Exhibiting Japan in Mid-Century New York By Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in NY

03/30/26

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• Exhibiting Japan in Mid-Century New York By Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in NY

  ■ Monday, March 30 6:00-8:00 PM
  ■ Japan American Association of New York
  49 W 45th St, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036

  Overview
  Come learn about Japan & their pavilions at the 1939-40 and 1965-6World’s Fairs in this lecture and Q&A session with Dr. Angus Lockyer.

  This event is hybrid!

  Register for in person (by March 27)
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exhibiting-japan-in-mid-century-new-york-tickets-1983274499416

  Register for Zoom attendance here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/pyeGqhD2TmmnqDPQpmL8tQ

  Japan’s participation in New York’s two world’s fairs came in the middle of a century and a half of enthusiasm for expos, which continues today. In both 1939-40 and 1964-65, the Japanese pavilions and exhibits drew on this long experience. They combined traditional culture and modern achievement to appeal to Western audiences, while also trying to answer the diplomatic needs of two very different moments in Japan’s relationship with the West. They were only one of many attractions on site, however, while Flushing Meadows itself was one of many ways the city was trying to keep up with the times. This talk will set the Japanese exhibits in New York in their context, showing how the government, exhibitors, and community tried to use the fair to navigate a turbulent century.

  Angus Lockyer taught Japanese, East Asian, and global history at SOAS University of London, where he also collaborated on a number of projects with colleagues at the British Museum. He is the author of Exhibitionist Japan: The Spectacle of Modern Development (Cambridge, 2025) and Japan: A History in Objects (Thames and Hudson, 2026). He currently teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.

  Exhibitions and public lecture programs at the Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in New York are made possible, in part, by the U.S.-Japan Foundation, the Japan World Exposition 1970 Commemorative Fund (JEC Fund), and the SMBC Global Foundation.

  Light refreshments will be provided.