Juso Art Festival is currently seeking one or several visual artists who has an artwork in Brooklyn NY, USA, as a guest participant in the coming Juso Art Festival 2024, to be held from November 23, 2024 to December 1, 2024, in Juso area of Osaka, Japan.

Juso Art Festival 2024 is planning to include works of one or several artists whose artworks are exhibited in Brooklyn, as a special guest category. As long as it is in Brooklyn, exhibition location need not be just galleries and museums, but also it can be in any kind of local business, residence or streets, such as inside a cafe, a book store, a barber, a friend’s house, your own apartment room, or exterior street mural.

Juso , 十三, is pronounced more like “jyusou”

In kanji, 十三 means thirteen in Japanese.

“Juso area” is not clearly officially delineated like Brooklyn or Queens.

It is roughly considered a walking distance neighbor around Juso station of Hankyu rail.

Many long time residents of Juso noticed similarity of their neighbor to Brooklyn.

Since 2004, a non profit organization Yodogawa Art Net has been organizing events named Juso Art Festival, every November. Artists from all over Japan exhibit their art works in various places within Juso area of Osaka. Locations to exhibit art works range from local resident’s houses and local businesses such as a bookstore, a cafe, an ice cream store, a movie theater, a local art instructor’s classrooms. It is an event that aims to facilitate communications and connections between residents and local businesses of Juso, and artists from all over Japan. Participating artists range from experienced high profile artists to younger aspiring artists.

Juso (pronounced jyusou) is very similar to Brooklyn. Juso is a tight-knit residential community just across the river from Umeda, a commercial hub of Osaka with many high rise buildings. Artists with avant-garde, intellectual, underground, hipster ideas tend to live in Juso, rather than in mainstream areas of Osaka. Juso also has a lot of street murals painted by local and global artists.

Juso aims to expand its connection globally. 2024 is the first year that Juso Art festival is actively recruiting possible guest participants from abroad. It aims to start including websites and Instagram posts using globally used languages such as English.

Residents of Juso like to promote their neighbor as “Brooklyn of Osaka” to attract more visitors, improve their visibility, and expand their creative connections globally.

Potential guest participants for Juso Art Festival 2024 from Brooklyn, can be any artist, regardless of nationality, age, qualifications, education or any other categories. Artworks to be exhibited need to be in Brooklyn, but artists need not be residents of Brooklyn.

A type of location of exhibited artworks can be a gallery, a store, a coffee shop, a bookstore, an artist’s atelier, a wall in a residence, an existing or planned new street mural, etc.

You can exhibit your art in Brooklyn from November 23 to December 1, 2024. You can tell your friends, colleagues and families to see your work there, and let them know about Juso Art Festival 2024, and let them know that you are selected as a special guest participant.

If you decide to participate in Juso Art Festival 2024 as a guest from Brooklyn, you will have exposures in printed brochure and Instagram post, as in following examples.

Artist’s name, and photo of artworks, simple description in English, with Japanese translation, will be included in printed brochure for Juso Art Festival 2024. Many of this brochure will be distributed in Juso and nearby areas in Osaka and nearby cities in Japan.

Artist’s name, photos of artworks, and artist’s Instagram account, if they have, will be posted in Instagram of Yodogawa Art Net, sometime during the festival.

Also. as an option, a video of artist’s talk, interviews, presentation, can be posted in Yodogawa Art Net’s website and Instagram account.

As an option, for the video, an artist can decide to have a live or recorded video talk, presentation and interview with Mr. Ben Ryuki Miyagi, an artist and a New York State licensed architect currently living most days in Kyoto, @architect_ben_ryuki_miyagi

Yodogawa Art Net is a non profit organization, and thus most activities are done by sheer voluntary energy of local residents and artists in and near Juso. There are no costs or fees required to participate in Juso Art Festival 2024.

Yodogawa Art Net can not pay you any money or fee, for any activities artists themselves plan to do in Brooklyn as a part of Juso Art Festival 2024.

While most locations of Juso Art festival 2023 were local businesses, some exhibition locations of Juso Art Festival 2023 were local residences of Juso. Thus, in a most simple way, an artist can decide to hung an art on a wall of their residence or a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn. Please send us photos of your art on such walls. If good enough, certainly it qualifies as a guest artist.

You can see Instagram posts, @yodogawaartnet from November 9, 2023 to November 19, 2023, to see examples of art works from Juso Art Festival 2023. They range from paintings to room installations, to murals.

Please contact Mr. Ben Ryuki Miyagi (information at the bottom). You can include your contact information, your Instagram (if you have it but not required) and some images of your art works if you already have it. If you already know the location where you intend to exhibit your art, let us know.

If your art is planned to be exhibited in a Brooklyn gallery or museum, and if you want it to be a part of Juso Art Festival 2024, please let us know the information of the gallery or museum. Upon permissions from your gallery or museum, such arrangements are possible.

You can also use this occasion to ask your local business to participate in this art festival. For example, your can ask your local coffee shop, barber, bookstore to hung your art on their wall from November 23 to December 1, 2024. Juso Art Festival can include information of such business in brochure and Instagram.

Available number of art works in Brooklyn that can be included as guest participants for Juso Art Festival 2024 are limited. There are no deadline strictly set, by which date you need to email your information to Mr. Ben Ryuki Miyagi. You can contact Mr. Ben Ryuki Miyagi anytime between now and the beginning of Juso art Festival 2024.

Once enough entries are received, guest artists might be officially chosen and entry might be officially closed at any time. Thus, it is advised you do not wait too long before submitting your information.

Selection criteria is not meant to be determining who is the best artist. This art festival is meant to be an opportunity for an artist to promote themselves globally, to facilitate communications of artists and businesses between Brooklyn and Juso Osaka. Selection will be determined based on what kind of art in what kind of location is most appropriate for this purpose.

To be considered a guest artist for Juso Art Festival 2024

November 23, 2024 to December 1, 2024, contact Ben Ryuki Miyagi (between now and November, 2024), in below:

Mr. Ben Ryuki Miyagi, artist, architect, RA, NCARB

Send email to info@bma5.com

or DM to Instagram @architect_ben_ryuki_miyagi

Please include your artist name and contact information.

Optionally, if you already have these: you can include photos of your works, your Instagram account, your website, a location where you intend to exhibit, information of such location