This webinar will focus on the current home of Japan’s pioneering contemporary art museum, Hara Museum ARC. The building was designed in the late 1980s by the world-renowned architect and Pritzker Prize laureate Arata Isozaki. Participants will learn about the museum’s architecture within the context of its history and the shared vision of museum founder Toshio Hara and Isozaki. The session will feature insights from the museum leadership team and from an architect who worked in the late Isozaki’s atelier, offering a rare behind-the-scenes perspective.

In 1979, the Foundation Arc-en-Ciel, under the leadership of its chairman Toshio Hara, opened the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Shinagawa, Tokyo as a pioneering institution in Japan dedicated to contemporary art. In 1988, it opened Hara Museum ARC as an annex in Shibukawa, Gunma. With these two venues as a base, a wide variety of activities were carried out with the aim of making contemporary art a dynamic part of society and a medium of international exchange. In January 2021, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, uniquely housed in a Western-style building that was originally built as a residence in 1938, closed its doors, having enjoyed great public support and popularity. This would be followed in April 2021 with the relaunching in Shibukawa, Gunma of a single consolidated venue named Hara Museum ARC, after the French word for “rainbow” and the name of the foundation that operates it. This name also signifies it as a center for the arts, a role that the new Hara Museum ARC is committed to continue fulfilling through activities that bring people together and by which new values are forged.

This event is part of Archtober’s virtual Travel To series, in partnership with Bloomberg Connects. The Travel To series seeks to highlight Bloomberg Connects partners that feature iconic architecture and historically significant sites across the United States and around the world. Join us as curators, preservationists, historians (and more!) bring these places and spaces alive in the comfort of your home.

Speakers
Yoko Uchida, Former Director, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art; Former Executive Director, Foundation Arc-en-Ciel.
Junko Watanabe, International Program Director of Foundation Arc-en-Ciel and Hara Museum ARC
Hiroshi Yoshino, Principal, Hiroshi Yoshino Architects

About the Speakers
Working as a curator at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art soon after it opened, Yoko Uchida curated solo exhibitions for Yasumasa Morimura, Nobuyoshi Araki, Olafur Eliasson, Yoshitomo Nara, Sophie Calle and others, and contributed to the planning and execution of such seminal exhibitions as Photography and Beyond in Japan: Space, Time and Memory (1994 to 1997) and Shiro Kuramata 1937-1991 (1996 to 1999) which traveled to major venues in Japan, North America and Europe.

As head of the international program at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Junko Watanabe liaised with foreign artists and institutions abroad, and helped coordinate events such as meetings of the MoMA International Council convened in Japan.

Hiroshi Yoshino worked at Arata Isozaki & Associates from 2001 to 2010, contributing to the design of cultural facilities in Japan and abroad. In 2011, he established Hiroshi Yoshino Architects with a focus on art-related projects such as museums, galleries, and exhibition design. Since 2021, he has been conducting research on Japanese art spaces as a member of the Taro Igarashi Laboratory at Tohoku University Graduate School. His major projects include the relocation of permanent art installations at Hara Museum ARC (2021–2024) and the design of nca | nichido contemporary art (2022), Shigeru Yokota Gallery (2018) and the Yamuan teahouse at Kanki-so in Nagano (2016). His recent exhibition designs include The Impact of Van Gogh at the Pola Museum of Art (2025), Kenjiro Okazaki: Time Unfolding Here at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2025), Monet: Le dernier Monet — Paysages d'eau at the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (2024), and TRIO: Paris–Tokyo–Osaka Modern Art Collections at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka (2024).

About Archtober’s Guide on Bloomberg Connects:
Archtober’s Guide on the free Bloomberg Connects App is for anyone interested in connecting with architecture and design. Whether you are an architectural historian, a design enthusiast, a student, or someone having their first architecture experience, the Archtober Guide is designed to help you explore notable contemporary and historical sites across New York City’s five boroughs. Learn more about the Archtober Guide here.

If you register for a virtual ticket, you will receive an email with a Zoom link to access the program.

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