Annual Conference 2015 Tokyo
How Global Can Museums Be?
CIMAM’s 2015 Annual Conference (7–9 November 2015) was organized by CIMAM with the support of the Executive Committee of CIMAM 2015 Annual Conference Tokyo, the Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan, in collaboration with ICOM Japan, the Japanese Association of Museums and the Japanese Council of Art Museums. It was also hosted by the National Art Center, Tokyo and the Mori Art Museum.
A total of 260 delegates from 48 different countries attended CIMAM’s 2015 Annual Conference in Tokyo.
CIMAM offered 28 travel grants to modern and contemporary art museum and collection professionals residing in countries with Emerging Market and Developing Economies, professionals residing in Latin America and the Caribbean and South Korea thanks to the funds received from the Getty Foundation, the Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and The Gwangju Biennale Foundation.
Two keynote speakers, twelve Perspective presentations and three panel discussions conformed the basis of a larger debate that took place among conference delegates regarding three main questions: Is the museum still a place for debate?, How has modernism been perceived globally?, and Is there a global audience?
Speakers included Brook Andrew, Artist and Lecturer, MADA (Monash Art, Design and Architecture), Monash University, Melbourne; Mariana Botey, Associate Professor Modern/Contemporary Latin American Art History, Visual Arts Department, University of California San Diego (UCSD), San Diego, USA/Mexico; Patricia Falguières, Professor, School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), Chair of the National Center for Contemporary Art (CNAP), Paris; Shimegi Inaga, Professor, International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto, Graduate University for Advanced Studies (Sokendai), Hayama; Bose Krishnamachari, President and Co-Founder, Kochi Biennale Foundation, Cochin, Kerala; Mika Kuraya, Chief Curator of the Department of Fine Art, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Peggy Levitt, Professor and Chair of Sociology, Wellesley College and Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts; Hammad Nasar, Head of Research and Programs, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Jack Persekian, Director and Head Curator, The Palestinian Museum, Palestine; Georg Schöllhammer and Hedwig Saxenhuber, Co-curators of The School of Kyiv, Kyiiv Biennal 2015, Independent Curators and Editors of Springerin Magazine, Vienna; Slavs and Tatars, Artists, Eurasia; Eugene Tan, Director, Singapore National Gallery, Singapore; Anton Vidokle, Artist and Founder of e-flux, New York-Berlin; Wong Hoy Cheong, Artist, George Town, Malaysia.
The panelist discussions were moderated by CIMAM Board Members Elizabeth Ann MacGregor, Frances Morris and Kian Chow Kwok.
The conference program included visits to the National Art Center, Tokyo, the Mori Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
CIMAM Annual Conference has been generously supported by Agency for Cultural Affairs under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan. Also by the Japanese National Committee for ICOM, Japanese Association of Museums, the Japanese Council of Art Museums, and the Japan Association of Art Museums. And in addition, the conference received the support from Ishibashi Foundation, Benesse Holdings, Inc., Fukutake Foundation, Shiseido Company, Limited, Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd., Nihon Kotsu Co. Ltd. and Yu-un.
A group of 52 delegates attended CIMAM’s postconference tour organized to Benesse Art Site, Naoshima and Hiroshima on 10 and 11 of November 2015. Visits included Teshima Yokoo House, Teshima Art Museum, the Art House Project and Chichu Art Museum, Benesse House Museum, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. Accommodation, meals and admission fee at Teshima and Naoshima are kindly sponsored by Benesse Art Site Naoshima and Fukutake Foundation.
Watch the videos at CIMAM's TV channel by following the link below.