A Future for Memory/記憶のための未来 Art and Life After the Great East Japan Earthquake/東日本大震災後のアートと暮らし
Photo by Alina Ilyasova
Congratulations to Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日), Assistant Professor of Visual and Material Cultures of Asia, who has been awarded the 2022 Michael M. Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology for her project A Future for Memory: Art and Life after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
About the Project
Dr. Nakamura’s project explores issues of memory, materiality, public commemoration and the role of museums related to the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear event in Japan. The project is articulated through a complex suite of activity, publication, and exhibition linking to broader work such as a program to create 3D models of urban environments lost to the tsunami and the Lost and Found Project, involving family photographs which emerged in tsunami debris.
The exhibition is supported by public, academic, and school programs as well as videos and online tours in multiple languages. One of the project’s strengths is the ways in which it engages with multiple cross-cultural and cross-generational audiences. The works in the exhibition trigger memories, emotions and imagination. They serve as more than objects of memory; they remind us of the force of nature and the continuous efforts of survivors to rebuild their lives.
A Future for Memory/記憶のための未来 Art and Life After the Great East Japan Earthquake/東日本大震災後のアートと暮らし
Photo by Alina Ilyasova
In the 10th anniversary year of the Great East Japan Earthquake, 記憶のための未来 (A Future for Memory) addresses how we deal with memory when our physical surroundings are drastically altered. It focuses on the changing physical and psychological landscapes in the aftermath of 3.11 and shows that regional disasters have global relevance. Events such as 3.11 force us to rethink our ways of life in relation to nature. Even in the midst of disasters, people have the desire to create and to express themselves—as does nature.
About Dr. Nakamura
Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日) is a socio-cultural anthropologist trained at Oxford. She is cross appointed with the Department of Asian Studies as Assistant Professor and with the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) where she works as Curator, Asia. She is also an Associate Member in the Department of Anthropology. Dr. Nakamura specializes in the anthropology of art, museum studies, and material and visual culture studies. She has taught in these fields in the graduate school at the Australian National University (2007-2010) and University of Tokyo (2012-2013), and curated exhibitions internationally prior to joining UBC in 2014.
She took a leave from academia following the triple disaster in Japan in 2011 or 3.11, and was involved in relief and recovery activities in Miyagi Prefecture, and continues to do research about the aftermath of 3.11.
About the Michael M. Ames Prize
The CMA Michael M. Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology is awarded to individuals for innovative work in museum anthropology. The recipients are evaluated under criterias of Creativity, Timelessness, Depth and Impact.
