Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) is Australia’s major arts showcase event, presenting work by Australian companies to a national and international audience
Set up by the Australia Council for the Arts in 1994, APAM’s key purpose is to create international touring opportunities for Australian performing arts groups. In 2014 APAM made a big move, relocating from its home in Adelaide where it was held from 1998 to 2012, to Brisbane on the east coast. Based at Brisbane Powerhouse until at least 2018, the biennial showcase took a big risk in switching cities – but it was one that paid off, with 2014 seeing record attendance. International registrations were up by 38 per cent, while Australian attendance increased by 20 per cent. 627 delegates attended in total, with the biggest international representation coming from mainland Europe (31 per cent), Asia (22 per cent), North America (19 per cent) and the UK (16 per cent).
‘The event had been held so long in Adelaide, and once it was moved to Brisbane there was a real opportunity for us to drive our communication around the event forward,’ says APAM executive producer Zohar Spatz. ‘We were particularly pleased to see the growth in the Asian market, with more people coming to APAM from Malaysia, Taiwan and China.’
While the east coast location doesn’t make much of a geographical difference – the distances for international visitors are still vast – APAM’s outreach activities have, with the Australian government helping to spread the word. ‘We’ve been working hard with our partner DFAT [Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade], building some really dynamic international visitors to APAM,’ continues Spatz.
Read the full article in Volume 11: Issue 12 of IAM.