The Australian Performing Arts Market 2026 addresses how the arts respond to a rapidly changing world.
Delegates will be part of presentations, workshops and peer-led roundtables curated to spark new thinking and strengthen connection locally, nationally and internationally.
Through conversations, provocations and networking, APAM will delve into the big questions facing our sector, from how we nurture intercultural and international collaboration, to how we adapt to shifting social, environmental and political conditions.
The sessions will foreground diverse voices and ways of working, highlighting Indigenous leadership, regional perspectives, and artist and community-led initiatives that are redefining the performing arts sector globally.
ANNOUNCING OUR OPENING KEYNOTE SPEAKER…CLOTHILDE BULLEN
Clothilde Bullen OAM’s keynote presents a sustainable and transformative vision for the future of arts and cultural institutions, exploring how new leadership models and cultural sovereignty can reshape the sector.
Grounded in relational cultural and community theory, her address challenges us to rethink established systems, urging arts leaders to reimagine systems of power and foster a self-determined cultural future.
Clothilde invites delegates to imagine ways of working that prioritises pragmatic care, authenticity in policy development, capacity building and succession planning, and meaningful pathways for new leadership.
Recalibrating the Compass – Survival Isn’t Strategy – Radical Ideas for a Sustainable Sector
Facilitated by Darcy Grant (Gravity & Other Myths) this APAM panel explores the rapidly evolving landscape of international touring.
As global conditions shift, from rising costs and climate impacts to changing audience expectations, the ways we share performances across borders are being reimagined.
Recalibrating the Compass opens a new APAM series that confronts a hard truth: the touring ecosystem can no longer rely on the assumptions of the past. Survival alone is not a strategy.
THE HERDS: Creativity in Climate Crisis
Facilitated by Creative Climate
THE HERDS is epic public art and climate action on an unprecedented scale.
In 2025 life-size puppet animals stormed 20,000km across the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, symbolising their flight from climate disaster.
Hear from the creator and Artistic Director of THE HERDS Amir Nizar Zuabi (UK, Palestine) and General Manager Fraser Orford (Australia) to learn what prompted the project, how citizens and partners engaged with it as it moved through their cities, and what has been learned along the way.
Supported by Creative Climate and British Council.
Image from Movement of the Human’s Belle A Performance of Air. Image by Andi Crown.