【Bur@rt Diary】New Year's Greeting — Looking Forward to 2020

Happy New Year.

We look forward to your continued support this year.
This is a special edition of our Diary, published every year on New Year’s Day at the very start of the year. Please read it whenever you have some free time.

2019

Time flies, and 2019 passed by in the blink of an eye.
Our site “art on — art on” entered its third year of operation thanks to your support, and it has been a powered-up year, with a wide variety of projects developed both online and offline. Growth in access data was gratifying, but what made me happiest of all this year was the direct, positive feedback and reactions from all of you. Thank you very much.

What We Achieved

Looking back on the year, I have organized the new things I was able to take on.

“What We Achieved in 2019“ — I would like to make this report.

1. Held a collectors’ exhibition
2. Made more collector friends
3. Rented a storage warehouse
4. Launched a collector-visit article series
5. Contributed to magazines
6. Received press invitations from overseas art fairs
7. Migrated the site to https

Seven items in total.
1. Held a collectors’ exhibition was a goal I set at the start of 2019, so being able to follow through gave me a real sense of accomplishment.

“You Can Buy It! Art Collectors’ Exhibition — Collectors’ Collective (CoreCore-ten)” was well received and drew many visitors. I would like to thank my fellow collectors HIRO and Maseki, and gallery owner Takano. I will summarize the CoreCore exhibition in a separate article. The show runs through January 12, so please come by. Plenty of good works are still available (as of today).

2. Collector friends increased dramatically over the year. Every time we held an event such as a mixer, more friends joined, and the year-end party we held counted 25 participants. It also meant a great deal that Director Ashikawa of WAITINGROOM introduced me to a wonderful collector in the spring. I am truly grateful.

Also, since 3. renting the warehouse, I have felt a certain peace of mind. Works that had covered the walls could be organized, and I got to enjoy the fun of rehanging. I also feel I now have the physical room to welcome in larger works.

4. The collector-visit articles have so far been limited to two published pieces, but they have become extremely popular content with impressive view counts. A similar project runs as a serial in the magazine “Art Collectors,” but its condition seems to be that names are printed in full. Our site would like to run these features anonymously as well. Because I want to lower the threshold for collecting, I also want to feature not only big collectors but young collectors who are relatively new to it.

5. Contributing to magazines was also a first-time experience. In the “Print Special” of Art Collectors, my piece was placed at the front of the issue. I also received an invitation from Nikkei and was published there. It seems they will pick things up whenever there is a suitable topic, but quality control on the articles is strict, and it takes more time than web writing, so efficiency does not improve. I was really impressed by how amazing magazine editors are. The work with Nikkei in particular was highly educational. After that training, my posture toward writing has changed compared to before, and I feel my awareness has been raised.
6. Press invitations from overseas art fairs also came in. Both “ART021” and “West Bund Art & Design,” held in Shanghai, welcomed us warmly.
7. Migrating the site to https is a behind-the-scenes matter of site construction. It is not something directly relevant to readers, but it is a key point that gets reflected in a site’s score card by making the site secure, and it contributed to a major boost in access numbers. Site design is something we keep improving little by little where it cannot be seen.

There were also many works we added to our collection. Thank you for the wonderful pieces.

Aspirations for 2020

I would also like to note my aspirations for 2020.
There is a mountain of things I want to try and projects I want to take on, but including continuations of projects begun last year, I want to narrow it down and move forward.
As with last year, I feel that writing it down in this space raises my awareness and brings realization closer.

The first thing I want to try in 2020 is a project or event held in a real-world space.
I have been approached with an offer of “would you like to make use of this space?” and I am thinking about how we might put the space to good use for artist exhibitions or gatherings where collectors can mingle. I would also like to try weaving music into the space.
Among collectors, quite a few people wish to try their hand at whatever they can do within the art economy. I too have long felt that I would like to run a gallery someday. I cannot start big all at once, but while checking my own position, I would like to begin with small steps.

Next, I would like to try podcasting. What I really want to make is video content, but considering the effort involved, I cannot easily take that on. It is not high priority, but as something I can do simply on my own, I have been giving it thought.

Finally, I want to start preparing for new initiatives concerning art distribution. It is something I have been vaguely considering for some time, but I believe that alternative venues for exchanging art — different from the currently fixed distribution formats and traditional systems — can indeed exist. I have not yet pinned down the shape, but while listening to various people’s opinions, I want to develop my own thinking. If I can put together a plan over this year and give it shape starting next year onward, that would be wonderful.

In Closing

I look forward to hoping that 2020 will bring new encounters through art as well.

I would like to close by wishing all our readers a rich and fruitful life in art.

*The CoreCore exhibition is open throughout the New Year holidays as well (11:00–18:00 on Jan 1–3).