Arts and Culture Japan Project #45098

Create Virtual Tours to Share the Hiroshima Panels

by Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels Foundation

Project Report | Dec 28, 2021
Gratitude Report from Maruki Gallery

By Yumi Iwasaki | Project Leader

Russian Nursery Rhymes (painted by Toshi Maruki)

Season's Greetings from Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels!

We hope this message finds you well and enjoying the spirit of the season.

As the year draws to a close, we would like to thank you for your enthusiasm and generosity throughout the year. Your support has helped us keep our doors open during this difficult time, and we are truly grateful. This year, we were reminded again of the significance of reconnecting the Hiroshima Panels with the world. Thank you for the support you have given us.

Today, we would like to take this opportunity to share with you the activities of the Maruki Gallery in 2021.

Due to the pandemic, we were not able to hold any public events this year. However, we continued to keep our doors open throughout the year and carried out the following special exhibitions.

Wakana Yamauchi: The Beginning of the Beginning

Toshihiro Kanehara: The Voice of Ocean

Special Exhibition Hikaru Fujii: Record of Bombing

Yoshio Shirakawa: Is this Inferno or Paradise

Mihoko Ogaki: Milky Way – before the beginning – after the end 2021

The 120th Anniversary of Iri Maruki’s Birth: Iri Maruki Exhibition – Tracing the Course of Experiments (Current exhibition)

Special Exhibition: The Taigyaku Incident (Current Exhibition)

Thanks to your contributions, we also created some videos (available on our YouTube channel) and held online events so that anyone can learn about the museum, even from a distance.

Maruki Gallery Online Tour – What are the Hiroshima Panels? (60 mins)

Out of Hiroshima, Into the Future – Life and Art in the Nuclear Age (90 mins)

While we are delighted to reach more people and to stay connected with our long-time supporters through the online programs, we look forward to the day when you can come to the gallery and stand in front of the Hiroshima Panels without worries.

Part III (To the Land of Mothers: the Hiroshima Panels 2021) has been completed and it is ready to share with you. We will make it available for you to see it in January.

[Fundraising Report]

The planning for the construction of the new building and the restoration project of the Hiroshima Panels are also moving forward.

The Hiroshima Panels (I): Ghosts is undergoing restoration work. The work has been transferred to the Institute for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Properties, Aichi University of the Arts. This is the first full-scale restoration of the work since it was first displayed on a folding screen in the 1980s. The restoration will last until March 2023.

Despite the pandemic, we have received generous contributions from so many people this year, bringing our total conservation fund to about 188 million yen (approx. 1.6 million USD) as of the end of October 2021. We still have much work to achieve our goal, but we are encouraged every day by all the messages we receive from our supporters.

We would be very grateful if you could continue to share Save the Hiroshima Panels - Preservation Fund to your friends and family.

Thank you for your support this year!

We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels

Permalink

Nov 28, 2021
The part III will be released soon!

By Yumi Iwasaki | Project Leader

Aug 4, 2021
Sharing Virtual Tour Programs Part I & II

By Yumi Iwasaki | Project Leader

Greetings from the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels. We hope this finds you well and in good health!

We are delighted to present the first two parts of our virtual tour project today, just in time for Hiroshima Memorial Day. Please see below for details.

***

1. Special Program - Hiroshima Memorial Day 2021
"Out of Hiroshima, Into the Future – Life and Art in the Nuclear Age" (approx. 90 mins)
This program will be available from 2:00PM on Friday, August 6 (JST) on Maruki Gallery’s YouTube Channel.
Navigator: Sumiko Hatakeyama (Peace Boat / University of Pennsylvania)
Casts: John Junkerman (Film director), Yukinori Okamura (Curator, Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panel)

SUMMARY
This program traces the Marukis’ journey from their experience in Hiroshima. They started to paint “The Hiroshima Panels” after the bombing, and continued their journey through the exhibition tours in Japan and around the world.

The program will focus on the works of the Marukis and their works. We will examine the message they wanted to convey, the post-Hiroshima world surrounding nuclear weapons, and our future.

CHAPTERS
1) Introduction
2) Background
A brief overview of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Hiroshima Panels, the Marukis, and the Maruki Gallery to help people with no prior knowledge to understand the dialogue.

3) August 6: What Happened on that Day (Yukinori Okamura and Sumiko Hatakeyama)
We will take a look at the first half of the Hiroshima Panels, and think about what happened immediately after the bombing (“Ghosts”), the loss of young lives (“Boys and Girls”), and the exposure to the radiation in the city (“Relief”).

4) The Marukis’ Journey from Hiroshima (John Junkerman and Sumiko Hatakeyama)
We will take a look at the second half of the Hiroshima Panels. We will first learn how Mr. Junkerman came to know the Marukis, and discuss the Maruki’s journey after WWII, including the first U.S. exhibition. We will cover works such as “Yaizu” (nuclear testing), “The Death of American Prisoners of War” and “Crows” (perpetration).

5) Passing On the Marukis’ Message in a Changing World (Panel Discussion)
We explore the reception of Hiroshima Panels in different times and places, especially how the response to the exhibition in the U.S. has changed. We will also consider the significance of the Maruki’s depiction of structural violence other than the atomic bomb, as well as the role of the Hiroshima Panels in the world today.

***

2. Maruki Gallery Online Tour - What are the Hiroshima Panels? (Approx. 50 mins)

Navigator: Yukinori Okamura (Curator, Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels)

May 5th, 2021 marked the 54th anniversary of the opeing of the Maruki Gallery. We held an online tour of the gallery as a live streaming event. It was carried out in Japanese, but finally English subtitles are available! This program is a tour of the gallery led by the curator, who will give you an overview and introduce you to the Hiroshima Panels. You can see the subtitles through YouTube subtitles function. To join the tour, click HERE.

***

Finally, we would like to share that we have launched the Donor Wall Project, which is part of the Preservation Fund for the Hiroshima Panels. The names of donors who have donated the equivalent of 100,000 yen or more will be stamped inside the dove. Of course, this applies to donations through GlobalGiving. It would be great if you could spread the word!

We hope you enjoy these programs! We would be happy if you could use them as an opportunity to think about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and all the people who have been affected by the nuclear weapons.

We will keep you posted on the last part of this virtual tour program!

Kind regards,

Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels.

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.