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Australia Council announces Alice Nash as the Executive Director of Arts Investment

18 Feb 2020

I am deeply honoured to be joining the Australia Council as the Executive Director, Arts Investment. As Executive Producer and co-CEO of Back to Back Theatre for the past 17 years, I have served and sought out investment for an incredible team of artists with and without disabilities whose work has great social and cultural impact locally, nationally and globally. I now very much look forward to contributing to the capacity of the Australia Council to support artists and creative endeavour, for the benefit they provide to all Australians.

Arts and creativity can revitalise regional tourism and support local economies

17 Feb 2020

New research released today by the Australia Council for the Arts shows arts experiences are a key driver for tourism, particularly to regional Australia. Domestic Arts Tourism: Connecting the Country draws on Tourism Research Australia data and additional resources to provide insights into the behaviour of people travelling within Australia. Arts tourists are high value tourists: they travel further, stay longer and spend more than domestic tourists overall. “This research reveals Australians’ willingness to travel for the arts and how arts and creativity are significant tourism drivers,” said the Australia Council’s Executive Director of Strategic Development and Advocacy, Dr Wendy Were.

Barbara Campbell returns to Rome thanks to Mordant Family Fellowship

23 Jan 2020

Performance and installation artist Barbara Campbell is the latest recipient of the coveted Mordant Family/Australia Council Affiliated Fellowship. Offered through the generous support of the Mordant Family, this opportunity enables an Australian artist to spend two months at the American Academy in Rome (AAR). Barbara Campbell said she was honoured to receive the fellowship that will enable her to further develop a new body of work she commenced during her own crowd-funded trip to the AAR last year. “My initial visit to Rome was a reconnaissance for my new line of creative enquiry.

Vale James Mollison AO

20 Jan 2020

The Australia Council wishes to acknowledge the passing of James Mollison AO and pay tribute to his impressive contribution to Australian visual arts and culture. James was the National Gallery of Australia’s Acting Director from 1971 to 1977 and Director from 1977 to 1990. He also served as Director of the National Gallery of Victoria from 1990 to 1996.

Health and wellbeing feature strongly in latest Australia Council grants

14 Jan 2020

Australia Council Executive Director, Grants and Engagement, Frank Panucci explained that, combined with high artistic quality, many of the projects funded in this round have a strong community focus “Around one-third of the successful applicants nominated audience engagement or access and participation in the arts as primary outcomes of their project, reflecting the Australia Council’s strategic aim of connecting Australian’s through creativity,” he said.

New opportunities open for contemporary music touring across Australia

18 Dec 2019

Increased investment in contemporary music will enable more opportunities for Australian musicians to tour to more audiences in more destinations across Australia. As part of the Australian Music Industry Package announced earlier this year, the Federal government committed an additional $2 million over four years to the Contemporary Music Touring Program.

Celebrating exceptional artists at the inaugural National Arts and Disability Awards

02 Dec 2019

Three outstanding artists will be celebrated at the National Arts and Disability Awards to be held tonight, Tuesday 3 December, at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. The Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Access Australia have partnered to present the prestigious awards for the first time in 2019, coinciding with the International Day of People with Disability. The Australia Council’s two new national awards recognise the contribution of an emerging and an established artist.

Announcing Australia’s artistic team for Biennale Arte 2021

01 Nov 2019

As Commissioner for Australia, the Australia Council is pleased to announce Marco Fusinato and Alexie Glass-Kantor have been selected as the artist and curator for Australia’s representation at the 59th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia (Biennale Arte 2021). Fusinato’s exhibition will be presented at the Australian Pavilion within the historic Giardini della Biennale precinct from May to November 2021.

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