Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 1993 : Exhibition report

well received with excellent reviews. The Gallery is presently discussing further print-runs and international distribution outlets for the publications. The Education program associated with the Triennial is ongoing and will develop further through new programs in association with future Triennials. The Gallery utilised a number of Asia Pacific experts in developing this program and will continue to work with experts from a variety of disciplines. The education kit, compiled in collaboration with the Department of Education, Queensland, was distributed to every school in the state. The international conference was clearly one of the highlights of the project. Four hundred and fifty delegates, including representatives from all major art institutesTrom Australia and representatives from throughout the Asia Pacific region, attended the conference, which was organised in association with Griffith University’s Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations. There were thirty-eight speakers from Asia and the Pacific. The large representation of over sixty delegates from the region, was achieved through grants, mainly from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Cultural Relations Branch through the Cultural Visitors program. The Queensland Art Gallery undertook the Triennial to provide’ a forum for the display, documentation and discussion of diverse views in the contemporary visual arts of the region. The Conference and publications in conjunction with the exhibition have provided the basis for ongoing debate and dialogue between Australia and the region and within the region. The exhibition has attracted an unprecedented level of international media coverage for an art exhibition in Australia. International media coverage has included reviews in major newspapers and journals throughout the region and extensive radio coverage. National coverage has also been excellent. The documentary video, made in conjunction with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), has been screened on prime time television nationally throughout Australia and been distributed internationally. It has already been screened at art conferences and art colleges in the Philippines and Indonesia, and the ABC will release the program for international viewing and has plans for the documentary to be shown on television in a number of the participating countries. There are a number of benefits of the projects to Australians involved. Australian artists have had their work exhibited within the context of Asia Pacific regional art and individual Australians have formed a number of lasting contacts. While the Triennial is not the only initiative linking Australia with Asia and the Pacific, the scale and extent of the Triennial has clearly proved to be a catalyst for a number of new projects to show Australian contemporary art within the region. As one example, the Queensland Art Gallery has been approached by Korea to organise an Australian art exhibition for that country. The exhibition has also provided a number of professional development opportunities for Australian curators and artists (outlined later in this report) and the Queensland Art Gallery has undertaken an ongoing role in facilitating further exchanges through sharing its contacts, as well as documenting and providing research material for a study of the art of the region. The extensive documentation of contemporary Australasian, Asian and Pacific artists through our Library (already the subject of research use by scholars, critics and students), and the potential to make this even more widely available through computer networks, is one of the most exciting aspects of the Triennial in meeting the goal of the documenting the contemporary art of the region. The Queensland Art Gallery utilised the knowledge and contacts of a large number of Australians and experts in the region in developing extensive networks and professional relationships which are being shared with other Australians building contacts with Asia and the Pacific.