General News
30 April, 2023
First Nations fair expands
CIAF adds new event to its 2023 program as it aims to break 2022 record
THE Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) has launched its biggest and most culturally immersive program over four days in July.
Tickets to a range of events are now on sale at the new CIAF ticketing hub on ciaf.com.au, including the opening night party at Cairns Convention Centre, 10th anniversary fashion performance at Tanks Arts Centre and a special music concert at Munro Martin Parklands.
In a first, the program has been extended with Urban BLAKtivation, a lively and free, first nations event in the CBD with arts and culture spanning live music, dance, storytelling, and poetry recitals between 4.30pm and 8pm on July 1.
For its 14th season, CIAF’s program highlights include an exhibition of large-scale, handwoven artefacts, a decade anniversary fashion performance, a new look, two-day symposium, an outdoor music festival with national, headline acts, more than 300 pieces of visual art showcasing Queensland’s most accomplished and collectible Indigenous artists, a public program of cross-cultural sharing, master classes, children’s art, and craft hub and more.
In accord with CIAF’s annual tradition, the collective, artistic response for 2023 will be shaped by artistic director Francoise Lane’s curatorial theme, Weaving our future: claiming our sovereignty.
Crafted to both inspire and harness the sentiments of Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists at a time in which a First Nations voice is being proposed to drive change across Australia, Ms Lane said the theme would provide a rich, cultural thread that connected and resonated throughout the art fair, coconut leaf project, woven fashion performance and symposium.
“Art is a form of expression that raises the breadth of experiences, issues, and commentary and when positioned within the context of CIAF, becomes a meeting place for truth telling, knowledge sharing and cultural exchange – an intrinsic representation and artistic expression of two very distinct and diverse cultures – past, present, and future,” Ms Lane said.
She said CIAF 2023 lifted programming to a new and unprecedented level and with future growth in mind blended much-loved favourites with fresh newcomers that would capture the attention and imaginations of visitors and deliver a meaningful experience.
“Urban BLAKtivation is just the first in a series of signature events CIAF is planning to roll out in future years,” Ms Lane said.
Last year a record 60,000 people attended the event at the Cairns Convention Centre and satellite venues.
Artworks sales also exceeded $1 million for the first time.
It injected more than $7.5 million into the Cairns economy and $4.5m to the Queensland economy
