Keio Museum Commons: A Creative "Open Space" on Mita Campus

2020/03/09

In April 2019, Keio Museum Commons (commonly known as KeMC) was established at Keio University. KeMC is a new organization whose primary mission is the storage and exhibition of academic materials owned by Keio University, as well as education and research activities utilizing these materials. As the core facility for its activities, an 11-story new building (with KeMC-related facilities from the 1st to the 9th floor) is currently under construction on the site of the former East Annex on Mita Campus, with an opening scheduled for spring 2021. Below, we explain the background leading to the establishment of Keio Museum Commons, as well as the concept and activities of this new organization.

Over its history of more than 150 years, Keio University has accumulated various cultural properties and academic materials. These are stored in various facilities within Keio; small exhibitions featuring cultural properties from the Juku's collection are often held at the Art Space of the Keio University Art Center (KUAC) and the exhibition room of the Mita Media Center (Keio University Library). At the Yukichi Fukuzawa Museum of the Keio Yokohama Elementary School, there is a small but permanent exhibition on Juku history for internal use. Furthermore, precious works of art and craft are displayed throughout the campuses, such as at the Shachu-Kokan Banraisha and the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration). There are also many historical buildings, such as the Old University Library at Mita and the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall), which are Important Cultural Properties, as well as the Ex Noguchi Room and the Kitasato Memorial Medical Library in Shinanomachi. In other words, Keio University itself is already a museum, but because the cultural properties are dispersed across multiple campuses, it is difficult to grasp the overall picture, and it is also true that the university has not previously had a full-scale exhibition and storage facility dedicated to artworks.

In the history of Keio University, proposals to build a museum on Mita Campus to store such cultural properties in an appropriate environment and open them to the public on a permanent basis have surfaced several times. While these did not materialize in the past for various reasons, thanks to the donation of materials and funds from the Century Cultural Foundation, it was decided to construct Keio University's first facility specialized in the storage and exhibition of academic materials.

In 2009, Keio University had already received a deposit of 1,740 art materials, mainly calligraphic and painting materials, from the Century Cultural Foundation, along with a donation for their utilization. The "Century Cultural Foundation Akao Memorial Fund" was established, and the materials have been kept at the Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko), a university-affiliated research institute, where exhibitions and research activities have been conducted regularly. Furthermore, in fiscal 2017, an agreement was reached with the Century Cultural Foundation for Keio University to accept a total of 2,325 art materials (adding 585 new items to the existing deposits), primarily Japanese calligraphy and paintings, and to construct a new facility to store and exhibit these artworks collectively. For Keio University, it was necessary to construct the new facility by the end of fiscal 2020 under an agreement with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and the site of the former East Annex on Mita Campus was chosen. Additionally, Keio University is scheduled to receive an additional donation totaling 3 billion yen from the Century Cultural Foundation toward the completion of the new facility. Meanwhile, the Century Cultural Foundation will close the Century Museum in Waseda Tsurumaki-cho once the donation is complete, after which Keio University will take over the management and exhibition of the artworks, as well as the linguistic research previously conducted by the foundation.

In 2017, a working group was organized to consider the nature of the exhibition facility for academic materials, with then Vice-President Akira Haseyama serving as chair. The members consisted of representatives from various departments involved in the research and management of cultural properties at Keio University: the Keio University Art Center (KUAC), the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC), the Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko), the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, the Faculty of Letters Major in Archaeology and Ethnology and Major in Aesthetics and Science of Arts, and the Office of Facilities and Property Management.

The working group first brainstormed to realize an innovative and attractive facility under the unfavorable conditions of a short preparation period until completion and the narrowness of the planned construction site facing Sakurada-dori. Many major universities nationwide already have university museums in some form, and as a latecomer, Keio University had to propose a facility based on a groundbreaking concept, despite its small area. During the deliberation process, Yohko Watanabe, a committee member from the Keio University Art Center (KUAC), presented the unprecedented and innovative idea of a "Museum Commons" (described later), and it was decided to specifically envision the new facility around this concept. It was also confirmed that the new facility would house cultural properties centered on archaeological materials and artworks owned by the Juku, in addition to the artworks donated by the Century Foundation. Furthermore, the basic plan was formulated to view the entire Mita Campus as a single "distributed museum"—with the planned Juku history exhibition room in the Old University Library, the Art Space of the Keio University Art Center (KUAC), and the exhibition room in the Mita Media Center (Keio University Library) serving as the main exhibition spaces—and for the new organization to be a place that, while being an exhibition facility, serves as the core of the "distributed museum" to manage cultural property information and support exhibition and educational activities. Additionally, it was agreed to aim for the realization of a digital-analog fusion type exhibition and research environment that leverages digital expertise researched at the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content, the Faculty of Science and Technology, and the Graduate School of Media Design (KMD), allowing the precious cultural properties owned by Keio University to be further expanded and developed in a digital environment. These are the core guidelines of Keio Museum Commons, as explained below.

In January 2018, the working group became a formal Preparatory Office (Director: Takami Matsuda), and in the same month, a press release announced the establishment of an academic material exhibition facility by the end of fiscal 2020, supported by the donation from the Century Cultural Foundation. The Preparatory Office established small working groups in charge of architecture, exhibition programs, registration and management of collections, and development of the digital environment to handle specific preparations. For example, to maximize the use of effective space, discussions were held to adjust the ceiling height of each floor in 10-centimeter increments. To secure storage space most efficiently, detailed studies were conducted thoroughly several times a week, such as simulating storage feasibility by repeatedly changing the combination of measurements for individual collection items.

In April last year, Keio Museum Commons was officially launched, taking over the preparations for the new exhibition facility from the Preparatory Office. The new organization consists of the Director (Takami Matsuda, Professor of the Faculty of Letters), the Deputy Director (Yohko Watanabe, Professor of the Keio University Art Center (KUAC)), two full-time staff members (Yu Homma, Senior Assistant Professor; Fumi Matsutani, Senior Assistant Professor (Non-tenured)), and several concurrent staff members belonging to various faculties and departments within Keio. Regarding the exhibition facility, Mitsubishi Jisho Design was selected for the design and Tokyu Construction for the construction. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 17, 2019, and construction is proceeding toward a target completion date of August 2020. After completion, the facility is scheduled to open in spring 2021, following a necessary "seasoning period" to remove substances harmful to cultural properties emitted from new building materials. The following outlines its activities and the overview of the new facility.

Universities in Europe and the United States traditionally have "common rooms." A common room is a membership-based shared lounge space designed to promote interaction among members. It was Yukichi Fukuzawa himself who introduced this concept to Japan; the Kojunsha, formed in 1880, derives its name from "exchanging knowledge and consulting on worldly affairs" and is the first example of a common room in Japan. In the Juku, this bore fruit as the Banraisha and later the Noguchi Room, which still function as places for interaction among the Keio Gijuku Shachu today. Furthermore, in the 21st century, the name and concept of "commons" are used to indicate new educational environments in universities, such as "learning commons." As active learning, which places students' proactive efforts at the center, has gained attention as a learning model in educational settings, learning commons have emerged as learning spaces outside the classroom that support independent and collaborative learning through library services and digital environments, and they exist in many universities in Japan.

With this concept of commons as a foundation, Keio's unique Museum Commons is a world-first attempt that goes beyond the exhibition and storage of cultural properties. It uses cultural properties as a core to realize "jinkan kosai (society)," to borrow Yukichi Fukuzawa's expression, through education, research, and community activities.

Rendering (Sakurada-dori side (left), campus side)

The 11-story new building currently under construction is the Juku's first facility dedicated to cultural properties. It will store and exhibit cultural properties owned by Keio University, including Japanese artworks across various genres such as sculpture, painting, calligraphy, and metalwork donated by the Century Cultural Foundation. The facility will exhibit masterpieces of Japanese art donated by the Century Cultural Foundation and hold various special exhibitions targeting a wide range of the Juku's cultural properties. By introducing next-generation visible storage in the temperature- and humidity-controlled art repositories, where visitors can look into the anteroom of the storage area, the traditional barriers between exhibition and storage will be removed, finding new possibilities for exhibition activities and research in their continuity.

The storage and exhibition of cultural properties is only one aspect of the Museum Commons concept. While organizing, disseminating, exhibiting, and researching cultural properties are important missions of Keio Museum Commons, KeMC's activity policy is to function as a place that generates interaction starting from cultural properties, going beyond the functions of a conventional museum. Historically, the concept of the commons dates back to "iriai-chi" (common land) such as groves and pastures that village residents could use jointly, referring to shared "open space" not designated for a specific purpose in advance. KeMC is an "open space" where people can freely bring various things and ideas to appreciate, learn, or research together, leading to new discoveries and ideas, and promoting interaction among those involved. Various spaces that can function as such open spaces, albeit small, will be provided within the building in various forms.

By holding various special exhibitions in exhibition rooms where the barriers to storage have been removed through visible storage, and by utilizing gaps created in the building's design as spaces for installations, the entire building becomes a place for interaction through art. The building will also be equipped with classrooms capable of hosting practical training and workshop-style classes focused on cultural properties, as well as a fab lab ("I/O Room") to give virtual or physical form to ideas, as described later.

By utilizing such spaces and equipment, KeMC will allow students, researchers, and alumni to interact with each other through a single cultural property, creating new contexts for appreciation and research around that object.

KeMC's role is not only to provide a place for creative interaction surrounding art but also to function as a center and hub for education and research activities targeting cultural properties at Keio University, including KeMC itself, and to serve as a portal to advanced activities.

On Mita Campus, an exhibition room related to Juku history (Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum) is also being prepared in the Old University Library, where seismic retrofitting was completed in June 2019. Consequently, in 2021 when KeMC opens, Mita will have four locations equipped with spaces for permanent or special exhibitions, along with the Art Space and the library exhibition room. These will accept a wide range of visitors from within and outside the Juku as a loosely linked "distributed museum" on Mita Campus. KeMC will function as its hub, planning collaborative exhibitions and providing support, such as advice, for exhibitions and other events planned and operated independently by each organization.

The function as a hub for art will be developed in several forms. While the artworks and cultural properties owned by the Juku are stored and managed in various locations across Keio University, there is still no database integrating information on all cultural properties, nor an archive to record and preserve various activities and research surrounding art. KeMC, in cooperation with the Juku's Art Management and Operation Committee and various departments owning cultural properties, will develop (1) a database to accumulate information on cultural properties owned by Keio University, (2) a database to accumulate information on art-related events as needed, and (3) a repository to manage the storage of examples of educational and research utilization, as well as tools and content for that purpose in the future. By linking these, KeMC will build a museum system to manage and disseminate Keio University's art in an integrated manner.

Furthermore, using this system as a foundation, an open digital exhibition environment will be created. In the exhibition rooms, various related information will be digitally deployed to surround individual exhibits, providing a context for appreciation. By virtually expanding the web of associations to other cultural properties owned by the Juku and even to exhibits around the world, an environment will be created for appreciating and researching cultural properties from diverse perspectives. Since individual visitors can take these contexts home via their own devices, KeMC will expand further beyond the Juku, centered on the personal experiences of visitors.

KeMC plans to actively engage diverse learners by developing educational activities at various levels, not only for training museum professionals but also for university students, students of affiliated schools, and working adults. In addition to launching the KeMC course "Museums and Commons" for university students of all faculties from fiscal 2020, fieldwork-style activities centered on visits to KeMC are being considered for students of affiliated schools. This will not be confined to the building; using KeMC as a hub, the entire Keio University campus will be utilized as an open museum to realize experiential education in the history and culture of the university and the region.

As a research institution, KeMC will develop advanced practical research regarding its collections and the concept of university museums. It views the international dissemination of these results and the promotion of international exchange through research and museum activities as a particularly important mission. In September 2019, KeMC already co-hosted the "International Council of Museums, Committee for University Museums and Collections (ICOM-UMAC) Tokyo International Seminar" titled "University Museums as Cultural Commons" with the Keio University Art Center (KUAC), receiving high praise and acclaim from university museum experts from 17 participating countries. KeMC plans to continue actively hosting international conferences and joint workshops utilizing the facilities within the building. Furthermore, by building a database that accumulates and connects information on materials in the Juku's collection and linking it with overseas museum databases, KeMC plans to establish a mechanism for constant information sharing and exchange within an international network.

KeMC places the fusion of digital and analog at the foundation of its activities. The activities of exhibiting, utilizing for education, and researching the diverse cultural properties (analog) owned by the Juku will always be supported by advanced digital infrastructure. In the preparations for the establishment of KeMC, not only researchers who study cultural properties but also information engineering researchers from the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC) and other departments have participated. From the beginning of the conception, KeMC has aimed for a fusion of the humanities and sciences in both methodology and concept, keeping in mind the development of an integrated research environment that is only possible at a comprehensive university.

To realize this, the "Digital-Analog Fusion Project Working Group," led by Hiroshi Shigeno, Professor of the Faculty of Science and Technology (Director of the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content), was organized to develop the digital environment within the building and design the "I/O (input/output) Room," which features cultural property digitization and digital fabrication functions. The "I/O Room" is a place where experimental tools can be easily tried out with the aim of seamlessly linking analog cultural properties with the digital environment. It is a workshop equipped with a studio environment for digitization (including 3D), 3D printers for physically creating digital content, tools, and software. There are no other institutions in the world that possess such a facility integrated with a museum and utilize it for public use. In the "I/O Room," individuals can not only digitally add and expand their own new contexts to cultural properties but also attempt digital creation in forms such as derivative works. By providing an environment for moving freely between digital and analog, the "I/O Room" offers opportunities for learning and interaction starting from artworks, in addition to the research of cultural properties.

In July 2019, a media kit summarizing KeMC's activity policy, the new facility, and the overview of the planned collections was distributed to all faculty members, and a pre-site for the opening of the new facility has also been launched . On the pre-site, progress information on opening preparations and exhibition information related to Keio University's cultural properties are distributed as appropriate via SNS, and fixed-point photography images from webcams are also released from time to time. A pre-opening project for KeMC is planned for October this year after the completion of the new facility. Around the same time, a collaborative exhibition (tentative title: Keio University's "jinkan kosai (society)") is being prepared in cooperation with the "Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum" in the Old University Library, the Art Space of the Keio University Art Center (KUAC), and the exhibition room in the Keio University Library (New Building).

After the opening in spring 2021, the facility will first regularly implement permanent exhibitions and special exhibitions targeting artworks donated by the Century Cultural Foundation and cultural properties of Keio University. It will also be utilized for seminar-style classes and experiential classes for affiliated schools. Furthermore, joint research projects utilizing the "I/O Room" and international workshops in the conference room will be actively planned.

KeMC is a creative open space for the Keio University campus and the Mita regional community. By effectively conceiving this limited space with the reverse idea of using its narrowness as an advantage, original attempts that would be difficult to conceive in a spacious exhibition and storage space with few constraints become possible. To become a hub for activities surrounding cultural properties at Keio University and a portal for innovative attempts, close cooperation and collaboration with Keio University alumni are essential. We ask for your broad support for the activities of the world's first Museum Commons.