Art Center Ongoing

News

2020.05.15

New Launch of Ongoing Stamp Card Drawing Project

As the name “Art Center Ongoing” suggests, it has kept on-going since its opening on January 26, 2008. For more than 12 years without a break (except for the Bon and New Year’s holidays), we have been holding exhibition every two week. More than 300 exhibitions have been organized so far, and a total of more than 500 artists have continued to pursue their beliefs in the new and unorthodox artistic expression in this small experimental space.

In spring of 2020, however, the novel coronavirus has spread all over the world and forcibly brought the changes to people’s business and life in a flash. Our space of art experiment is not an exception, and it is closed now as well. To protect the freedom of expression and speech in our space, we keep our financial independence from the government or companies, and the only source of income had been the admission fees for the exhibitions and events and the money from the foods and drinks from the café. This situation where we are forced to stop its operation means that were going out of business. Even if we are able to reopen in the future, it is expected to be very difficult to maintain the space while preventing the spread of infection, as it will be difficult to bring the same number of people to the space as before.

However, I want to stay true to its name “Ongoing” and never stop until its very end.
In order to survive this difficult time, I decided to launch the "Ongoing Stamp Card Drawing Project".

In this project, we sell stamp cards (loyalty card on which you can get stamps at Ongoing) through website. One card is 10,000 yen, and you can attend 5 events and order 10 drinks, and each time you get a stamp in a box. When all the boxes are full, you get one free drink. The card is valid through the end of February 2021.

The best part of this card is on the back side. On every card, there is a drawing of our favorite artists whom we respect. The drawings are not printed on the card, each card is a work of art, which you cannot get anywhere else in the world.

Many artists have supported Art Center Ongoing until now, and I can’t say enough thank you to those who decided to donate their drawings to help Ongoing this time again, not only from all over Japan, but also from overseas. I feel so fortunate to have good friends. Thank you so much.

One unique and exciting part of this project is that you cannot choose the artist in this project. After you make payment, you will receive one of the drawings. This may appear a strange rule, but by doing so we’d like you to be one of the collaborators of this project. Now there are 200 cards. Please look forward to receiving one of the amazing 200 cards.

Thank you for reading this long text. I believe it’s not too much to say that Art Center Ongoing has been one of the leading spaces in the independent art scene in Japan. I couldn’t be happier if you could consider purchasing the card to support what we have been doing and what we will do in the future. And please come visit us with this card once it reopens. I truly look forward to seeing you in person at Art Center Ongoing.

Director of Art Center Ongoing / Nozomu Ogawa

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Project Details

200 cards are available for Ongoing Stamp Card Drawing Project. You can purchase as many cards as you like. One card (10,000 yen) comes with an artist’s drawing on the back, 5 events admission and 10 drinks (plus 1 free drink when you get full stamps on the card) at Art Center Ongoing.

How to purchase

Please send us an email to info@ongoing.jp.
Please write "Ongoing Stamp Card Drawing Project" in the subject.
Let us know of your name, shipping address, contact information and how many cards you’d like to purchase. We will get back to you with the payment details.
The shipping cost will be added to the total cost. It may take longer days to deliver to some of the countries than usual due to the virus situation.
＊Please note that you cannot choose by the artist.