Program Officer

Program officers are professional art project practitioners who work alongside NPOs

Reina Ashibe

Working closely with front-line staff to provide support

The role of a program officer in the Tokyo Artpoint Project is to serve as the link between NPOs and Tokyo Metropolitan Government. We also provide support in various situations to enable the NPOs actually implementing art projects in their neighborhood to carry out their activities smoothly.

This year, I’m coordinating four projects; the nature of their activities varies, as do the skills of the NPOs running them. To share the knowledge you’ve gained from various front-line activities, you have to communicate closely with the NPOs. I take care to ensure that I provide the support they need when they need it at every stage, from putting together a plan to assembling the structures they need to implement it. I do my utmost to create an environment that enables the people from the NPOs to act freely. I used to work on the front line in the arts, so I want to work closely with front-line staff to support them, never forgetting my own struggles when I was in their position.

What I find interesting about art projects is the ongoing process of examining the meaning of these activities for society and the questions that they pose. There are so many things that you only realize once you look back afterwards. This accumulated experience gives me insight from many different perspectives now. Art projects haven’t yet gained widespread traction, but I think that activities that use art to uncover value in our everyday milieu and forge bonds between people will take on growing importance in our society in the years to come. I want to use the Tokyo Artpoint Project as a whole to examine approaches to art projects capable of securing the involvement of a more diverse array of people.