Logo of the 6th International Conference of Museums for Peace.

The pink and blue butterfly-like figure printed on the title page is the official logo of the 6th International Conference of Museums for Peace being held in October 2008 in Japan. The Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto university of Art and Design, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Tohoku University of Art and Design and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University are the organizers of this conference. The organizing committee had requested the Kyoto University of Art and Design and Tohoku University of Art and Design to select the conference logo out of the works invited from art students.

The logo printed on the title page of this book is the grand prix selected by the nomination committee from 38 entries. The designer of this logo is Mr Yusuke Saito from Tohoku University of Art and Design, who intended to express through the overlapping pink and blue feathery, heart-shaped objects that peace can not be achieved by an individual but by cooperation among individuals with different sense of values, and that peace is something fragile which must be cultivated carefully with love. He chose blue as a symbol of earth, and pink as a symbol of love and friendship. He also hoped to express gradual and steady spread of a peace wave by the gradations of pink and blue.

Discussion about a logo for INMP began shortly after the network was created. INMP newsletters in 1993 show several designs, including one from Leonhard Wechs of the Lindau Peace Museum.

Others were provided by Hans Schenk, Wolfsegg artist and friend of Franz Deutsch, founder of the first Austrian peace museum (see right).

Hans Schenk’s beautiful design on the cover of the ‘Ein Friedensmuseum’ catalogue was inspired by the preamble to the Unesco Constitution: “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”.

The 2008 conference took place again in Japan, ten years after the previous conference held there. This time, the venues were Kyoto and Hiroshima, and the conference theme was ‘Peace museums as spaces for creating peace: Building “peace literacy” for global problem-solving’.

The conference was organised mainly by the Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan University, again on the initiative of Professor Ikuro Anzai who was also chair of the organizing committee. The conference was held in partnership with Kyoto University of Art and Design; Tohoku University of Art and Design; Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University; and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. In the latter museum, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba addressed participants during the last day of the conference.

Among the publications prepared for the 6^th conference was a new, updated and expanded directory, Museums for Peace Worldwide, edited by Kazuyo Yamane, as well as Museums for Peace: Past, Present and Future, a volume of essays – the first of its kind – edited by Ikuro Anzai, Joyce Apsel and Syed Sikander Mehdi. Both volumes were published under the auspices of the Organizing Committee of the 6th Conference by the Kyoto Museum for World Peace.

Relevant documents:
2008 Museums for Peace Worldwide – Kazuyo Yamane (Ed.) (PDF, 2MB)