APT7 Exhibition Report

top Ruth McDougall, Curator, Pacific Art, QAGOMA, with Antonin Arke’s Bisj pole 2011 in Papua, Indonesia, October 2011 / Photograph: MichaelO’Sullivan Alex Gabour and Coastal Arapesh people, Dagua, East Sepik / Ule and Neo ( Male and female fish ) ( Mask ) (detail) and Sar ( Headdress ) (detail) 2011 in performance at the National Mask Festival, Kokopo, East New Britain, July 2011 / Purchased 2011. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / Photograph: Michael O’Sullivan researcH The Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory board, and the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments, provided vital funding to support curatorial research and travel for APT7. Curatorial research and travel is a crucial component of every APT. It enables Gallery staff to keep abreast of new developments in contemporary art, to build and maintain strong and extensive regional networks and, importantly, to liaise directly with artists in their home countries, commissioning new works and projects for the exhibition. Gallery staff undertook targeted travel during the three years prior to APT7 to countries including Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Outcomes from these visits were then incorporated into the development of the exhibition, the accompanying publications, Kids’ APT7 and public programs. Staff were able to meet with artists, acquiring and commissioning new works for APT7 and the Gallery’s Collection. 11 researCH