The First Triennial of Asia-Pacific Art was held in Brisbane, Australia in 1993. From that period until the present these Asia-Pacific Triennials have become major events on the international art calendar as the event has grown from a relatively small one with a tight regional focus to one which includes China and India and covers half of the world's geography and more than half of the world's population. In this class the so-called 'rise of the APT' is examined from a number of perspectives: against the backdrop of the explosion of international art events known as Biennales of Art and against the question of the usefulness of the concept of an Asia-Pacific region, given changing economic and political conditions. Does this region have any uniformity or integration artistically, economically or politically? Whose art is included? What is excluded in events such as the APT? In sum the Asa-Pacific Treiennials are prisms with which to look at broader events in the region in the last twenty years. In this course we move from an in-depth examination of the history of the Asia-Pacific Triennials to an examination of other events and institutions such as the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney and the 4A Gallery, as well as new state museums and cultural centres such as Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia and Te Papa in New Zealand. This course is ideally designed to be studied after a student has taken SAHT3213, Museum Studies, in first semester.
