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Roundtable with Kinji Akagawa and Noboru Hidano

October 3, 2014

Noboru Hidano and Emeritus faculty Kinji Akagawa recently gave a roundtable meeting at MFA program. 

Kinji Akagawa is an American sculptor and arts educator best known for sculptural constructions that also serve a practical function. A pioneer in the public art movement, Akagawa has throughout his career examined the relationship between art and community, most notably the concept of art as a process of inquiry. His sculpture and public artworks are noted for their refined elegance and use of natural materials, such as granite, basalt, fieldstone, cedar, and ipe wood.

Akagawa’s work is exhibited nationally and internationally and is found in numerous public and private collections, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City; and the Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Notable public artworks include “Peace Garden Bridge,” (2009) a collaboration with American architect Jerry Allan, in the Lyndale Park Peace Garden, Minneapolis; “Garden Seating, Thinking, Reading” (1987) in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden;[3] and “Bayou Sculpture” (1985), Houston, Texas.

Akagawa’s awards and recognitions include the McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist Award (2007); Minnesota State Arts Board cultural collaborations grant (1995); Carnegie Mellon Foundation faculty enrichment grant (1984); McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship (1983); Bush Foundation Fellowship (1982); and a Ford Foundation Fellowship (1965).

Noboru Hidano is director of Hidano Laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology. This groundbreaking program explores the intersection of Humanities, Social Sciences and engineering. An international expert and author in the field of hedonic economics, Hidano was awarded the Prize for Science and Technology in Japan. Over the past several years he has also been instrumental in bringing together artists and engineers in an annual art and technology conference at Tokyo Tech. Recent participants in this creative mash-up include MCAD alumni Rob Fisher, Santiago Cucullu and Aaron VanDyke as well as Emeritus faculty Kinji Akagawa. This year’s program, “Close Your Eyes Gently” features Latin sound, Performance and Dance projects.