Brisbane to Host International Teaching Artists Conference, 7/1-3

Brisbane welcomes 200 leading Teaching Artists from around the world to participate in the second International Teaching Artist Conference (ITAC2) from tomorrow (1 July 2014) until Thursday 3 July.

This conference follows the inaugural event held in Oslo, Norway in 2012.

The term Teaching Artist refers to someone who is an expert or practicing visual or performing artist whose complementary skills enable them to assist communities to learn through a particular art form.

One of the key aspects of Teaching Artists is that they not only do work in schools, but in a range of settings, such as hospitals, the corporate sector, prisons and with arts and cultural institutions such as museums and galleries. There is a broad application of their work across many sectors of society.

The conference is jointly hosted by the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) through its iconic Out of the Box festival for children 8 years and under (25 June to 2 July) and the Queensland University of Technology's Creative Industries Faculty (QUT CI).

QUT Professor Brad Haseman said ITAC2 will be of great benefit to arts practice in Australia.

"Australia has always had a vibrant community cultural development sector represented by artists who choose to work in fragile communities of need, and we have built up a mature body of practice over decades.

"This conference allows Australian artists to pick up on a similar international body of work and connect it with their own practice. The conference will also encourage the development of the term Teaching Artist which was coined in the United States and is relatively unfamiliar in Australia and many parts of the world," said Professor Haseman.

"ITAC2 will be a working conference that will allow the sharing of practice, ideas and networks to bring arts and education together in more meaningful ways across the globe using Teaching Artists.

"A major outcome will be to develop programs and projects of international scale to be pursued over the next two years with the support of partnerships with business, philanthropists and governments and so extend the reach of Teaching Artists through our communities in Australia, particularly in regional and remote areas," he said.

The conference will feature four internationally recognised key note speakers who will share valuable expertise and experience from their country:

- Russell Granet from the Lincoln Center Education in New York;
- Scott Rankin from Big hART in Tasmania;
- Dr Jun-Seok Roh from the Korea Arts and Culture Education Service (KACE); and
- Professor Amandina Lihamba from Tanzania.

The second day of ITAC2 (Wednesday 2 July) coincides with the final day of QPAC's Out of the Box festival. Delegates will demonstrate and observe fellow Australian and international Teaching Artists, including from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Carnegie Hall and the Folger Shakespeare Library, leading participatory workshops with children.

QPAC's Chief Executive, John Kotzas said that since its beginnings in 1992, QPAC, through Out of the Box, has recognised the important role that arts education plays in developing and deepening the way children and adults experience and participate in the arts, and celebrated children's creativity enabling them to become active creators in arts and culture.

"We are pleased to collaborate with QUT in hosting ITAC2 and integrate the conference with Out of the Box," said Mr Kotzas.

For full details on ITAC, go to www.itac2.org.au.

The key note speech by Russell Granet will be delivered as part of the Out of the Box festival program on Wednesday 2 July at 2.30pm in QPAC's Concert Hall. Attendance is free but bookings are required. Please go to www.outoftheboxfestival.com.au or phone 136-246.

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