Towada Art Center (十和田市現代美術館)

The Arts Towada urban development project treats the whole of Kanchogai Avenue (官庁街通り, the avenue of government offices) in central Towada as a museum; it brings together three elements: a contemporary art museum, artworks and art programmes. It grew out of a problem on the ground: the 2001 reorganisation of the central ministries and the relocation of state branch offices had left many vacant lots along the avenue.

Towada City Hall's planning section began studying the project in 2001, and the basic concept was complete in 2004. In 2005 Ryue Nishizawa's office was selected as the museum's designer through a call for proposals, and a committee met for the first time to select the works to be installed. The museum's name was settled in 2007, and it opened in 2008.

In 2010 the former tax-office site opposite the museum was turned into an open-air exhibition square, the Art Square, and Arts Towada was inaugurated as a whole. In 2014 the project spread to the central shopping district.

The museum is not a single block: each exhibition room is its own building, a "house for art", and these buildings, scattered across the site, are linked by glass corridors. Keeping them independent lets each artwork have a space of architecture that suits it, and draws the work and its setting closer together.

The scattering takes its cue from the avenue itself, where plazas and buildings follow one another; large and small volumes echo the buildings of varying sizes lining it. It also frees up outdoor spaces for exhibitions and events, so that indoors and outdoors are experienced at once.

Several exhibition spaces open in different directions through large glass openings, as if the works were being shown to the town. The concept can be put in a phrase: a museum open to the town.

The museum shows permanent works, among them "Edificio — Buenos Aires" by Leandro Erlich, "Standing Woman" by Ron Mueck, "Memory of Water" by Chiharu Shiota, "Cause and Effect" by Do Ho Suh and "Flower Horse" by Choi Jeonghwa.

Other works stand outdoors, on the Art Square and in the surrounding streets. The "cube cafe&shop" combines a café and a shop.

The museum opens from 9 am to 5 pm, with last admission at 4:30 pm. It is closed on Mondays (the following day when the Monday is a public holiday) and over the year-end and new-year holidays. Tickets are bought on site, on the day, at the museum's reception.

Address: 10-9 Nishi-Nibancho, Towada, Aomori Prefecture.