New Media Art Scoping Study Discussion Paper
July 2006 — Page 17
4.3. Arts sector
Contemporary art institutions are increasingly supportive of new media work.Festivals and biennales, galleries are all interested in trying to take theseworks to the public. There is now better integration of new media work inexhibitions and galleries, but Australia is still lagging behind Europe and Asiain this regard.The past decade has seen the establishment and growth of a number of dedicated new media arts organisations. In 2005, as a response to theAustralia Council restructure, a number of these organisations formed acoalition to provide the sector with a coordinated advocacy voice. AMAO(Australian Media Arts Organisations) aims to operate as a national network analogous to the CAOs network (www.caos.org.au), a national network of contemporary arts organisations with the objective of playing a pivotal role inthe development and support of contemporary arts practice in Australia. Thecurrent members of AMAO are: the Australian Network for Art andTechnology (ANAT), the Biennale of Electronic Art Perth (BEAP), dLuxMedia Arts, Experimenta and Media Arts Asia Pacific (MAAP). Furtherinformation on these organisations is included in Appendix 2.A wide range of arts spaces and contemporary arts organisations engaged indeveloping and presenting new media art including many of the CAOsorganisations and Artist Run Initiatives.Over the past decade, many galleries, art museums, generalist artsorganisations and other organisations have increasingly engaged with newmedia practice. ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image has beenkey infrastructure. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) supported andprovided the venue for the New Constellations conference in March 2006.Also in March 2006 the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney installed AndyPolaine’s ‘Time Sketches’ in ‘beta space’ in its Cyberworlds area, and hosteda seminar with the artist.At local government level, many councils run galleries and museums, havearts development policy as part of their cultural planning, and managecommunity development grants programs giving small amounts of fundingfor individual artists and groups on a competitive basis. Organisations whichpromote and tour new media work report strong and rapidly increasinginterest on the part of regional and local galleries and museums in this work,and there are a number of regional arts centres actively promoting new mediaart. Peak organisations, such as Museums and Galleries NSW (MGNSW) arealso active in this area. MGNSW hosted the ‘A bit flash: What’s so new aboutnew technology’ seminar on new media in museums and galleries at theMuseum of Sydney in June 2001 and offerednew media art masterclasses for peopleworking in regional galleries at their Leadingfrom The Edge conference in 2005.Cube 37 at Frankston Arts Centre offers a