A couple of years ago, just outside the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale, a troupe of butoh dancers wowed the assembled art glitterati with a street performance. Afterward, more than a few people congratulated representatives of the Japan Foundation for the refreshingly alive and unaffected happening, which may have been the most exciting part of Japan's program at the prestigious art fair.
But the butoh dancers had nothing to do with the Japan Foundation; in fact, the official organization hadn't even been aware their performance was going to happen. Credit was due to one Johnnie Walker, a longtime Tokyo-based banker and art maven, who had brought the dancers to Italy on his own initiative.
The point being that, while government support of the arts is always welcome, sometimes individuals are in a better position to marshal the troops and, well, just do it. Witness British Art Now, a Tokyo showcase of U.K. artists that has been organized by London-based Kathryn Bell for the last five years without any official sponsorship. Bell, who heads an arts consultancy company in Britain, describes BAN as "a labor of love."