APK STUDIES
The Toda Corporation, headquartered in the Toda Building, is launching APK Studies, a learning program designed to nurture creativity essential for the self, with the goal of forming a new art-based community.
APK Studies is a program that takes art as a starting point for exploring various creative practices, with the goal of sparking interest and deepening awareness of issues among participants. Its target participants include creators seeking to collaborate, curators and coordinators interested in planning and implementing community-based creative activities, and office workers keen on enhancing their understanding of relationships between art and society. Sessions are scheduled for weekday evenings to accommodate work schedules.
We are pleased to welcome the independent curator Aoki Akira as facilitator of the program, which will be launched in 2025. The program will aim to reinterpret and reconstruct relationships between the self and society for better living.
Details on recruitment of the first cohort of members will be announced in conjunction with the opening of the Toda Building. Acceptance of applications is scheduled to begin in February 2025.
All sessions will only be offered in Japanese.
Facilitator
AOKI Akira
Independent curator
Aoki Akira (b. 1989 in Tokyo) is the director of Gate Inc. and New Machizukuri-sha. He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Department of Industrial Arts. Aoki perceives art as a form of “ingenuity for better living,” and has organized a wide range of art projects in partnership with artists, corporations, and local governments. His notable past activities include serving as assistant curator for Koganecho Bazaar 2017: “Double Façade – Multiple ways to encounter the Other” (Yokohama City, 2017), director for “Fantasia! Fantasia!: A community where lifestyles are made real” (Tokyo, from 2018 onward), and guest curator for KAC Curatorial Research Program vol. 01: “Landscape for Wavering” (Kyoto Art Center, 2019). He is the author and editor of Su ga deru workshop [Workshops That Reveal One’s True Nature] (Gakugei Publishing).
Facilitator’s Message
At APK Studies, our goal is to delve into diverse creative possibilities not only in the arts, but also across fields such as welfare , education, community development, and business. We aim to offer a learning environment where members and guests with diverse specialties, interests, and backgrounds can learn from each other and exchange insights. This approach enables participants to design projects they are truly passionate about, potentially laying the groundwork for positive social change.
The APK Studies logo symbolizes a cloud of ideas and feelings still waiting to be articulated, hovering above a yellow square spread out like a picnic blanket. This logo embodies the hope of cultivating a collaborative space and nurturing new forms of expression.
Participation in APK Studies does not require expertise in art. Every individual’s daily life, work, and passions harbor the seeds of immense creativity. Through this project, we aim to explore the possibilities of such creativity with a diverse array of participants.
AOKI Akira
Facilitator