Open Call for Curator Residency Program 2026

They provide financial support to allow curators to develop and present their research and ideas. Selected curators are required to give mentoring sessions to local emerging creators, and deliver a public talk.

Target Areas

• This program is aimed at those curators:
  • Who are eager to exchange with local emerging creators
  • Who are willing to conduct new research in Tokyo
  • Who practice in any of the following cultural/artistic fields: curation, art criticism and cultural research

Benefits

• Living space (single room)
• Airfare: A round-trip economy-class air ticket between the nearest airport from the place of residence and Tokyo (either Narita or Haneda Airport) will be provided
• Fee for research/project: JPY 100,000 (consumption tax excluded)

Requirements/Conditions

• Able to stay consecutively at TOKAS Residency during the proposed residency period.
• Shall present their research at a public talk event and submit a comprehensive report on the proposed project.
• Give mentoring sessions to local emerging creators, participate in talk events if asked by TOKAS, and cooperate with its public relations activity.
• Do not carry out any commercial or profitable activities throughout the residency period.
• Do not conduct any activities that would make big noise or vibration in TOKAS Residency.
• The accommodation is provided for the participating curator only. Family members, partners, friends or guests are not permitted to stay at TOKAS Residency.

Eligibility Requirements

• Resides outside of Japan
• Has 3 years or more of experience in his/her specialized area of expertise
• Has sufficient ability to communicate in English with other residing creators and TOKAS staff for mutual understanding
• Independent and capable of working and living on his/her own
• Curators working as a duo are ineligible

Ineligibility Criteria

• Students are ineligible (except for Ph.D. candidates).

Application Requirements

• Application Form 1 and 2 (.pdf file): have to be filled in English.
• Two letters of recommendation (.pdf file): have to be prepared by two different referees in Application Form 2) from art and cultural institutions, related educational organizations, or professionals specialized in the fields of art and culture.
  • Letters must include signatures of the referees and the date of issue, written in either Japanese or English in A4 format.
  • Digital signature as well as hand-written signature will be accepted.
• Portfolio Your portfolio should be no longer than 6 pages (A4 Landscape), including summaries of past activities, images of past projects, and links of videos or sounds.
• Please save it as one PDF file.
  • The size of the portfolio file must be no larger than 10MB.
  • Please refer to Manual (.pdf file) for the details of instruction.
  • Please name the portfolio file as follows: Portfolio_YourNAME.pdf.

For more information, visit Tokyo Arts and Space.