ACE Open is a contemporary visual art organisation based in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

, established in 2017 after the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF) were merged, creating a new organisation.

History

The Experimental Art Foundation (EAF) was created in the Adelaide suburb of St Peters in 1974 by a breakaway group of CACSA members, with the intention of focusing on "more radical, multi-disciplinary and performance work". These artists and theorists, who included Donald Brook and

Bert Flugelman Herbert Flugelman (28 January 1923 – 26 February 2013), usually known as Bert, was a prominent Australian visual artist, primarily a sculptor, who had many of his works publicly displayed. He is known for his stainless steel geometric public ...

, wanted to promote the idea of art as "radical and only incidentally aesthetic", and encourage new approaches to creating art. Its stated mission was "to assist, promote and develop, through production, exhibition, distribution and the encouragement of debate, art and art practices that are analytical, critical and experimental, which challenge established thinking and expand cultural discourse". Its exhibitions displayed the work of both Australian and international experimental and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ists; In 1976, artist Phillip Gerner gave a 24-hour performance as a human jam-tasting facility, after having a

feeding tube Eating (also known as consuming) is the ingestion of food, typically to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbi ...

and

catheter In medicine, a catheter (/ˈkæθətər/) is a thin tubing (material), tube made from medical grade materials serving a broad range of functions. Catheters are medical devices that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform a surgi ...

inserted into his body. Printmaker Ruth Faerber, reviewing an exhibition of Adelaide art at the

Art Gallery of NSW The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

in 1977, compared the EAF with the Progressive Art Movement, which was "motivated by a strong

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

sociopolitical direction, agreed to a shared program for action and a sense of immediate imperative". By contrast the EAF, did not commit to a set of agreed aims, and stated that they had an "open ended" attitude against mainstream, non-conformism as against entrenched doctrines, "experimentation as against patrician formalism". In 1992 the re-purposed factory building which became the

Lion Arts Centre The Lion Arts Centre, also known as Fowler's Lion Factory and Fowlers Building, with the main music venue within known as the Lion Arts Factory (formerly Fowler's Live), is a multi-purpose arts centre, including studios, galleries, music and per ...

included a purpose-built gallery, artist studios, offices and the Dark Horsey Bookshop, which focused on art-related publications. Renamed the Australian Experimental Art Foundation (AEAF) along the way, the organisation ran a residency program, which supported several leading South Australian artists. The AEAF was mainly funded by the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...

through the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...

and the

Government of South Australia The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

through

Arts SA Arts South Australia (previously Arts SA) was responsible for managing the South Australian Government's funding for the arts and cultural heritage from about 1996 until late 2018, when it was progressively dismantled, a process complete by early ...

. From August 2016 the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA) started talks to merge with AEAF, after two rounds of severe funding cuts to the Australia Council in the federal government budgets of 2014/15 and 2015/16. Arts SA provided funding for the two organisations to cover operational costs for 2017, which enabled planning for the merger, which was named ACE Open. After the merger had been decided, the Australia Council provided further funding to ACE Open to help with its setup costs. The new gallery opened its inaugural exhibition, BLACKFLAG, featuring the work of South Australian painter Christian Lock, on 15 March 2017.

Description

The organisation is located in the Lion Arts Centre (the former location of the AEAF) in the West End of North Terrace, in an area specifically designed for artistic use, including a gallery, office space and artist's studios. It also incorporates a free space, formerly the Dark Horsey bookshop, which can be used for events and other purposes, and includes the former Feast Festival rooms across the laneway. It presents an annual program of free exhibitions by South Australian, Australian and international artists, and hosts events including artist talks, workshops, celebrations and screenings. ACE Open's vision is to "transform, expand, create and understand our world through contemporary art". Its mission is: "ACE Open provides space for artists and audiences to champion creativity, forge connection and break new ground in contemporary art". ACE Open is a member of Contemporary Art Organisations Australia (CAOA, formerly CAOs), a network of "public, independent, non-collecting contemporary art organisations" from around Australia that serves is an advocacy body for Australian small to medium contemporary visual arts bodies, thus helping to promote the work of living artists.

Governance

Its inaugural CEO was Liz Nowell, former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of CACSA. Nowell was appointed director of the

Institute of Modern Art The Institute of Modern Art (IMA) is a public art gallery located in the Judith Wright Arts Centre in the Brisbane inner-city suburb of Fortitude Valley, which features contemporary artworks and showcases emerging artists in a series of group an ...

Brisbane in March 2019. the artistic director is Patrice Sharkey and executive director is Louise Dunn (who previously led Nexus Arts). Rainer Jozeps is chair of the board, which includes artist James Darling , curator Leigh Robb and writer and museum curator

Jared Thomas Jared Thomas (born 1976) is an Australian author of children's fiction, playwright and museum curator. Several of his books have been shortlisted for awards, and he has been awarded three writing fellowships. In May 2018 he began a 12-month sec ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 34.922491, S, 138.592644, E, format=dms, display=inline,title Art museums and galleries in South Australia Contemporary art galleries in Australia Museums in Adelaide 2017 establishments in Australia