日本語

Gadago NPO Founded 2004 in Tokyo

We strive to make art and design a part of everyone's life. Our activities are bilingual, independent, neutral and non-profit.

Current Activities

Board of Directors

  • Paul Baron

    Strategy and Service Design
    In 2004, Paul co-founded tokyoartbeat.com to spread awareness of Japanese art and culture. Paul also works as a product manager and is a co-founder at creative agency AQ.

  • Tomomi Sasaki

    Strategy and Business Development
    A former editor and translator for tokyoartbeat.com, Tomomi uses multilingual digital content and service design principles to shape Gadago NPO's projects. Based in Paris, Tomomi is a partner and project director at creative agency AQ.

  • Sayo Tomita

    General Operations Manager
    Afer working in companies and art centers, Sayo now manages the staff at Gadago NPO, as well as the website and Art Map.

  • Xin Tahara

    Brand Manager

  • Chikako Yamamoto

    Communications

Members

  • William Andrews
  • Makoto Hashimoto
  • Nobuyuki Hayashi
  • Natsuki Morooka
  • Mizutori Takamitsu
  • Kazuhiro Matsuura
  • Eiko Nagase
  • Chris Palmieri
  • Emma Ota
  • Jennifer Pastore
  • Hanae Mason
  • Jérôme Sadou
  • Patrice LaFlamme
  • Jessica Howard

Organization

Our History

  1. 2003

    Frustrated by the lack of readily available bilingual information on art and design events happening in Tokyo, Paul Baron, Olivier Thereaux and Kosuke Fujitaka devise the first true exhaustive source of cultural event information in Japan.

  2. 2004

    Twenty three months later, a team of ten volunteers launch TokyoArtBeat.com. Shortly after launch, the team grows to thirty Japanese and expat Tokyoites. Working mostly after hours, they pull information from hundreds of sources, edits, translates and publishes it to the website.

  3. 2005

    The website welcomes the addition of MyTAB, which allows users to bookmark events they want to see or recommend events they have visited. A line of graphic t-shirts featuring designs donated by well-known creative personalities is launched in order to raise funds.

  4. 2006

    The organization gains NPO status with the Tokyo Metropolitan government, and move into their first office near the Tokyo Imperial Palace with two staff members as the editorial team. Later that year, thanks to growing revenue from advertising sales, a full time operations manager also joins the team. The second collection of TAB T-shirts is released, along with an online job board for the creative industry.

  5. 2007

    The site makes available an API for its venue and event data, and relaunches TABlog as a web magazine for the Tokyo art scene. The 3rd collection of TAB Shirts goes on sale, while the online shop is expanded to include books, poster, and other goods. Gadago strikes a partnership with the Flanders Center in Osaka to launch Kansai Art Beat, which covers the art and design scene in Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe.

  6. 2008

    The NPO launches the Tokyo Art Map, a bi-monthly publication showcasing 50 events in popular art venues. The team also kicks off TAB Talks, a live event series featuring talks by leaders in art and design. Kansai Art Beat is closed down, while an independent team including NPO co-founder Kosuke Fujitaka launches New York Art Beat. The NPO relocates to a new office, and goes through a reorganization and an online donation campaign to counter the effects of the global economic crisis.

  7. 2009

    2009 is a slow year as the team focuses on stabilizing operations and regaining ground by hiring a full-time sales staff and building a robust four-month internship program for the editorial work. The 4th collection of TAB Shirts is released, and the online job board closes doors.

  8. 2010

    The official Tokyo Art Beat iPhone and Android apps are launched to great success. The team moves to a bigger office in Omotesando. The audience for the official Twitter accounts @TokyoArtBeat_EN and @TokyoArtBeat_JP explodes.

  9. 2011

    The TAB app is ranked the most popular app of the Lifestyle category in the Japanese App Store for 2010. The team launches MuPon, an app which offers discounts to popular art museums in Tokyo and organizes a series of events at partner venues to explore new engagement models between TAB, its audience, and museums. The office closes for a week following the disaster of March 11th, but the team quickly mobilizes with a MuPon donation campaign and speaking engagements about the power of art.

  10. 2012

    The 2012 edition of MuPon is launched with thirty partner museums, and the team travels to Barcelona to present MuPon at MuseumNext 2012.

  11. 2013

    We re-design the Tokyo Art Map format, taking inspirations from big posters. In collaboration with the Nishieda Foundation, we set up an office in Kyoto to re-launch Kansai Art Beat. We launch our first "Summer MuPon" campaign, expanding the geographical reach of MuPon to museums across the country.

  12. 2014

    Six hundred guests joined us to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tokyo Art Beat.

  13. 2015

    Our team grows to three full time staff.

  14. 2016

    We ramp up on web and mobile app development, and start working on a re-design of the TAB app. We also ran a research project about the distribution of art event information in Tokyo and its influence on the viewing experience.

Find Us

Gadago NPO
West Azabu 2F, 2-21-22 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku Tokyo 106-0031
Tel: +81 3-6427-6035