APY ART CENTRE COLLECTIVE
“Anangu have a right to own their own business, to manage it and run it everyday as we choose. It is time for Aboriginal people to own a larger share in our Industry.”
Tjala Arts is a proud member of the APY Art Centre Collective.
The APY Art Centre Collective is a group of 10 Indigenous owned and governed enterprises. Located on the APY Lands, the collective work with a united vision and voice on strategic business initiatives and collaborative artistic projects. Their vision is to increase capacity for APY art centres and support their important work in APY communities, through:
1) Creating and exploring new markets;
2) Increasing art centre income and supporting business development; and
3) Supporting innovative collaborative regional artistic projects, including the industry acclaimed Kulata Tjuta project, and the APY Photography initiative.
Art centres are powerful places, and vital to community. They are professional art making studios where culture is celebrated, maintained, and carefully instructed to younger generations by Aboriginal elders. In APY communities, Art centres are the only source of non-government income and the only real jobs for Anangu. These art centres are home to some of the best-known and most collectable Indigenous artists in the country, as well as a host of young and emerging artists. The art centres of the APY Lands are unique by way of their prestigious position within the Indigenous art industry, and their commitment to collaborate across the region on large-scale artistic projects and events. Joined by Maruku Arts from Uluru, Tjanpi Desert Weavers based in Alice Springs, and Ara Iritja Aborignal Corporation, the APY Art Centre Collective is a formidable group of the most celebrated and ambitious Indigenous art studios in Australia - all exploring a diverse range of mediums, to express and share their Tjukurpa (Dreaming Stories), which has been passed down from their ancestors.
