APT 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia : Report

LECTURES The monthly lecture series began with an overview of the entire APT 2002 and progressed to specialised lectures featuring the three regions represent in the exhibition - Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Specialised lectures were presented by Suhanya Raffel, Rhana Devenport, Julie Ewington and Maud Page. This lecture series also included an artist talk by previous APT artist Lee Mingwei. In addition to the lecture series, the Triennial talks by Lynne Seear, Assistant Director, Curatorial and Collection Development and Andrew Clark, Assistant Director of Public Programs were repeated due to popular demand. The average attendance figures of 42 were slightly lower than usual but were probably a result of the sheer volume of public programs throughout the 5-month period. ACTIVITIES Free introductory Tai Chi classes were held on the upper sculpture courtyard for six consecutive weeks. These classes were well attended and attracted a different audience to the Gallery. Average class sizes were 15, which was the preferred teaching capacity. PERFORMANCES Performances were programmed over the weekends to maximise audience accessibility. These proved to be very popular with each performance averaging an audience of over 100. Performers included: Elision, Ancestral Plane, Stephen Rosenberg, Nashi and Polytoxic. FLOORTALKS Floortalks took the form of two distinct programming directions. The monthly floortalk series, held on the third Wednesday of every month mirrored the themes of the monthly lecture series. Numbers for these floortalks were very low, again probably due to the vast choice of public program offerings and interactive information throughout the exhibition. Additional floortalks were held every Sunday afternoon and focused on a different artist each week. APT 2002 catalogue writers presented the floortalks and offered the audience a more in depth understanding of the artist’s background and practice. Certain artist’s were obviously more popular than others, but generally these were well attended. Average attendance figures were approximately 15 per floortalk with some floortalks attracting as many as 35, which is very good for a Sunday afternoon. 55