The Tobichi Museum

Host organization
MARU to Edit,inc.
Address
STUDIO River, 1705-1 Tatsuno, Tatsuno Machi, Kamiina Gun, Nagano 399-0421 JAPAN
Website
https://www.instagram.com/tobichi_art/

Overview
AIR Program information

Objective	The Tobichi Museum initiative is a project designed to develop culture important in enriching our daily lives. With loose linkage between activities conducted by our company and related organizations, the goal is not to exist as an independent art and cultural business, but to combine with other business revenues (real estate business, consulting business, etc.) and deploy activities in such a way that everyone overall is at least minimally in the black. It is our goal that our activities continue to be sustainable through this approach. We also operate with a focus not only on artists, but also on the development of office staff and coordinators who can serve as communicators with the activity background and society, in order to provide activities deeply connected the community. In that sense, we feel that as The Tobichi Museum's third year, 2023 is an important year as the next step in developing diverse programs and new efforts towards training and systematizing an office that can manage them. We are not a central organization for creating art and culture. Activities to develop the region and the city are our core. We believe that having art and culture existing in the core of daily living is a very enriching thing. We are operating as a ten-year initiative that builds various contact points with society to create a culture in which, instead of art being a special phenomenon, it simply exists as an extension of daily living, in a sort of gradation. We increase the opportunity for a larger amount of people to view art by operating in vacant houses and shops, which are important community resources. And if someone likes the area, it might turn into a shop the next year. There will be many vacant houses and shops available coming up, so venues can hop from location to location. Setting the exhibit area in the shopping avenue with its close ties to daily life brings works to the eyes of people in the community naturally. And we continue working with the belief that these accumulated opportunities to viscerally experience art will make it possible to create lifestyles with a level of enrichment that is at least slightly more advanced than before.
Organization activities	- Artists-in-residence program - Exhibitions, workshops and other events, planned separately from the residency program - Information service on arts and culture through publication and website - Rental service of the facilities
Founded in	2021
Background	The Tobichi Museum initiative, which started in FY2021, commenced as a ten-year initiative. For the first year, the shopping avenue area was transformed into an art museum. Multiple vacant houses and shops were made into venues, and artists with ties to Tatsuno Town brought works to be shown there. For the second year, under the theme of "Suteru Kami Areba, Hirou kami Ari Ten" (the "Bad Fortune Brings Good Fortune Exhibit"), we publicly called for artists based in the concept of using "vacant house treasures" (leftover objects) and held an artist in residence exhibit. For the third year, we plan to organize various artist in residence programs so that artists can stay, live, and work in the town throughout the year, creating conditions for the community to become familiar with the artists, and the artists with the community. And our office will be recruiting interns, with the goal of increasing our human skills and facility capability as a center that can support the creation of points of contact between artists and society. Continuing from FY2022, we are using vacant houses and shops as venues, supplying vacant house treasures as raw materials for free, and managing areas flexibly, with examples like keeping venues open 24 hours a day with security cameras in place.
Location / Environment	Located in Tatsuno Town, Kamiina District, right in the middle of Nagano Prefecture. We make gallery space out of vacant houses and shops in the Shimotatsuno Shopping Avenue (Tobichi Shopping Avenue), which is within walking distance from JR Tatsuno Station.
Contact	MARU to Edit,inc. STUDIO River, 1705-1 Tatsuno, Tatsuno Machi, Kamiina Gun, Nagano 399-0421 JAPAN TEL: 0266-88-9198 E-mail: revision@maruto.or.jp Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/tobichi_art/ Contact: Kota Akahane, Ayako Yoshida