Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts University Extension Center Community Exchange Building

Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts University Extension Center Community Exchange Building: Sixth Warehouse, Opened to the Community

The Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts University Extension Center Community Exchange Building (秋田公立美術工芸短期大学大学開放センター地域交流棟) is a single-storey timber warehouse built in 1934 in Araya Okawacho, Akita City, Akita Prefecture, and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2000.

It is the sixth from the north of the eight buildings of the Former Araya National Warehouses: timber, single storey, with a sheet-metal roof and a building area of 660 square metres. The name is the one it bore when registered; at the time of registration it was open to the public as the community building of the college's extension centre. Today the seven northern buildings are used as Atelier Momosada by Akita University of Art and Design, which opened in 2013.

Why It Was Registered

The Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts University Extension Center Community Exchange Building is registration number 05-0062, listed under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country, and was registered with the other seven buildings on 26 September 2000.

The Agency's record for this building describes how the fourth to sixth buildings were used. All three were refitted inside and opened as the extension centre's craft workshop, gallery and community building, with exhibition space, a multipurpose hall and rest areas, and hosted public lectures and hands-on classes.

What to Look For at the Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts University Extension Center Community Exchange Building

The significance here lies in the shift from a sealed rice store to a place where local people gather. The exterior matches the rest of the row; the new use was accommodated by refitting the interior.

Visiting

The Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts University Extension Center Community Exchange Building is a university building, and no official information on visiting the interior was found. Check with Akita University of Art and Design before going.

Directions, and details of the Araya Library at the southern end, which is open to the public, are on the Former Araya National Warehouses page.