Video Gallery SCAN was the first Japanese art gallery exclusively dedicated to the exhibition, preservation, and promotion of video art. Founded in 1980 by the female performance artist and fog sculptor Fujiko Nakaya, SCAN was an independent, artist-run organization situated in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood. While small in scale, the Gallery was a multifunctional space whose services included a video distribution service, video archive & library, screening studio, and exhibition area. As SCAN's founder and curator, Nakaya was among a number of artists who regularly featured her video art in solo exhibitions. According to the Gallery curator , SCAN's mission was to "[raise] the status of video art into the realm of art, television, and film". Video Gallery SCAN's foundation coincided with the maturation of video technology in the 1980s and critic Akira Asada's introduction of postmodernism to Japan. Consequently, these shifts in contemporary art compelled SCAN to equate video art's technical and aesthetic qualities as a viable fine arts medium to the artistic merits of film and television. Since Tokyo museums, galleries, and universities did not exhibit video art nor possessed any videoworks in their collections, SCAN marketed itself as a center that could promote video artists within Japan and from abroad. During its twelve-year run, the Gallery exhibited a diversity of artists from across the nation, the United States, Europe, and Australia. To expand their reach and secure additional funding, SCAN later organized several video festivals, multimedia events, and exhibitions with affiliate institutions.