A Creative Window Open to Society: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Keio University Art Center (KUAC)

2023/11/10

In October 1993, the opening ceremony for the Keio University Art Center (KUAC) was held in the large conference room of the Old University Library. Thirty years have passed since then—recalling the phrase "standing firm at thirty," it could be said that the Art Center, which started as a new Research Centers and Institutes, has reached a stage where it should naturally be taking the steps of a mature adult.

The Art Center is currently located in the South Annex across Sakurada-dori from the main gate of the Mita Campus, with a small exhibition room on the first floor and offices on the second floor. I have heard that it settled in this location in the fall of 2011, having started originally from a single small office. After that, it changed locations several times, settling for a while on the third floor of the West Annex next to Keio Girls Senior High School before reaching its current location. Whether in the West Annex or the South Annex, its geographical position on the periphery while adjacent to the Mita Campus symbolizes the activities and role of the Art Center. This is because, despite being a university Research Centers and Institutes, it is an entity that is always open to the outside. In fact, a characteristic of the Art Center is that its activities have changed flexibly in a certain sense.

At the time of its establishment, it took the lead among universities nationwide in tackling art management, attracting significant attention. Expanding beyond the scope of the university into commissioned projects for local governments, it led to a multi-year art management practice project with the local Minato City. Today, as the role of universities in local communities is being widely discussed, it could be said that these were pioneering activities. The connection with the local community continues today, having transformed and further diversified into the "Urban Cultural Narrative."

In its fifth year, the acceptance of the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive triggered the launch of archiving activities that would later become a core activity of the Art Center. The efforts in art archives were advanced for that time. Today, the importance and significance of archives are widely recognized, but looking back ten-plus years ago when we were still in the midst of activities to spread that significance, it feels like a different world. Archiving activities also overlapped with the development period of the digital environment, and several university-like projects were attempted. Through repeated trial and error regarding archives, we have conducted both research and practice. It is a site for archive practice, as well as a place for thinking about, researching, and educating on the subject (the Art Archive lectures began in 2006). The stance of running practical activities alongside theoretical research, not limited to archives, is at the core of the Art Center's activities. By maintaining such a stance, it can be said that we have been able to constantly reflect contemporary trends and issues in our activities.

While the Art Center has held exhibitions in various locations on campus since its opening, since 2006 it has held regular exhibitions centered on the East School Building Exhibition Services, and in 2011 it took over the management and operation of the permanent exhibition facility in the South Annex, making its museum-like activities more visible. In 2013, it was certified as a museum-equivalent facility, contributing to university education as a foundational facility for the curator certification course. The revised Museum Act came into effect this April, requiring all certified facilities to reapply, and we are currently preparing to aim for registered museum status following the relaxation of establishment requirements. Regarding the management of artworks, we have served as the secretariat for the Committee for the Management and Operation of Artworks since its inception in 2002, alongside the Office of Facilities and Property Management, striving for the preservation and restoration of Keio University's artworks, including those at affiliated schools. Caring for artworks owned by universities and schools is often difficult due to the complexity of ownership and jurisdiction, and is a challenge for many universities. The nature of this committee is attracting attention from other universities as one solution. The biennial cleaning and preservation activities for outdoor sculptures have also expanded over their 20-year history; the scope, which was initially only the Mita Campus, has spread to each campus of the university and to affiliated schools, with activities themselves showing growth, such as children and students performing cleaning work together. Looking at exhibitions, since 2011, we have constantly held about 4 to 6 exhibitions per year. We also strive to create opportunities for people to experience archiving activities by exhibiting archive materials that could be called our collection. Furthermore, we are developing unique contemporary art exhibitions that make use of the small 45-square-meter space. This is because we believe that providing students with opportunities to encounter contemporary works is an important role for a university facility.

The Art Center has developed a wide range of activities targeting the arts (see the website for details), but at its root is the "inquiry into the relationship between art and contemporary society" stated in the prospectus. The five basic principles (Human Education, Trans-art, Proactive, Interdisciplinary, Open Forum) are always kept in mind. I mentioned at the beginning that the flexible change in its activities is a characteristic of the Art Center; so to speak, rather than protecting the scope or nature of its activities, it aims for an open and creative space that is cross-disciplinary, seeks new values and perspectives, and possesses expertise, as stated in these basic principles. And because we have maintained the mindset of disseminating and sharing this, our activities have changed. This was something that could only be realized because we have conducted both theoretical research and practical activities together.

Perhaps the path of a mature 30-year-old is different from this—positively, in the stance of continuing to maintain creativity that is not afraid of change, as described so far. However, unfortunately, it also includes a negative meaning. It cannot be denied that we have managed to survive through constant management efforts and much cooperation in a situation where stable operation could not be guaranteed. It is also a fact that I feel we have barely managed to hold on and continue for 30 years. Will we be able to safely reach 40 or 50 years? In a situation where the significance and role of art are attracting even more attention from perspectives such as well-being in society, what will become of the existence of the Art Center, which can be called a small window at the university that has continued to explore the relationship between contemporary society and art, opening a window to the outside and disseminating information? In a sense, the stance of Keio University as a university on how it views art in contemporary society is being questioned here.