BOAA is underway

BY ALAN MARINI

THIS year’s Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA) will be the largest ever showcase of living Australian artists and it kicked off with a launch party last Friday.

At the event Artistic Director of the inaugural BOAA Julie Collins said she was incredibly excited to finally see the results of many months of hard work come to fruition.

“It has been a lot of work but we are finally here, it’s terrific,” she said.

“It started with me and my husband, Derek John, but we now have our staff, who we call Team BOAA – a combination of a whole lot of people who have supported us and they are paid staff, volunteers and sponsors.”

BOAA receives funding from Council and State Government but mostly gets by on philanthropic and local business donations.

“These people have contributed to bring this very significant event to Ballarat and showcase Australian Art – that is reallythe motivation,” Ms Collins said.

“The exhibition consists of all the visual arts – painting, sculpture, print making, drawing, multimedia and also we have a mini music festival called BOAA Music. I say mini but there are 50-pop-up events throughout the whole six weeks.”

Ms Collins said 150 artists had been selected, with an equal representation from every state and territory.

“I am incredibly happy. I had put out an expression of interest for people to respond to and I had made a selection of 75 percent of artists but then went and found certain people,” she said.

“Ninety-five per cent of the work in BOAA is new work that people have never ever seen.

“BOAA has been 10 years in the making and it’s about time we celebrated – hence the launch.”

BOAA runs in Ballarat from 21 September – 6 November.