Every year, the executive committee of the Kyoto Art Festival department together with the Kyoto City International Foundation hold a show at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art Annex as part of the larger Kyoto Art Festival which has been running for thirty years.

Support is provided by the Kyoto prefecture, Kyoto City, the Kyoto prefectural international centre, the Kyoto office of the Japan Foundation, the consulate general of China, the Finnish Institute in Japan, Mainichi Newspapers, the Kyoto Shimbun (another newspaper company), and the Kyoto Broadcasting System (KBS). The number of countries that participants originated from is increasing, and non-Japanese participants include residents of Kyoto, other areas of Japan, as well as other countries. Many of the participating artists have won awards in other domestic or international shows.

The number of participating galleries is also increasing. More and more of the art community is getting involved.

And as you can see, the group also publishes a small catalogue that is given free to all visitors. Each artist submits a photo of either the piece of artwork that they will have in that year’s exhibition or a representative piece if they have not yet finished or decided which piece they will show. Some of the local Japanese artists who help organize the show also act as volunteers to make the catalogue. Nobody has made an official website yet, so I document the event as best as I can in English, not Japanese, here and on Facebook. For a group of people who are also busy working to earn money, making art, and promoting themselves/shows, this is a lot of work. Please do not forget this is volunteer-run and to show them some love. They truly appreciate all the help and smiles they can get.