APT6 in Review

5 Anna Bligh, MP , Premier of Queensland and Minister for the Arts, at the APT6 Sponsor Preview, December 2009. Photograph: Natasha Harth Sponsors and Partners ‘The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT6) was strongly supported by all levels of government, funding and cultural agencies, foundations and the corporate sector. APT6 was made possible thanks to the generosity of the Queensland Government, which has been Founding Supporter since the Triennial series began in 1993. The Presenting Sponsor for APT6 was Santos. It was the first exhibition to be supported by Santos in a new and generous landmark partnership involving the Gallery’s annual summer exhibitions and the Children’s Art Centre over a five-year period. We thank Rick Wilkinson, Santos President GLNG and Queensland, for his foresight and enthusiasm for the Gallery, its exhibitions and programs. The Principal Benefactor for APT6 was the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation. This sponsorship enabled the Gallery to present the most extensive Kids’ APT to date, and we acknowledge Tim Fairfax, AM , President of the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation and committed benefactor, and his family, for this support. Principal Partners of APT6 were the Australian Government, which provided assistance through its arts funding and advisory body, the Australia Council; and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy funds, administered by Arts Queensland, also supported a regional program of the Triennial, including the travelling exhibition ‘Frame by Frame: Asia Pacific Artists on Tour’ in 2008–10. Major Sponsors of APT6 were Industrea Limited, Ishibashi Foundation and the Gallery’s Chairman’s Circle. We acknowledge Robin Levison, CEO, Industrea Limited, for sponsoring the work Xinsheng Town 275-277 2009 by Chen Qiulin. Outstanding local and national profile was achieved through the strong support and involvement of our long-term media partners Adshel, The Courier-Mail, Network Ten, Austereo’s Triple M, ourbrisbane.com, Quest Newspaper Group (for the Kids’ APT Summer Spectacular) and, for the first time, Art & Australia . The summer edition of this quarterly journal focused on APT6 and profiled a number of the exhibiting artists with feature essays. With the involvement of our tourism partners, Tourism Queensland and Brisbane Marketing, the exhibition continued to attract visitors to Brisbane, with 43% of the audience from outside metropolitan Brisbane: 17% from interstate, 13% from overseas and 13% from regional Queensland. The support of cultural agencies enabled the Gallery to bring artists to Brisbane for the installation of their works and to take part in opening weekend public programs. These agencies included the Australia–China Council, the Australia–India Council, the Australia–Korea Foundation, the Australia– Malaysia Institute, the Australia–Thailand Institute, Creative New Zealand and the Japan Foundation. Support was also provided by Koryo Tours and the Gordon Darling Foundation. In partnership with the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF), the Queensland Art Gallery presented two significant projects in the lead-up to APT6 that generated additional interstate profile and positioning. ‘The view from elsewhere’ was an exhibition of film, video and installation works from East Asia to the Middle East curated by Kathryn Weir, Curatorial Manager, International Art and the Australian Cinémathèque (QAG), in collaboration with Mark Nash, Head of Department, Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London. ‘Water, Earth and Air’ was an exhibition of works by APT6 artist Charwei Tsai, jointly curated by the artist and Suhanya Raffel, Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art (QAG). Catalogues for the projects featured essays by Kathryn Weir and Suhanya Raffel.