Melbourne Art Fair Indigenous Art Centre Program Announced

Melbourne Art Foundation announces the Melbourne Art Fair Indigenous Art Centre Program; an initiative that will support the participation of Indigenous-owned art centres at Melbourne Art Fair with the express aim to promote Indigenous contemporary artists, in addition to providing economic benefits, employment opportunities, access and capacity building support for remote communities.

The program is supported by the Australian Government Office for the Arts, Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) Program. It will provide a fully funded exhibition package for remote Indigenous Art Centres to participate within Melbourne Art Fair 2022.

Melbourne Art Foundation CEO and Fair Director, Maree Di Pasquale, says “This is an important initiative that will provide crucial financial support for remote Art Centres whose reliance on cultural tourism for artwork sales has been greatly impacted by COVID-19. It will contribute to a high-quality platform for Australian contemporary art and respond to the increasing national interest and explosive global movement in collecting Indigenous Australian artists.”

Agency Projects – a not-for-profit Indigenous organisation that supports communities to celebrate and preserve cultural knowledge and promote global recognition and an appreciation of Indigenous Australian art and culture – is partnering with Melbourne Art Fair Foundation on the delivery of this project.

Agency Projects CEO Kade McDonald agrees, “This presents a fantastic opportunity for Art Centres to showcase emerging and established artists on a stage that will no doubt develop their careers and expose them to a broad audience of curators, commercial gallerists and collectors. Artists from Art Centres are increasingly building exposure in International contemporary art circles and this is another platform that enhances their trajectory and further propels the economic growth of the sector. Agency is delighted to partner with MAF to deliver this inaugural initiative and hopes to help build it into the identity of the fair moving forward.”

Melbourne Art Fair returns in the Victorian summer 17-20 February 2022 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to present solo presentations and works of scale and significance from 50 of the region’s leading contemporary art galleries.

Melbourne Art Fair is now taking expressions of interest from Indigenous-owned art centres.

Download Expression of Interest Form

Deadline 30 August 2021

 

Image courtesy of Agency Projects and Timothy Hillier Photography