Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 1993 : Exhibition report

PROJECT OFFICE The co-ordination and organisation necessary for the Asia-Pacific Triennial and associated events was an extremely complex task. The Gallery employed a full-time Project Officer for two and a half years and several assistants for the months prior to the Triennial opening. Visitors Program The Gallery officially hosted the visits of approximately sixty artists and critics from the Asia Pacific region. The majority of these artists and critics visited other venues both inter and intrastate. The artists and critics participated in organised activities in every Australian state, except for Western Australia due to the nominated artists’ prior commitment. State art galleries, art schools, universities, regional art galleries and contemporary art spaces were involved. The visitors delivered lectures, attended additional conferences, conducted workshops and undertook artist residencies. Please refer to Visitors’ Australian Program, Vol II. The Project Office co-ordinated all the itineraries in liaison with the other venues. This included ensuring there was a host person to meet all visitors at the airport, accommodation arrangements for each visitor and fees paid to the participants. The Queensland Art Gallery put great emphasis on meeting visitors and ensuring an effective program was in place for each visitor. The Project Office also co-ordinated accommodation. Artists and visitors were housed in international hotel suite accommodation with kitchens and conference visitors stayed in international standard hotel accommodation. An artists’ common room was established where artists could meet informally during breaks from exhibition preparation. Asia-Pacific Triennial Database Details regarding the visiting artist and art critics’ Australian itineraries and personal requirements (eg. dietary restraints) were entered onto the Asia-Pacific Triennial database. Each visitor received a copy of their Australian itinerary prior to their arrival in Australia. Itineraries included all travel details, their official commitments, visits to other interstate and intrastate venues, and contact at each venue. Staff working on the Triennial could easily access needed information regarding all visitors through the database. The Gallery intends to develop the present database into a multi-media database for the planning of future Triennials. This will involve using the latest in OCR (optical character recognition) and scanning techniques to assist with the organisation of the project. Liaison with visitors The Project Office was responsible for answering all queries from the official visitors. This included ensuring all visitors were met at the airport, had transport to all official commitments and had transport to the airport for their return journey. All administrative tasks, including payments and photography identification, medical needs and general queries were directed through the Project Office. Members of the Project Team also assisted with the organisation of the artist talks. Photographic Material The Project Office was responsible for establishing and providing photographic material for promotional use and lecture programs.