The “Why Do People Paint?” exhibition features seven artists who emerged from a pioneering art program at a residential care facility for people with intellectual disabilities in Kyoto. It is the fifth ever exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno. The museum is just over one year old, having opened on March 1st 2025. The exhibition starts on Saturday September 12th, 2026 at the Nordic lifestyle experience facility in Metsa. It follows the Characters are Words, Whispering Garden, Ships Cat Island and Kawaiitopia exhibitions. It runs until public holiday Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026.
Hyper Museum Hanno
The Hyper Museum Hanno combines nature and digital and character art. It aims to enrich people’s lives through the experience of the Scandinavian lifestyle. At the museum you can experience cutting edge digital art coupled with nature. They have indoor and outdoor art installations. The director of the museum is Shigeo Goto, a professor at the Graduate School of Kyoto University of Arts who is also an editor, creative director, and art producer. The “hyper” museum aims to bring out the further potential of artists and artworks and go beyond traditional art museums, combining “nature and digital” and “character art” to create new cultural value.
Why Do People Paint? Exhibition
The “Why Do People Paint?” exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno brings together 168 works by seven artists who emerged from the Mizunoki painting class, a pioneering art program directed by Japanese painter Shuichi Nishigaki. Their paintings, selected from a vast archive of around 20,000 works, highlight the raw, intuitive energy of Art Brut. The show also includes digital archives, historical materials, and a charming animated film, Mizunoki Zoo, offering visitors a vivid look into the artists’ creative worlds and the facility’s long legacy of color education and expressive freedom.
Alongside the paintings, the exhibition features a digital archive corner, historical documents, and Mizunoki Zoo, an animated film inspired by animal artworks found in the museum’s storage. Visitors can also join a free coloring workshop and browse original goods based on Mizunoki motifs. Altogether, the exhibition offers a gentle, powerful look at how creativity emerges when individuals are given space, support, and the freedom to express their inner worlds.
Information
Event: Why Do People Paint? Exhibition なぜ人は絵を描くのだろう
Date: from Saturday September 12th to public holiday Tuesday November 3rd, 2026.
Time: from 10 am to 5 pm, last entry at 4.30 pm
Cost: 600 yen for adults, 400 yen for children. 100 yen cheaper if you buy in advance online. Tickets on Artsticker, which also has detailed information about the exhibition in English. They can also be purchased at 7-11, Asoview and Lawson. Information and links to those included on the official event page linked at the bottom of the post.
Venue: Hyper Museum Hanno, 327-6 Miyazawa, Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture, 〒357-0001.
Access: Located in Metsa Village – access information in English:
when did cats start going into space, and why have I never heard about it?????