Akeo ADACHI Adviser

Born in 1934 in Yamaguchi, Japan.
After graduating Yanai High School, Akeo attended Yamaguchi University’s Department of Education, where he studied school education and received First Class Teacher Certificate (art, english) for junior high school and Second Class Teacher Certificate (art, english) for high school. During his student years, together with underclass and fellow students, he formed a visual art education research group which intended to investigate the methods to incorporate the audio-visual materials, that became available for use at the time such as film and slides, into the education of pedagogy, psychology, and aesthetics.

After completing his study, Akeo chose to begin his teaching career in a remote place so as to grasp the fundamentals of education, and became a teacher at Yashima Elementary and Junior High School (currently closed down) in Kaminoseki. Following the teaching years at Yanai Junior High School, he transferred to Yamaguchi Junior High School affiliated with the Faculty of Education in Yamaguchi University. In addition to teaching art and also being in charge of his own class at each school, he served as a manager for afterschool extracurricular activities such as art and marathon clubs. He also helped The National Formative Education Union, a research team dedicated to promote art education in Japan, with clerical duties.

In 1973, Akeo appointed as one of the founding members to work towards the opening of Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, being instrumental in building the concept, choosing the architect and selecting artworks for the permanent collection. After getting trained at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, he served as a chief to lead the department of the arts and sciences at Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art since its opening in 1979, and held the additional post of assistant director from 1989. He has organized exhibitions themed around the Yamaguchi’s local colorings, placed in even wider historical context, while taking into account how the ideal form of modern art museum in the provinces should be. He is also the curator of “Historic Relics of Shandong Providence – The Course of Civilization Along The Great Yellow River (Huang He)”(1986) and “The Treasures of British Museum – Art and Man”(1991).

From 1991 he contributed to the foundation of Yamaguchi Prefectural Hagi Museum, and was appointed as a museum director in 1996 when the museum opened. While he was engaged in serving as the director, he was often present at the exhibition sites to tell the visitors the joy of appreciating the artworks and actively involved in creating the sites open for discussion.

After helping the founding of Hagi Museum’s Pottery Annex, Akeo took up an appointment as a director at YCAM in April 2007. He participates in various events and meetings in and outside of YCAM to make an appeal of the Center, and also plays the role as a mental counselor to the team of staff. From his desk, he sends power to the staff who are always hectically bustling around, with a hope that each of them would be able to find motivation from the bottom up and encourage each other to cultivate their talents.