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Recommendations

Australia-Japan Visual Arts - Focus for the Future

This is a statement of key principles, priorities areas and recommendations to develop and expand visual arts exchanges between Australia and Japan as discussed at a closed forum held between leading Australian and Japanese visual arts organisation directors, curators and artists held at the National Art Center, Tokyo on 29 and 30 September 2006.

Six principles were agreed to guide development and expansion of visual arts exchanges:

To have a focus on people: "bodies not boxes"
To encourage new approaches
To work openly and with flexibility at all times
To build knowledge and enable research
To work across sectors and disciplines
To build on existing networks and relationships, in parallel with new initiatives

Six priority areas to advance the visual arts exchange agenda were also identified:

1. Artists' Exchange
The participants voiced strong support for the value of residencies and other networks for the development and expansion of the visual arts exchanges.

Recommendation: To encourage a variety and different scale of projects and approaches and to encourage different practices: artists, writers, philosophers, architects, to work together.

2. Professional Personnel Exchange
Exchanges, both within and beyond the museum, at the professional level were recognised as critical to underpin the visual arts agenda for the two countries over the next 5-10 years.

Recommendation: To encourage a broader range (and from two weeks to three months) of professional exchanges including curators, exhibition managers, marketing, development and public program experts, university personnel, and to foster visits by individuals to meet networks in the other country including Contemporary Art Space Network (Australia) and Art Non-Profit Organisations (Japan)

3. Training
The need for internationalisation of museum and artists' training was highlighted as was the need to respect cultural difference.

Recommendation: To encourage training courses towards international understanding, including making better use of information portals and websites for training outcomes.

4. Exhibition Exchange
The forum noted importance of exhibition exchange, paying attention to special initiatives for supporters, children, diasporas and improvement of technical linkages.

Recommendation: To encourage exhibition exchange of variety and scale (from AIRs, NPOs, University, public & community projects, museums, artist to artist), including major exhibitions and special focus projects; to note the importance of clarifying roles and responsibilities through various models of co-curatorship, exchange of exhibitions, touring exhibitions with local partner input; and to note the capacity for exhibitions to lead to collection development.

5. Forums
The importance of bilateral and multilateral forums to guide the development and expansion of activities in visual arts exchanges was noted.

Recommendation: To hold a follow-on forum in Australia.

6. Asia Pacific Focus

The importance of Australia's and Japan's geographic situation in the Asia Pacific region was noted, acknowledging the growing youth audience and interest in regional activities.

Recommendation: To encourage multilateral and cross-cultural initiatives in the region, touring partnerships and networks, and joint ventures (including forums and projects)

List of Participants, in alphabetical order

Lesley Alway, Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art
Michael Beckmann, Director, Ipswich Art Gallery
Alison Carroll, Director, Asialink Arts, University of Melbourne
Max Delany, Director, Monash University Museum of Art
Tony Ellwood, Deputy Director, National Gallery of Victoria
Caroline Farmer, Executive Director, Experimenta Media Arts
Alasdair Foster, Director, Australian Centre for Photography
Blair French, Executive Director, Artspace Visual Arts Centre(Sydney)
Osamu Fukunaga, Chief Curator, The National Art Center, Tokyo
Yasuko Furuichi, Art Co-ordinator, Visual Arts Division, Arts Department, The Japan Foundation
Goji Hamada, artist and Director Aomori Contemporary Art Centre
Hisako Hara, Professor, Faculty of General Information, Osaka Electro-Communication University
Aki Hoashi, Director, Arcus Project
Shihoko Iida, Curator, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
Osamu Ikeda, Representative, BankART1929
Yusaku Imamura, Director, Tokyo Wonder Site
Rei Maeda, Art Front Gallery
Tohru Matsumoto, Chief Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
John McBride, Board Member, Australia Japan Foundation
Jackie Menzies, Head Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Akira Nakayama, Managing Director, Ishibashi Foundation
Margo Neale, Senior Curator, National Museum of Australia
Harumi Niwa, Curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Eriko Osaka, Artistic Director, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito
Martin Paten, Team Leader, City Culture and Collections, City of Melbourne
Tomoyuki Sakurai, General Manager, Arts Department, The Japan Foundation
Kento Shimizu, Curator, Sendai Mediatheque
Junichi Shioda, Deputy Director, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
Ted Snell, Professor of Contemporary Art, Dean of Art, Curtin University Gallery & Chair, Art Craft Design Special Interest Group, Museums Australia
Tony Sweeney, Director, Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Akira Tatehata, Director, National Museum of Art, Osaka
Kimio Tsuchiya, artist
Hossein Valamanesh, artist
Anna Waldmann, Director, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council

Organisation: The National Art Centre Tokyo, the Australian Embassy Tokyo, Asialink, the Australia-Japan Foundation with special support from the Japan Foundation, Arts Victoria and Arts South Australia. The Japanese Advisory Committee: Osamu Fukunaga, Chief Curator, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Junichi Shioda, Deputy Director, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum and Akira Tatehata, Director, National Museum of Art, Osaka; the Australian Organising Committee: Ross Westcott, Australian Embassy Tokyo, Hitomi Toku, Australia Embassy Tokyo, Lucy King, Australia Japan Foundation Tokyo, Alison Carroll, Asialink.

Asialink, The University of Melbourne

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