Opened in 2014, Kinosaki International Arts Center (KIAC) is a cultural facility built from a renovated conference hall that wasn’t used anymore. Over the years, the town of Kinosaki has hosted and celebrated many writers and artists whose works have then been shared with the rest of the world. KIAC was opened in order to carry on this tradition into the future. Since 2014, many artists have stayed at KIAC to create pieces of work that have then been spread both throughout Japan and overseas. The missions of KIAC are to support creative and promising artists, to collaborate along with Japanese and international theaters and festivals in order to become a place where works intended to be shared both on a national and on an international scale are co-produced, and to create opportunities for artists, local residents and tourists to exchange and create together.

KIAC offers an Artist-In-Residence program for artists and companies selected once a year through an audition process. At KIAC, artists get to create in a nature-filled environment. Thanks to that, they can fully concentrate on their creative activities. The projects should mainly be focused on modern performing arts but in addition to artistic activities and research, it is possible for art-related personalities to hold events such as lectures and symposiums. The projects or activities must have the potential to be shared, they must be innovative and suggest new ideas that are expected to have an impact on artistic expression in the future and it is better if they involve multiple countries and languages.