Association for Corporate Support of the Arts. - Kigyo Mécénat Kyogikai

Beginning with the NAMURA ART MEETING in 2004, the facilities of the Creative Center Osaka has become a gathering place for many artists working in all varieties of genres and has given rise to works of art that could only have been created in the vast spaces that the project offers access to. Since 2009, Chishima has tried to attract artists and other figures in the art world to other properties it owns in the area, which developed into the Kitakagaya Creative Village Project, designed to function as a place for artists to live, work, and present art. Old apartment buildings, empty houses, and old shop buildings are being renovated by tenants from the art world and turned into galleries and residences. At present there are around 20 properties that serve as centers of art where young artists and creators work, not to mention the Kubire house (Creative Village house), an old row house converted into an information center. The project uses the power of art to revitalize a community that is feeling the effects of industrial decline and an aging population – a good example of community revitalization through promotion of culture.