Teaching the Whitefella-The Role of Cultural Tourism in Opening Remote Indigenous Art Centres to Non-Indigenous Visitors

This article explores how a remote Aboriginal-owned and -run art centre, Ikuntji Artists in Haasts Bluff, has developed grassroots-level cultural tourism. While not many remote Indigenous art centres engage with the tourism industry, Aboriginal tourism engagement has only recently been identified by the Northern Territory Government as a major business development area. Steered by the member artists and the board, the art centre has been able to create a range of workshops and activities that can be offered to small-scale tour operators. Over the past five years, an arts festival and various workshops for university field students and other small tour operators have been hosted. Member artists, staff and the board as well as the community see cultural tourism as an opportunity to share their culture by way of teaching visitors about the Luritja language, culture and country. Thus, this article argues that art centres can engage meaningfully in cultural tourism and support remote Indigenous communities in the sustainable development of cultural tourism

'I paint for everyone' - the making of Utopia art

At the core of this research is the history and development over the past four decades of the Utopia art movement in Central Australia. Initiated as an adult education programme teaching batik-making in the late 1970s it has since become nationally and internationally renowned. However, much of its history is not recorded, nor are the artworks and its records kept in a database entertained by a community art centre or similar institution. Despite this apparent lack of recording and documentation much has been written about the artworks as well as about some artists from Utopia. Critics engaging with art from Utopia praise it in terms of 'abstract', 'abstract expressionist', 'impressionistic' and even 'similar to European masters of the 20th century'. I question whether these similarities are a result of the close interaction with the art world and possibly even the reaction to the demands made on 'artists' to satisfy a certain prevailing taste in the arts? How do artists negotiate these market demands and their relationships with the art world? I argue that through close observation of artistic practices and negotiation processes between artists and art dealers, artists' agency can be uncovered. Throughout the history of the art movement artists have had to become their own agents in dealing with art dealers, wholesalers, curators and collectors. Being one's own agent in the art world might have a far greater influence on the art than has been discussed to date. Influences of art dealers, the art world, families, artists in the community, everyday life and the constraints associated with living in a remote community all affect the creation of artworks. By looking at the artworks through the framework of influence, similarities and differences in art from Utopia become apparent. The different currents and sub-currents found in Utopia art will be defined and described by means of a close formal analysis of the artworks. Combining this formal analysis with methods of new art history, such as qualitative interviews and observation of art practice, will reveal the influences and effects on artworks. Finally this examination of artworks and relationships in the art world will facilitate a better understanding of the emerging of local art movements, their development and their multi-layered histories. Furthermore it will give a point of comparison for further studies and research into Indigenous art histories throughout Australia. -- provided by Candidate

Review - Painting the Song: Kaltjiti artists of the sand dune country. By Diana James

It gives insight knowledge into a particular regional history lead by an academic argument about synaesthetic experiences of artists. [...]it highlights a new direction or approach to research on Aboriginal art, in which culturally-specific aesthetics as well as crosscultural aesthetics and their influence on the art become the focus

Rodney Gooch's Role and Influence in the Development of the Utopia Art Movement: A History of the Art Movement and Rodney Gooch's Role within it

In the late 1970s the women of Utopia, Central Australia, began creating batik as part of an adult education program. A decade later painting on canvas was introduced to the artists by the art coordinator at the time Rodney Gooch and a major shift to working with that medium followed. Since the beginning, art and craft making have become some of the major activities in the community with the artworks being nationally and internationally recognised. Although over the three decades many different art coordinators have worked with the artists from the Utopia community, no one has left such a mark as Rodney Gooch in regards to the interaction of the artists with the wider art world as well as in terms of the development and innovation within the art works. This paper examines the particularities of Gooch�s engagement with the artists by contextualising his visions tangible in the group projects into the broader history of the art movemen