exhibitions cause considerable damage because they
involve a lot of transportation and they produce large amounts of waste.
・An explanation of the current situation in Japan regarding the re-use and recycling of materials: the Tokyo
National Museum re-uses special exhibition display cases as much as possible, but not enough recycling isdone owing to the need to set up and take down displays in a very short time.
・The pandemic has provided a great opportunity to reconsider the wisdom of holding many large
exhibitions. Large exhibitions have been held frequently in order to make profit, but museums could
produce displays that are more relevant for local audiences by investing in regular exhibitions.
・Exhibitions have been the major source of revenue, so museums need to rethink their business models.
・Examples of initiatives to improve sustainability: The Victoria and Albert Museum appointed a sustainability
manager last year and it is actively engaging with sustainability issues. It has active discussions aboutsustainability and it hopes to form policies related to the recycling of display cases and designs.
・Improving the social inclusivity of displays and providing museum staff with more job security are also
important for sustainability.

Discussion topic 2:
Improvements made to museum websites/collection search engine for better accessibility.
Yamada Masami (The Victoria and Albert Museum [V&A])
Introduction
The digitization of museum collections has been ongoing for many years, but my interest is in new
digitization policies and projects developed recently. While physical access to museums remains restricted
due to the ongoing pandemic, online access to data about collections is becoming increasingly important. I
would like to ask whether there been any recent discussion within your institutions about making museum
websites or collection databases more accessible to users, and think about ways to improve the quality ofexisting online databases.
The V&A’s current online database was originally launched in 2009. After more than 10 years, it looks
rather dated. The main issue we identified was the difficulty of browsing our collections and finding related
objects or discovering new objects.
The V&A’s digital media department has been working on the development of a new search engine
called “Explore the Collections.” The new design and functions will make it much easier to navigate object
searches. We are also introducing a new feature called “You May Also Like.” This suggests other objects auser might like based on the object they are searching for.
Discussion points
・The V&A has a digital media team who regularly checks visitor numbers and the countries that people areaccessing the website from, for example. More communication with this digital media team would help
the curatorial department gain a deeper understanding of user needs while also helping to improve theonline databases.
・We do not know whether users of websites or databases are managing to find what they are looking for.
・The data shows that the majority of users come to our websites to search our collections. This gives us areason to improve our collection websites and increase the amount of content related to objects.
・Examples of initiatives to provide more information to users: Some museums have added blogs, shortessays and videos about objects to their databases. Another museum transmits information about its
collection using Instagram while telling people they can visit the museum’s database to learn more aboutthe objects.
・The pandemic has led to more consciousness in Japan about the need to put more multilingual content
online in addition to panels and other content within galleries.

・A large number of databases and online content has been made available or will be made available in thefuture. The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties is digitizing its collection of books,
for example, while the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden and the Art Research Center at
Ritsumeikan University are working on a joint project to release a database of Japanese cultural material.

Though only short, the conference played a very valuable role alongside the international symposium
on January 30.
Discussions continued for around 30 minutes after the conference had formally ended, with the event
providing an opportunity for specialists to engage in a free exchange of ideas, despite the restrictions
imposed by COVID-19.