Arts Project Australia


Arts Project Australia Inc. is a registered charity and non-profit organisation located in Northcote, an inner northern area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The organisation provides facilitation/mentoring, studio and exhibition spaces for artists with intellectual disabilities, and as such has been identified as a major centre for the promotion and exhibition of outsider art, or art that has been produced outside of the contemporary and historical mainstream. In 2016 there were approximately 130 artists attending the studio, with the work of exhibiting artists featuring alongside works from the broader contemporary art community in the annual rotating exhibition program.

History

Arts Project was founded in 1974 by Myra Hilgendorf OAM and was the first full-time not-for-profit art studio in Australia for artists with intellectual disabilities. Hilgendorf sought to provide the opportunity for artists with intellectual disabilities to access the same resources, materials and opportunities to exhibit, as non-disabled artists. The seminal exhibition Minus/Plus was launched in 1975, the title working as a counter response to the negative implications of a series of articles printed in The Age newspaper, entitled ‘The Minus Children.’ This was followed in 1980 by the exhibition Tommy’s World, which opened at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra.
In 2004, APA moved to its current premises where it is governed by a volunteer board and operates via funding attained from government grants, the sale of artwork, donations and bequests from private groups and individuals, as well as grants from philanthropic trusts and foundations.
In recent years, a greater interest in contemporary Outsider art, as evidenced by Massimiliano Gioni’s 2013 Venice Biennale which included several exhibits dedicated to self-taught or Outsider artists, has led to an increase in the media exposure and significance attributed to organisations such as Arts Project Australia. In 2013 three artists represented by APA, Boris Cipusev, Alan Constable and Patrick Francis, were featured in the Melbourne Now exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, which also acquired a collection of work by Cipusev and Constable for its permanent collection.
In 2014, APA partnered with Melbourne University to host the international conference Contemporary Outsider Art: The Global Context. The conference coincided with several outsider art exhibitions at major institutions in Australia, including Albert Tucker and the Mystery of HD at Heide Museum of Modern Art and exhibitions at the Dax Centre and the Social Studio. In 2016 APA received the Award for Outstanding Organisation, in the HESTA Community Sector Awards.
Notable curators and artists who have produced exhibitions at APA include Philadelphia-based curator Alex Baker, Ricky Swallow, Karra Rees, Vincent Alessi, Emma Busowsky Cox, Richard Lewer, Linda Judge, Jim Pavlidis, Angela Cavalieri, Paul Hodges, Katherine Hattam and Judy Holding. Additional significant figures from Australian public life who have collaborated in APA artistic projects include Michael Caton, John Clarke, Fiona Corke, Abi Crompton, Brian Dawe, Mick Harvey, John-Michael Howson OAM, Lukas Markovic and Thérèse Rein.
APA has collaborated to produce exhibitions at a number of major Australian institutions, most recently for the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne Theatre Company, Art + Climate = Change, Art Centre Melbourne, Linden New Art, Next Wave Festival, Gertrude Contemporary.
Artists who work in the studios at APA are represented in major Australian art institutions. Some notable examples are the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Shepparton Art Museum, State Library of Victoria, Monash University Museum of Art, National Sports Museum Gold Coast City Gallery, La Trobe University Museum of Art, Deakin University Art Collection, City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection.

Selected Exhibitions

The Arts Project Australia Sydney Myer Fund Permanent Collection is one of the few collections of artwork by artists with intellectual disabilities in Australia. It comprises approximately 500 drawings, photographs and paintings from the mid-1970s sourced from the organisation's pioneering exhibitions Minus/Plus and Tommy’s World I. APA additionally houses a permanent collection of significant works from studio artists and international work, as well as an historical archive of organisational letters and documents. Artists from Arts Project Australia are widely represented externally to the organisation in international, Australian and private collections.

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