Niigata City Niitsu Art Museum, Art museum in Akiha-ku, Japan.
Niigata City Niitsu Art Museum opened in 1997 in Akiha-ku, Niigata, within Hana to Iseki no Furusato Park. Its front entrance is modelled on a rotary snowplow, a nod to Niitsu's railway history, and the lobby atrium has a stepped white marble terrace that also appears in the museum's logo. Two second-floor galleries have 10-metre ceilings.
Niitsu City built the museum, which opened on 1 October 1997 as Niitsu City Art Museum, run by the Niitsu City Cultural Promotion Foundation. When Niitsu merged into Niigata on 21 March 2005, the name changed to Niigata City Niitsu Art Museum, and the city has managed it directly since 1 April 2006. It was certified as a museum-equivalent facility on 25 May 2011.
The museum holds about 450 works, centred on Western-style paintings by Sasaoka Ryoichi, a native of the former Kanazu village where the museum now stands. The permanent corner shows around ten pieces at a time, rehung about four times a year under changing themes. Temporary exhibitions range from contemporary art and photography to picture books, manga and animation.
The museum is most easily reached by car, roughly 20 minutes from Niitsu Interchange on the Ban-Etsu Expressway. Advance arrangements can be made for child supervision services if needed during your visit.
The museum sits within a larger cultural complex that also includes a botanical garden and an ancient burial mound site. This arrangement allows visitors to explore art and history in the same location.
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