Name : Public Interest Incorporated Association｜NIKA ASSOCIATION｜

　Founded : 1914

　Established : April 1, 2012
　 (Transfer Registered as a Public Interest Incorporated Association from General Incorporated Association)

　President : Junichi Ubukata

　Executive Office : Reiflat Shinjuku Bldg. 501, 4-3-15　Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku ,Tokyo 160-0022 Japan
　　　　　　　　 　 Tel.03-3354-6646　Fax.03-3354-4768　E-mail : nika@nika.or.jp

As evidenced by our long history since our founding, each division of the Nika Association possesses a uniform traditional spirit and comprehensive recognition for the current area. Without focusing exclusively on a single area, our philosophy is to constantly pursue the creation of new value in expression. Accordingly, we advocate the freedom of all our members in creation and respect their individuality. Regardless of their art style, creator of new value will be selected and treated favorably. In this way, the Nika Association holds unwavering commitment and principles towards efforts for cultivating art.

　About the Nika Association

　In 1889, the Meiji Art Association was founded as Japan’s first art association of western paintings. Seven years later in 1896, a faculty for western paintings was opened at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. This was the dawn of the western art age in Japan. During that period, in conjunction with the return of budding Japanese artists who had been studying abroad in France, a conflict arose between the contemporary school and classical school at the time of judging at the art exhibition held by the Ministry of Education. Accordingly, we requested the government to separate the contemporary school and classical school into different divisions, but the government rejected the request because they thought it was still too early.
　Therefore, in 1914, rising artists founded the Nika Association as an independent art organization with the aim of promoting contemporary art, in response to the western art division of the art exhibition held by the Ministry of Education. We have been making progress over almost 100 years while adhering to our purpose, which is “to make selections regardless of our art style while advocating the artists’ creative freedom and respecting new value.” Since then, the Nika Association has constantly absorbed new trends and has fostered many well-known artists since our dawn.
　Currently, we hold the Nika Art Exhibition with 4 divisions: paintings, sculpture, design, and photography. The paintings and sculpture divisions were incorporated in 1979 and the Nika Association was established as an incorporated association. In 2007, we changed our venue from the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno to The National Art Center in Roppongi and we continued our progress.
　Furthermore, the Nika Association has been widely contributing to society through the annual exhibition, etc. after being acknowledged as a public interest incorporated association in 2012.
　In the spring, we hold a spring exhibition, which is an opportunity aimed at nurturing rising artists and exhibiting the members’ experimental works at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno. At the Nika Art Exhibition held in the fall, a large number of art works gathered from every corner of Japan are juried and exhibited, and official and fellow members exhibit excellent art works accomplished through ceaseless efforts. Moreover, after the Tokyo exhibition, several travelling exhibitions in major cities.