IWATE, Iwate Pref. -- The town of Iwate, population 17,302, is one of the last places you'd expect to find an international art event. But though the largely rural Iwate Prefecture put itself on the art map 18 months ago, with the opening of the Iwate Museum of Art (currently hosting a Frank Stella exhibition; see review on Page 9), its namesake town this year celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Iwate Town International Stone Symposium.

The symposium was founded by local artist Taka'aki Saito, a graduate of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Geidai). Born into a wealthy family, Saito, who died in 1985, used his own money to found the symposium. With his friend Minoru Nizuma, a respected Japanese-American sculptor, he organized the first symposium in 1973. Over 30 years, 81 Japanese and 53 foreign artists visited this small town for six weeks during the summer to create a work from a boulder of locally-found black granite.

"This town calls itself a 'sculpture town,' we've made a commitment to sculpture," says Hironori Katagiri, a sculptor based here who is one of the four artists participating this year.