Roppongi Art Night Returns

Roppongi Art Night will run through the night again on Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, restoring its sunset-to-dawn format for the first time in three years. (roppongiartnight.com) The 2026 edition is set across Roppongi Hills, the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo Midtown, the Suntory Museum of Art, 21_21 Design Sight, the National Art Center, Tokyo, and nearby public spaces in the Roppongi district. Organizers list admission as free, with some programs and museum exhibitions charging separately. (roppongiartnight.com) This year’s featured country is France under the festival’s “RAN Focus” program, with José-Manuel Gonçalvès, former artistic director of CENTQUATRE-PARIS, named as guest curator. The festival site says the France program is being co-produced with CENTQUATRE-PARIS and supported by Institut français and the French Embassy in Japan. (roppongiartnight.com) Roppongi Art Night began in 2009 as a citywide art event modeled on Paris’s Nuit Blanche, which turns public space into an overnight exhibition route. The organizers say 2026 will be the 15th edition, with cancellations in 2011 after the Great East Japan Earthquake and in 2020 and 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic. (roppongiartnight.com) The overnight revival follows several years in which the event did not run past midnight while organizers tested different operating models after the pandemic. Arts Council Tokyo said the 2026 program marks the return of the original all-night format. (artscouncil-tokyo.jp) Organizers also opened the 2026 Open Call Project, a public submission program that accepts proposals in performance or music, outdoor installation, and video works for large-screen screenings. The deadline is May 6 at 5 p.m. Japan time, with results due in late June. (roppongiartnight.com) The open call is not limited by age or prior experience. The festival says the program has presented 101 works over 11 years through 2025 and accepts proposals from curators, planners, artists, performers, writers, and directors. (roppongiartnight.com) Recent editions have used the “RAN Focus” slot to spotlight other places, including Taiwan in 2024 and South Korea in 2025. The shift to France in 2026 ties the event back to the Paris festival that inspired its original overnight model. (roppongiartnight.com) For now, the next date on the calendar is May 6, when submissions close. After that, Roppongi’s overnight art festival moves toward an Oct. 31 opening that puts the city back on its all-night schedule. (roppongiartnight.com)