arts & entertainment

The 45th season of the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s International Lecture Series kicks off on November 30, 2026. This year, the series features a can’t-miss lineup of celebrated scholars, art historians, and authors, who will share their insights on the culture and history behind Japan and Japanese art. It is presented in conjunction with the touring exhibition Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print which makes its U.S. debut at VBMA from November 21, 2026, and runs through February 7, 2027. The exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

International Lecture Series speakers will provide audiences with their perspectives to help contextualize the themes of the exhibition.

Cross-Cultural Currents: Water in 19th Century Japanese, French, and
American Art
Monday, November 30, 2026, at 4:30 p.m.
Noriko Murai, Ph.D., Professor of Art History in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and the Graduate Program in Global Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

From Hokusai’s churning Great Wave to Monet’s serene Water Lilies and Homer’s dramatic seascapes, water emerged as a defining motif of the modern era. In this lecture, Dr. Noriko Murai explores the ocean as both a literal highway for cross-cultural exchange and a profound artistic symbol, examining how 19th-century artists captured water’s volatile, ever-changing fluidity as a mirror for a rapidly shifting modern world.
*Photograph provided by Noriko Murai

Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Behind the Scenes of a Celebrated Japanese Woodblock Print Series
Monday, January 11, 2027, at 4:30 p.m.
Andreas Marks, Ph.D., Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese and Korean Art and Director of the Clark Center of Japanese Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

Some of Utagawa Hiroshige’s designs in his series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo are amongst the best-known woodblock prints and have been cherished since their inception in the 1850s. Hiroshige captured 118 different scenes in the metropolis of Edo, today’s Tokyo. Focusing on the One Hundred Views, this talk by Andreas Marks will look into the complexity and mechanics of the popular print market in Japan in the 19th century.
*Photograph by Dan Dennehy

The World Within the Image
Monday, February 1, 2027, at 4:30 p.m.
Pico Iyer, best-selling author, travel writer, and journalist contributing to The New York Times, Harper’s, Time, The New York Review of Books and many others.

Trees are designated as official city guardians in Japan, emotions are kept out of public life, and even as the country is ever more modern and advanced, deep down it remains very much the world evoked by Hiroshige and Hokusai. Best-selling writer Pico Iyer will explain how the unique perspectives seen in Japanese artwork reflect the distinctive values, priorities, and beliefs of Japan’s layered and enigmatic culture. Iyer’s 39 years living around the ancient Japanese capitals of Kyoto and Nara will help shape the conversation.
*Photograph by Derek Shapton

The 2027 International Lecture Series is made possible by:

Presenting Sponsor: Harry and Virginia Van Wormer Lecture Fund

Supporting Sponsors: Kjestine and Peter Bijur, FHL Foundation, Emily and Ned Sherwood, Carolyn and William Stutt Endowment for the International Lecture Series, Caroline and Tommy Vandeventer

Patron Sponsors: Susan L. Bouma, Lisa and Willie Bullock, Kenneth W. Cunningham, Jr. Endowment Fund

Reception Sponsor: Wilmington Trust

The Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print exhibition is organized by Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, where art inspires connections. By sharing exhibitions from one of the world’s most renowned collections, the MFA brings people together all across the globe. We invite you to experience the MFA in Boston, online at mfa.org, and around the world.

Visit vbmuseum.org/international-lecture-series/ for more information and ticket prices.