Job Tours at the National Art Center, Tokyo: Behind-the-Scenes Interviews by Interns! Vol. 4　General Affairs Department: Communications and International Affairs

Tell us what kind of work you typically do in the Office of Communications and International Affairs!

At the National Art Center, Tokyo (hereafter, “NACT”), we have what are called “Special Exhibitions” and “Artist Associations’ Exhibitions.” A lot of the work we do in the Office of Communications and International Affairs involves announcing Special Exhibitions. Sometimes two Special Exhibitions will be held at the same time and sometimes just one, but two people are put in charge of each exhibition, a main and a sub. There’s also the office head above them who overlooks everything.

After it is decided when an exhibition will be held and it is announced to the world up until the day before opening, we make preparations to put out press releases on a variety of topics in line with the exhibition. Sometimes we’ll put out releases in one big batch and sometimes will issue little releases every time there’s some news the press would be interested in, such as that we’ve chosen so-and-so to be the voice guide, or how many works we will be exhibiting. This part really differs depending on the exhibition.

On the day before the opening of an exhibition, there will be a private viewing for the press. We invite members of the press and they’ll take pictures of the exhibition. We’ll also set up a space for the press to talk to the artist or exhibition supervisor. There will be a certain degree of reporting even at the stage of the press conferences held months in advance of an exhibition, but as what kind of works will be displayed or what the composition of the exhibition will be is not actually revealed, the pre-opening private viewings get a much better response.

Our everyday work involves making announcements on social networking sites. We divide up the work of creating submissions for NACT’s accounts, translating them into English, taking pictures, and editing. Once a month, we analyze the numerics in terms of the response we got to the things we posted on NACT’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts and try to utilize that in our postings from the next month on.

Much of our PR is on NACT itself, focusing not only on exhibitions but also NACT’s architecture and history. We also get requests to cooperate for stories from architectural specialty media and fashion magazines, and have even received coverage looking at NACT from the perspective of our barrier-free efforts. It’s a daily realization for us that there are a variety of ways to convey the appeals of NACT.

In addition, we lend out images of the museum’s interior and exterior for publicity purposes and proofread galley proofs sent to us by various media organizations. We also coordinate with the Suntory Museum of Art and Mori Art Museum to publish the Art Triangle Roppongi map and calendar once every six months, and are in charge of public relations regarding Roppongi Art Night held each year.

What kind of projects do you do to share the appeals of NACT?

In 2018, we started a project in which we add a “#NACTtips” hashtag to our SNS posts, something we’ve continued to implement while also incorporating ideas from interns. NACT’s architecture looks great in photographs so it tends to get focused on, but we want to convey that along with exhibitions there’s also restaurants, a shop, and a library, and that NACT is a place where you can spend the whole day, so we try to draw out that perspective.

What is something memorable you’ve done working for the Office of Communications and International Affairs?

All of our exhibitions are memorable, but the “Timeless Conversations 2020” exhibition was particularly so. I learned about it from the earliest stages and it seemed like it was going to be very interesting, so I waited with a lot of excitement. Just when we’d finished setting up everything for the exhibition, however, a declaration of a state of emergency was issued, and I remember worrying each day about whether we’d be able to hold it or not. Although we somehow managed to hold a private viewing for the press, thereafter there was no hope of the exhibition actually opening. In the end, we were able to hold it successfully after about a three-month delay, and I was very happy.

What did you study in university?

In university, I studied French and French literature. My graduation thesis was on how people viewed marriage in France. I wrote about how views on marriage changed throughout history and how religion and other factors had been involved.

Although not directly related to my major, I loved art. I attended a mission school, so our daily worship and classes on the Bible gave me an interest in Christianity and Western art.

Please share how you ended up working in an art museum!

One day, I came across a job posting from NACT’s Office of Communications and International Affairs and decided to apply because I didn’t have anything to lose. I ended up getting hired and have been working at NACT since July of 2019.

I had assumed that in order to work at an art museum, you had to have majored in art history or graduated from an art school, but while an interest in art was necessary, for a public relations position, what was more important than that kind of knowledge was practical experience in the field of PR as well as experience working overseas. Through numerous job changes, I had experience working on movie festivals, international conferences, exhibitions, and events, so I feel I had been able to learn communication skills and the process of going from nothing to something.

You worked a variety of jobs before being hired by an art museum; is there anything particularly memorable from your time before joining NACT?

The immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 is something I remember well. There was an international event based in France that was scheduled to be held in June. Despite March being when we were in the final planning stages, there was about a week where all contact just shut off. Then there was talk about radiation and then I suddenly got a message that they weren’t going to hold it in Tokyo anymore. We had also already placed orders with a lot of vendors, and it was really hard work negotiating cancellation fees and such. But the same organization returned to Tokyo in 2013 and held the event without issue. All of the members of the organizing team came up one by one and expressed their appreciation for how hard everyone had worked then. It really made me feel like we all worked toward the same goal regardless of nationality or language amid everything that went on.

Is there anything you want to do at NACT in the future?

I think this might overlap with what the work of the Office of Education and Public Programs, but I’m interested in lectures for adults. Every day I think about how I want more adults to visit art museums. It would be nice if we could leverage our location in Roppongi and hold events at times when people are coming home from work or do something like early morning lectures.

Please share a message for those looking to be interns here in the future!

I think that when engaging in specialized study in school or university, it is important that you dig deep. Specializing too much, however, can lead to tunnel vision, so it’s also important to meet up with friends who are studying something different, listen to what they have to say, and have a broader perspective.

For those who want to work in art museum, I think it’s important to visit other museums and feel things and to never forget that there are points of view different than your own so that you never lose the perspective of a museum visitor. I wish you luck.