Cairns Indigenous Art Fair


Cairns Indigenous Art Fair is an arts and cultural event in the northern Australian city of Cairns that brings together indigenous art centres, commercial and public galleries, artist collectives, studios and arts organisations to sell and exhibit the art work of Queensland's recognised and leading emerging Indigenous Australian visual artists.
The Art Fair is presented by the Queensland Government and is the opening event of Cairns Festival. The three-day event also features an academic symposium, traditional and contemporary dance and music program, artist talks and demonstrations, a children's art station and family art activities. It is the only dedicated Indigenous art market in Australia that exclusively profiles the art work of Queensland born or based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and includes both art centres and commercial galleries in a single location.
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair was first held from 21–23 August 2009 and attracted more than 10,000 people over the three days of the fair. Visitors came from throughout Australia, the United States, Europe, Korea and Japan. Almost one third of visitors to Cairns Indigenous Art Fair in 2009 identified as Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders. Nicolas Rothwell of The Australian newspaper wrote "Tradition, innovation; grand ambitions, good intentions, anguished cultural debate: the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair was careful to offer its crowds of visitors an intriguing, multiplicit diet of image and sensation."
While most of the visitors attended to take advantage of the free cultural programming and to view the art work, the 36 exhibiting organizations sold more than $500,000 of art work during the event.
The art market is an initiative of the Queensland Government's $11.93 million Backing Indigenous Art program which is committed to strengthening the indigenous arts sector of Far North Queensland from production to market. Cairns Indigenous Art Fair adheres to the "Indigenous Australian Art Commercial Code of Conduct".

Artists

In 2009, Cairns Indigenous Art Fair featured the work of more than 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists born or based in the Australian state of Queensland. The most well known of the exhibiting contemporary Indigenous Australian artists were Judy Watson, Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell, Tony Albert, Joanne Currie Nalingu, Arone Meeks, Gordon Hookey, Ricardo Idagi, George Nona and Sally Gabori. A full listing of artists and exhibitors is available in the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair catalogue for 2009.
Musicians and dancers who took part in Cairns Indigenous Art Fair in 2009 were Christine Anu, King Kadu, Seaman Dan, Will Kepa, the Aurukun Dancers and Songmen, Ariw Poenipan, Kulkal Baba and the Baiwa Dance Company.
In 2015, proppaNOW mounted an exhibition, Dark + Disturbing: Gordon Hookey for proppaNOW. Dark + Disturbing is a curatorial project by artist Vernon Ah Kee.

Director

Michael Snelling is the 2009 and 2010 Artistic Director of Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. Mr Snelling is a former Chief Executive Officer of Major Brisbane Festivals, responsible for the presentation of the Riverfestival and the Brisbane Festival; CEO and Artistic Director of the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane and the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide; and Director of the Australian Centre for Photography Workshop in Sydney. For five years he managed the visual arts and crafts National Infrastructure and Projects Portfolios in the Australia Council. Prior to this he was a professional photographer and teacher for over a decade. He is currently Chairman of Artbank and a Board Member of the Bundanon Trust.