Engaging evaluation as a catalyst: Artists and arts managers voices in reshaping the Australian Performing Arts Market

Abstract

Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) is the Australia Council for the Arts key strategic engagement to develop national and international touring opportunities for Australian contemporary performing arts. The Market has been delivered since 1994 in four Australian cities hosted by differing cultural venues. Over a sequence of three iterations from 2014 to 2018 the APAM presenting venue, Brisbane Powerhouse, made a commitment to reshape the delivery of the Market. Positioning the Market as a cultural intermediary, this discussion outlines how the Market engaged with evaluative data to transform from a transactional model to a relational focus by foregrounding the experience of artists, companies, and art managers. The findings show how planned and ongoing stakeholder engagement influenced the focus of the Market, and the significance of artist and arts manager voices were in transforming the Market experience away from a focus on buying and selling to collaboration and exchange.