Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art Audio Guide

Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art

   Welcome to the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, known in Japanese as Hokkaido Ritsu Kindai Bijutsukan. You are in Chuo Ward, in the nearly central part of Sapporo, at an address in the Kita 1-jo Nishi 17-chome area, just beside the Hokkaido Governor's Official Residence. This is a prefectural museum, and its collection is the largest of any art museum in Hokkaido. Step off the busy streets of the city center and the mood shifts. The front garden holds works by leading Japanese sculptors standing quietly among the greenery. Inside, the noise of the city fades into a calm that regulars cherish. Over the next few minutes we will look at how the museum came to be, the five themes that shape its collection, and the artists and everyday details that make a visit rewarding. Think of this place as a cultural anchor for the island. It was conceived to be both rooted in its region and open to the wider world, and that double personality will show up again and again as we go.

2. 02

   Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art: Birth of a Prefectural Museum

   The story begins in 1973, when a preparation office for a new art museum was set up. Four years later, in July 1977, the doors opened in Chuo Ward. The founding idea was ambitious: a comprehensive modern art museum that combined a strong sense of place with an international outlook. Since that opening, the museum has described its mission as being open to the community and opening up the art culture of the region. That means more than hanging pictures. The museum also works on education and outreach, on research, and on supporting local cultural life, so that art is not only something to look at but something people can learn from and return to. The family of institutions has grown too. In April 2011, the Hokkaido Migishi Kotaro Museum of Art was formally positioned as an annex of this museum, linking the two under one umbrella. So when you stand in front of the building today, you are looking at the center of a small network that has been growing for almost half a century.

3. 03

   Five Collecting Themes at Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art

   The collection runs to thousands of works, well over 5,000 by the museum's own tourism listing, and it is organized around five collecting policies. The first is the art of Hokkaido, followed by modern Japanese art, the School of Paris, glass art, and contemporary art. Together they let the museum tell a local story and a global one side by side. The School of Paris strand centers especially on Pascin, which is a lovely surprise to find in northern Japan. The glass art collection is another active area of acquisition, covering works from Japan and abroad. Alongside these sit European prints and gifts from generous private collectors, including ukiyo-e woodblock prints and ceramics, so your eye can travel from the Edo period through the Showa era to the present, and from Hokkaido to Japan and the West. Because there is so much, the museum rotates it. Collection exhibitions bring out works around different themes, and special exhibitions feature distinctive works from Japan and overseas. The result is that two visits can feel quite different from one another.

4. 04

   Hokkaido Painters and Hands-On Discovery at Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art

   The art of Hokkaido is the heart of the museum, and it is full of strong personalities. Among the painters connected to the island whose forceful works are shown here are Katsuko Kataoka, Eien Iwahashi, Kinjiro Kida and Nissho Kanda. If you want to feel how this northern land has inspired its artists, this is the place to start. The museum also puts real effort into helping visitors connect with what they see. It offers museum talks, art lectures and gallery tours, and it has set itself the goal of being a museum that children would want to bring adults to. Online, a video-based quiz called the Case of the Masterpiece Detective invites you to watch and answer questions, and a 360 degree Museum View lets you look around the interior and the front garden from anywhere. For practical comfort, the museum offers wheelchair loans, an elevator, multifunction toilets and toilets for ostomate users, so that the building welcomes a wide range of visitors.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you wander, try a few small experiments. Notice how the sculptures in the front garden change your mood before you even enter. Inside, look for the moments where the Hokkaido pieces and the European works seem to be in conversation, a Pascin canvas across the room from a bold northern landscape or portrait. And if a glass piece catches the light, stop and let it do its work. The museum changes its exhibitions, so what you see today is one chapter of a longer story. Ask yourself which of the five collecting themes pulls you in most, and let that decide where you linger next.