Image: Towada Art Center
Towada Art Center will present a two-day TAPS event, 'Entry into the World of Masaharu Suzuki' and an introduction to TAPS initiatives, on August 11 and 12, 2026. The free program is scheduled for the museum's Citizen Activity Space in Towada, Aomori Prefecture, with hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on August 11 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on August 12.
The event is organized under TAPS, the Towada Art Center Partners membership program, which supports learning projects and exchange activities connected to the museum. According to the event page, the session is intended both to introduce TAPS' educational efforts and to create an opportunity for TAPS members to meet each other through an art-related experience.
A key part of the program is a presentation by TAPS member and guest lecturer Nobuko Ogawa, owner of the private gallery Gallery North Light in Towada. With Ogawa's cooperation, works by Masaharu Suzuki will be brought in for a temporary display. The museum says the selection will include small wood sculptures, stone sculptures and ink paintings, with some of the pieces available to touch.
Suzuki, identified on the museum page as a sculptor and painter, was born in Aomori in 1919 and died in 2008. He graduated from the mechanical department of Hirosaki Technical School, now Hirosaki Technical High School, and began submitting oil paintings and sculpture to the Japan Independent Art Exhibition from 1950 onward. The museum also notes his participation in the Iwate Town International Stone Sculpture Symposium and his exhibition 'Masaharu Suzuki / Robert Bosquet' at the Institut français de Tokyo gallery in 1995.
The page describes Gallery North Light as holding about 300 works by Suzuki and regularly exhibiting roughly 100 to 150 works, ranging from small sculptures that can fit in the palm of a hand to large ink paintings. Ogawa is also listed as a board member of the public interest foundation supporting the Takayama Uichi Museum and as a member of Towada Art Center's advisory board.
The museum's announcement says the event is a chance for visitors to learn about TAPS, whose members support learning programs for children and adults and help create opportunities to engage with contemporary art beyond standard viewing. The TAPS event 'Entry into the World of Masaharu Suzuki' and TAPS initiative introduction will run at Towada Art Center's Citizen Activity Space on August 11-12, 2026.
