A new art space has opened in Kunitachi, a suburb west of central Tokyo. Newtown Art Center pre-opened on 7 November 2026, converting a former office space of about 120 tsubo into a gallery and small events venue, a cultural outpost in a residential town better known for its university and its quiet, tree-lined streets.

The gallery at the centre's heart is run by Art and Reason, and it marks a new home for MASUMI SASAKI GALLERY, which opened in Ebisu in 2014 and has since moved through Daikanyama, Kagurazaka and Morishita. The relocation brings a small, peripatetic gallery into a purpose-built space of its own.

The pre-opening exhibition is CHILLDIE IX -Preview, by the Okinawa-born artist Isamu Gakiya. Gakiya's work is shaped by the lingering traces of American culture in Okinawa, and by the post-war horror films, science fiction and American comics he grew up with, which he renders in drawing, collage and painting. Since around 2019 he has made a drawing almost every day, and CHILLDIE, the series that gathers a year's drawings into a single show, has run since 2015. This ninth edition centres on drawings made in 2026, alongside three large new works made for the space.

The opening coincides with Kunitachi Art Center 2026, a town-wide event running until 15 November under the theme of home, with 11 venues including the square in front of Kunitachi station, local galleries and artists' studios. The idea is to treat the whole town as a single museum, with Newtown Art Center as one of its main venues. Drawings in the show are available to buy and take home during the run.