The University Art Museum

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The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts (hereinafter referred to as “The University Art Museum”) is an on-campus collaborative educational and research facility established in 1998 through the reorganization and expansion of its predecessor, “Geijutsu Shiryokan” (The Art Museum). The University Art Museum houses numerous art materials?? collected from the establishment of the former Tokyo Fine Art School to the present day. The core of these collections are masterpieces including 23 National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties, works by successive faculty members, and graduation works by students, totaling over 30,000 pieces.

The collection of artistic materials at our university began even before the establishment of the Tokyo Fine Art School in 1887. The artworks gathered from both East and West, ancient and modern, were used as reference materials in educational settings. Along with these, works created by students, including graduation pieces and self-portraits, were also collected. During the time of the Tokyo Fine Art School, these collections were housed in the library, which was called the “Bunko.”

In 1949, the Tokyo Fine Art School and the Tokyo Music School were merged to establish Tokyo University of the Arts. The collections continued to be managed by the university library and used for educational research. Then in 1970, the department of art materials became independent, leading to the establishment of “Geijutsu Shiryokan”. Musical instruments and other materials from the music school that had been stored in the Faculty of Music were also added, and activities for the research, preservation, and public exhibition of art materials were continued acting as a joint-use institution for both the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Music.

However, due to the aging of facilities and the shortage of storage space due to the increase and expansion of collections, it became necessary to expand storage functions. At the same time, demands from both within and outside the university grew for adequate exhibition space commensurate with the scale of the collection. This led to the opening of the Toride Annex at the Toride campus in 1994.

In 1996, as part of the Factory Museum concept that envisioned the entire university as both a place of creation and exhibition, construction of a new museum building began at the Ueno campus. In 1998, the facility was reorganized and expanded from “Geijutsu Shiryokan” to become “The University Art Museum,” and the main building opened the following year in 1999. Since then, it has continued to fulfill its role not only in managing collections and public exhibitions, but also as a venue for special exhibitions and presentations of works by faculty and students.

Furthermore, marking 30 years since the opening of the Toride Annex, the Toride Annex Storage was constructed adjacent to the Toride Annex in 2024. This not only expanded storage at the Toride campus but also established a “visible storage” area in the anteroom of the second-floor storage, beginning an initiative to open storage areas to the society.

The collections of The University Art Museum hold importance as an “archive” that provides insight into the university’s educational and research activities to date, and furthermore, into the development of modern and contemporary Japanese art education history. At the same time, the exhibition spaces of The University Art Museum serve as venues for presenting the educational and research achievements of students and faculty. Based on these materials and spaces, The University Art Museum has established four guiding principles: “management and utilization of collections,” “diverse exhibition planning,” “education including museum curator courses,” and “community-connected social co-creation activities,” and we will continue to advance activities that contribute to the development of art education at our university.