earticle

영어

The past two or three decades have seen a series of museum transformations, one being a closer collaboration between museums and printing industries. Their growing collaboration is not only in line with media’s traditional utilization of museums as a setting easily associated with romance, mystery and adventure, but also reflects a shift of museum vision towards one emphasizing the importance of visitors and the market. This research takes Nya-eyes, a monthly comic pamphlet launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photograph in 2011, as a case study. The pamphlet is based upon the partnership among the Museum, Kodansha publishing house, and a manga artist. In the pamphlets, the museum staff, characterized as cats with rich and exaggerated personalities, show the audience the backstage stories of the Museum with absurd humor. Nya-eyes serves as a part of the Museum’s marketing strategy to increase its publicity and boost its attendance. This case echoes the global trend and discloses local and institutional characteristics. Both the continuing difficulty for museums to secure public funding and the rise of the New Museum Theories that turn the attention from collection to communication leave their imprints on contemporary museum practices. Nya-eyes is among the attempts of the struggling museums to attract their visitors and generate income. In the Japanese cultural environment, the state carries out a relatively slim role and the media companies enthusiastically play their part, which also nurtures this comic pamphlet. On the institutional level, the Museum openly advocates its transparency and market orientation. Nya-eyes is one strong example of museum practices conforming to the global trends and revealing its local and institutional situations.