Ueno is not only a place where you go to view great art. It is also a place you can study art. If you get the urge to pick up a paintbrush the “Ueno no Mori Art School”, an art school managed by the Ueno Royal Museum, may be just the right place. The school offers a variety of courses for beginners to advanced students who want to pursue art in earnest. How are the classes different from regular painting classes? We asked Miwa Sato, who is in charge of the art school, to tell us about the advantages of studying art at a museum in Ueno.
Lecturers are all active artists at this little art school tucked inside a museum
The “Ueno
no Mori Art School” is located on the third floor of the annex building
at The Ueno Royal Museum. Doors are open to everyone — even beginners who have
never held a paintbrush. All you need is the “desire to draw”.
There are roughly four kinds of courses on offer. For those who have the time, there are “Regular courses” where students take 10 to 20 classes over a six-month period; the short-term “Single classes” take place over a weekend or so; “Special courses” are offered in the spring and during the long “Golden Week” holidays; and finally, there are “Correspondence courses” too. Furthermore, the school extends their activities to provincial cities like Sendai, Kobe and Fukuoka, holding two-day local classes.
The art school opened in 1991. Initially, the Ueno Royal Museum invited award recipients from their own public exhibition, the Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition, to teach classes. The tradition is still alive. Lecturers are all active professional artists. Students get to study under the tutelage of artists young and old, with different styles and backgrounds.
Currently there are about 350 students, and that is only counting students enrolled in the regular courses. Students are not only based in Tokyo and surrounding areas. Some travel from afar, commuting from Kyushu island in the south, and the Tohoku region up north. Sato said: “We’ve been adding more classes, and as a result we are seeing a surge of enthusiastic students who want to get even better. Our lecturers are artists who are busy creating and showing their work. The art school is a place buzzing with artists and students who strive to express ‘these times we live in’”.
Sometimes lecturers give presentations at the art school. Lecturer Shigeru Idei talks about the Venice Biennale.Lecturer Shitsu Murayama teaches a watercolor painting course.
How about sketching at the Ueno Zoo, or painting on an over-sized canvas? There are classes for that, too.
Classes at the “Ueno no Mori Art School” provide lots of hours for actual painting. There are even classes that start in the morning and go on throughout the afternoon. When you see students tackling huge canvases measuring over 1600 mm in height, you might feel as if you have just walked into a painter’s studio.
Another special feature is the wide variety of options that the
curriculum offers: oil painting, drawing, acrylic painting, watercolor painting,
Japanese style painting, and even fountain pen painting.
The “Single classes” are chock-full of options aimed to improve specific techniques. There is a class that targets work on the base coat, indispensable for painting. The “Focus on croquis drawings!” class is perfect if you want to brush up your sketching skills. Starting April 2020, the school will be offering a new series of once-a-month classes called “Once-a-month classes for adults”. The syllabus contains unique activities fitting for an art school located in Ueno Park. For example, students can look forward to sketching animals at the Ueno Zoo.
Sato said: “We talk over the curriculum with our lecturers and do our best to expand the joy of art. Sometimes we hear positive comments from our students, such as, ‘I am exploring new fields that I wasn’t interested in before’ or ‘I am discovering new ways to look at pictures’. For example, an oil painting class might devote some time to drawing or studying composition. The extra knowledge and experience not only help improve your technique, but they actually help you develop a broader scope for art appreciation.”
Miwa Sato is in charge of the art school. She is also taking fountain pen painting classes.The school will store students’ unfinished work. Many students sign up for consecutive courses.A bunch of well-worn easels. Art school students can learn how to use art supplies and get to hear about new products.
See your own work get exhibited at a museum!
The “Atelier Exhibition” held in February 2020. Every piece submitted got a place on the wall.
One of the major attractions of the art school is that you get an opportunity to show your work. One event the students especially look forward to is the “Atelier Exhibition”. Every student who enrolled in a course during the year, including those who took part in local classes held in other parts of Japan, is eligible to submit their work — and every piece will be exhibited at the Ueno Royal Museum.
Sato said: “For the 2020 Atelier Exhibition, 205 people submitted their work. A total of 275 works was shown. Prizes are awarded to distinguished pieces. That definitely boosts the students’ motivation. It is a great opportunity to see your own art hanging on the wall at a museum that hosts exhibitions celebrating great masters like Johannes Vermeer and Vincent van Gogh. And your work will be seen by a lot of people. That is something unique that our school can offer.”
If you feel you are ready for the next step, you can choose to take
part in a general exhibition. The Ueno Royal Museum holds two public exhibitions,
the “Japanese Nature Painting Exhibition” and the “Ueno Royal Museum Grand
Prize Exhibition”. More and more students are submitting their work they
created at the art school.
The Ueno Royal Museum is not just a space that shows works of famous artists. Through its art school the museum endeavors to create a comfortable environment to nurture current artists and budding amateur art connoisseurs, and lend support to their growth. It is indeed a museum that is living in this moment to create “Art of our time”. It is all about artists “of our time” creating new art.
Distinguished work shown at the “Atelier Exhibition” are awarded prizes named after lecturers and art supply companies (sponsors).A signboard at the main entrance announcing the “Atelier Exhibition”
