Over half a century has passed since Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs launched the Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists (formerly the Overseas Study Program for Artists) in 1967 to nurture talent that would take the Japanese arts sector into a new century. To date almost 1500 participants have benefited from the Program in the fine arts category, and for 25 years starting in 1997 the annual “Domani: The Art of Tomorrow” exhibitions gave these artists the opportunity to present the outcome of their studies.

For the first few years the Domani exhibitions were held at the Seiji Togo Memorial Yasuda Kasai Museum of Art (now the SOMPO Museum of Art) in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. With the eleventh exhibition, in 2008, Domani shifted to the National Art Center, Tokyo, opened in Roppongi the previous year, where it came to fulfil its potential as a true showcase for “upcoming” artists, in keeping with the new venue’s soaring gallery spaces. In a separate initiative, from 2014 “Domani: The Art of Tomorrow plus” exhibitions were added to the main Domani shows in an attempt to present work by artists of all different ages, on specific themes, in relatively small spaces different to those at NACT, including Arts Chiyoda 3331 in 2015, the Kyoto Art Center in 2016, and Hibiya Library and Museum in 2017.

The past quarter of the century has seen a changing of the guard among the exhibiting artists, and confronting social and natural challenges both in Japan and elsewhere, including the 9/11 attacks, GFC, Tohoku quake and tsunami, and the Covid-19 pandemic. During this period there has also been huge growth in the number of Japanese museums and international arts festivals dealing with contemporary art, and we have been proud to watch many of our OSP alumni go on to thrive in these settings. In 2020, when the pandemic forced cancellation of countless art exhibitions and festivals both here and overseas from early in the year, by July we had unveiled the online exhibition “Domani plus Online 2020: Living on the Eve.” This was followed in January 2021 by the IRL Domani 23 back at the National Art Center, Tokyo. The following year Domani 24 was staged in provincial centers in partnership with five different venues, before the 25th and final Domani broke the previous attendance record for the show, attracting close to 23,000 visitors. The pandemic undoubtedly delivered a serious blow to the arts sector, but this exhibition demonstrated that following disaster both artists and audiences could bounce back more resilent than ever.

The 25th “Domani: The Art of Tomorrow” was the last actual exhibition, but the exhibition website has now been rearranged as an archive of the 25 exhibitions and total of 288 participating artists. It is our hope that it will serve as a directory of the artists who will take Japan’s “tomorrow” into the future, and a tool to entice and inspire later generations of OSP participants.*

Last but not least, allow us to express our gratitude to everyone involved directly or indirectly in staging the Domani exhibitions, and wish them all the very best in all their future endeavors.