Media Release: artsagenda
From today, artists are informing Parliament’s first sitting week with their passions, concerns and bold expectations for addressing the nation’s key priorities.
As Parliament begins its 2018 sitting, Australia’s artists are showing new work in independent and state-owned galleries, in public and unconventional spaces, in studios and online. Each one of these exhibitions offers a perspective on contemporary Australia that’s sensitive and complex, timely and urgent. Like each bill before Parliament, each of these exhibitions has involved many months and possibly even years of work to be ready for this moment.
“So what’s on the arts agenda?” asks Esther Anatolitis, Executive Director of NAVA. “What have Australia’s artists chosen to make work about? What does the critical mass of all these exhibitions tell us about what’s most pressing right now? And how can we inform decision-making at the highest levels with the voice of the artist? Follow #artsagenda this week and hear directly from artists themselves.”
“The arts should be provocative and disruptive and even on occasion outrageous. They're sometimes gentle and affirming and embracing as well,” Minister for the Arts Mitch Fifield said in a recent interview [1]. “We want to have a mindset in our community and our society that is innovative, that is creative. Where people can use their talents to create something from nothing... Part of the role of the arts is to push boundaries.”
"Visual art touches us and affects us from the first glance. It is anything but silent and needs to be heard in the corridors of Parliament," said Tony Burke, Shadow Minister for the Arts.
“Australian artists regularly produce world-renowned works that hold a mirror up to society and show us in new ways, what Australia’s struggles and triumphs are. We can all acknowledge the wealth that the arts community provides by visiting our local galleries and supporting our artists,” said Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens Spokesperson for the Arts.
The National Association for the Visual Arts protects and promotes professional practice in the visual and media arts, craft and design. We champion the artists, lead the discussions and advocate the policies that strengthen Australia’s contemporary arts.
#artsagenda champions the voice of the artist in setting the national cultural agenda.
ENDS
For all media enquiries contact:
Esther Anatolitis esther@visualarts.net.au
