Naoshima island

Benesse Art Site Naoshima is the collective name for art activities conducted by Benesse Holdings, Inc. and Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation on the islands of Naoshima, Teshima, and Inujima in the Seto Inland Sea.
In addition to collecting art works, Benesse Art Site Naoshima provides artists and architects with opportunities to create and exhibit original works at various locations throughout the islands, thus enabling visitors to experience the very finest modern art. Our fundamental aim is to create special places by situating modern art and architecture within the nature and the unique culture of the Seto Inland Sea, a landscape with a powerful cultural and historical resonance.
Through contact with artworks and with the nature, scenery and people of the Seto Inland Sea region, we seek to inspire visitors to consider the meaning of Benesse - Living well. In continuing our activities, we are attempting to build a relationship of mutual growth between art and the region that provides it with a setting, in order to make a positive contribution to the local community.
In 1985, Tetsuhiko Fukutake, the founder of Fukutake Publishing Co., Ltd. (now Benesse Corporation), who nurtured a dream of creating an area where children from around the world could gather on an island in the Seto Inland Sea, came together with Chikatsugu Miyake, then mayor of Naoshima, whose own dream was to develop the south side of Naoshima as a pristine and educational cultural area. These two men formed a mutual agreement to develop Naoshima. Activities commenced with a trial camp for children, operated by employees of Fukutake Publishing.

TO READ (french)
NAOSHIMA
THE SITE
THE NAOSHIMA SITE