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Richard J. Wood Art Curator Series

With funding from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission and the United States-Japan Foundation, NAJAS developed tis series in 2015 to highlight the role of Japanese art in the U.S.-Japan relationship. We ask curators of collections of Japanese art in U.S. museums to tell the story of the collectors, the collections and how they came to the museum. The presentations are hosted by JAS in cities other than the home museum. It is the only national program focusing on this important aspect of the U.S.-Japan cultural relationship.

2021-2022 events funded by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission:

Japan America Society of Michigan and Southwestern Ontario

Date: Thursday, June 2, 2022
Title: Isamu Noguchi: Transnational Icon
Curator: Dakin Hart; Senior Curator, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum
Venue: Detroit Opera House in Detroit, MI

Japan-America Society of Colorado

Date: Monday, March 28, 2022
Title: Made in Fukushima: The Woodblock Prints of Saito Kiyoshi Saito Kiyoshi
Curator: Dr. Rhiannon Paget; Curator of Asian Art, John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Venue: Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Arvada, CO

Japan America Society of Michigan and Southwestern Ontario

Date: Thursday, October 28, 2021
Title: Isamu Noguchi: Transnational Icon
Curator: Dakin Hart; Senior Curator, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum
Venue: Virtual

The Japan-America Society of Georgia

Date: October 15, 2021 
Title: Hokusai at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Curator: Dr. Sarah Thompson; Curator, Japanese Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Venue: The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA (hybrid format)

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania

Date: Thursday, October 7, 2021
Title: The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection and 20th-Century Japanese Painting and Calligraphy in the Freer Gallery of Art
Curator: Dr. Frank Feltens; Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art at Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, National Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC
Venue: Carnegie Museum of Art theater in Pittsburgh, PA (hybrid format)


2020-2021 events funded by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission:

Heart of America Japan America Society

Date: October 21, 2021 
Title: Isamu Noguchi: Transnational Icon
Curator: Dakin Hart; Senior Curator, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum
Venue: Virtual in collaboration with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO

Japan-America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth 

Date: October 20, 2021 
Title: Hokusai at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Curator: Dr. Sarah Thompson; Curator, Japanese Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Venue: Crow Museum of Asian Art in Dallas, TX (hybrid format)

Japan America Society of St. Louis

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021
Title: The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection and 20th-Century Japanese Painting and Calligraphy in the Freer Gallery of Art
Curator: Dr. Frank Feltens; Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art at Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, National Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC
Venue: Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis (hybrid format)

Japan-America Society of Washington DC

Date: Thursday, April 29, 2021
Title: Made in Fukushima: The Woodblock Prints of Saito Kiyoshi Saito Kiyoshi
Curator: Dr. Rhiannon Paget; Curator of Asian Art, John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Venue: Virtual

Japan Society (New York)

Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Title: Painting Edo: Early Modern Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection
Curator: Dr. Rachel Saunders; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art at the Harvard University Art Museums
Vernue: Virtual

The Japan-America Society of Georgia

Date: November 19, 2020 
Title: Art in the U.S.-Japan Relationship: A Curator’s Perspective with Monika Bincsik Celebrating the Arts of Japan
Curator: Dr. Monika Bincsik; Associate Curator of Japan Decorative Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
Venue: Virtual

Japan-America Society of Northwest Florida

Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Title: 2020 A Curator’s Perspective on Japanese Textiles by Andreas Marks
Curator: Dr. Andreas Marks; Senior Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, Director of the Clark Center for Japanese Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art
Venue: Virtual

The Japan America Society of Chicago

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2020
Title: Richard E. Fuller and Aspiring Emulators: Collecting Japanese Art In Seattle
Curator: Dr. Xiaojin Wu; Curator of Japanese & Korean Art, Seattle Art Museum
Venue: Virtual

Japan-America Society of Houston

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2020
Title: Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection
Curator: Dr. Rachel Saunders; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art, Harvard University Art Museums
Venue: Virtual


2019 events funded by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission:

Japan America Society of North Carolina

Date: Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Title: Nagai Tabi - Tales and Travels of Japanese Works of Art to America
Curator: Dr. Janice Katz; Roger Weston Curator of Japanese Art, Art Institute of Chicago
Venue: Gregg Museum of Fine Arts in Raleigh, NC

Japan America Society of Greater Austin

Date: Friday, September 20, 2019
Title: Bella Mabury and Beyond: Collecting Japanese Textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Curator: Dr. Sharon S. Takeda; Senior Curator and Head of the Costume and Textiles Department at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Venue: The University of Texas, School of Human Ecology, Division of Textiles and Apparel in Austin, TX 

Heart of America Japan America Society

Date: Sunday, July 7, 2019
Title: Meditative Stillness and Exuberant Energy: A Taste for the Poetic in Japanese Art: Selections from the Collection of Mary and Cheney Cowles
Curator: Dr. Maribeth Graybill; Curator of Asian Art, Portland Art Museum
Venue: Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO 

The Japan America Society of Pennsylvania

Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
Title: Art in the U.S.-Japan Relationship: Preserving the Floating World
Curator: Dr. Stephen Salel; Robert F. Lange Foundation Curator of Asian Art, Honolulu Museum of Art
Venue: Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA


2018 events funded by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission:

Japan-America Society of Colorado

Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Title: The Bostonians (Bigelow, Fenollosa, Morse and Okakura) and Japanese art at the MFA
Curator: Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse; William and Helen Pounds Senior Curator of Japanese Art, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)
Venue: Denver Art Museum in Denver, CO

Japan America Society of Houston

Date: Monday, September 24, 2018
Title: Avery Brundage and Japanese Art at the Asian Art Museum
Curator: Dr. Robert Mintz; Deputy Director, Asian Art Museum (San Francisco)
Venue: Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX

Japan-America Society of Central Ohio

Date: Thursday, June 7, 2018
Title: From Jeptha Wade to Kelvin Smith: Collecting Japanese Art in Cleveland
Curator: Dr. Sinéad Vilbar; Curator of Japanese Art, Cleveland Museum of Art
Venue: Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, OH

Japan-America Society of St. Louis

Date: Saturday, May 5, 2018
Title: Richard E. Fuller and Japanese Art at the Seattle Art Museum
Curator: Dr. Xiaojin Wu; Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, Seattle Asian Art Museum
Venue: Pulitzer Art Foundation in St. Louis, MO


2017 events funded by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission:

Japan-America Society of the State of Washington

Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Title: Preserving the Floating World
Curator: Stephen Salel; Robert F. Lange Foundation Curator of Japanese Art, Honolulu Museum of Art
Venue: Seattle Museum of Art in Seattle, WA

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania

Date: Thursday, May 11, 2017
Title: Ukiyo-e and the Windy City: Clarence Buckingham’s Prints at the Art Institute of Chicago
Curator: Janice Katz; Roger Weston Associate Curator of Art, Art Institute of Chicago
Venue: Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA

Japan-America Society of North Carolina

Date: Monday, April 24, 2017
Title: The Three Perfections of Japanese Art: Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy - Masterworks from the Mary Griggs Burke Collection
Curator: John Carpenter; Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Venue: Ackland Museum of Art at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC


2015-2016 pilot program events funded by the United States-Japan Foundation:

The Japan-America Society of Georgia

Date: Thursday, March 24, 2016
Title: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Curator: John Carpenter; Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Venue: High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA

Japan America Society of New Mexico 

Date: Monday, February 22, 2016
Title: Avery Brundage and Japanese Art at the Asian Art Museum
Curator: Laura Allen; Curator of the Japanese Collection, Asian Art Museum (San Francisco)
Venue: Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM

Japan-America Society of Colorado

Date: Thursday, January 14, 2016
Title: Charles Lang Freer and Japanese Ceramics
Curator: Louise Allison Cort; Curator for Ceramics, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Venue: Denver Art Museum in Denver, CO

Japan-America Society of Michigan and Southwest Ontario

Date: Sunday, November 1, 2015
Title: The Bostonians (Bigelow, Fenollosa, Morse and Okakura) and Japanese art at the MFA
Curator: Anne Nishimura Morse; William and Helen Pounds Senior Curator of Japanese Art, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston)
Venue: Charles Lang Freer House in Detroit, MI 

Heart of America Japan-America Society

Date: Saturday, September 19, 2015
Title: Strange and Wondrous: Japanese Art Collected by Bill Clark
Curator: Andreas Marks; Senior Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, Director of the Clark Center for Japanese Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art
Venue : Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO


NAJAS and our members are deeply grateful to the Japan-United States Friendship Commission and the United States-Japan Foundation.



National Association of Japan-America Societies, Inc.

1819 L Street NW, Suite 200

Washington, DC 20036

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