experimental art foundation: mission

The Experimental Art Foundation was established in 1974 by a small group of Adelaide artists and theorists in order to both encourage new approaches to the visual arts and to promote the idea of art as 'radical and only incidentally aesthetic'. Its inaugural Director was Noel Sheridan.

The EAF MISSION:
1. To encourage and facilitate the production and understanding of new and innovative art that is critical and questioning in relation to contemporary thinking and imagining, to social arrangements and institutions and to consequent new possibilities for the form and media of twenty-first century art practice.
2. To act as a meeting point for artists, writers, curators and thinkers, and as advocate and advisor to artists and producers: through its exhibitions, public talks, symposia, forums and publishing, it has a broad outreach that is both local and remote.

3. To function as a key organization in the national/international circulation and generation of visual art exhibitions and activities.

4. To facilitate the conceiving, making and exhibiting of new art in Adelaide
5. To attract new national/international art to Adelaide
6. To assist in the development and exposure of local experimental art to local, regional, national and international audiences.

The EAF achieves this through:
1. The exhibition/forum/publication of projects (print and electronic)

2. The administration and organization of artist's studios and interactive projects that are not necessarily dependent on immediate outcomes, either for the EAF or for individual artists

3. The organization of workshops/symposia of enquiry around specific issues

4. The organization of a residency program for artists, critics and writers.

EAF’s mission includes the long-term fostering of artistic endeavour through:
1. Assisting artists with fully supported exhibitions at useful junctures in their careers
2. Curating larger programs with a view to developments in particular artists’ careers
3. Identifying and clarifying patterns and tendencies functioning within both local and international art.

The EAF building incorporates a large and flexible exhibition gallery, a specialist bookshop, and an artist studios complex. The EAF also maintains and develops a highly significant archive of artists' books, a research library and a comprehensive visual archive of all EAF initiated projects since 1974.

The EAF is recognised as a leader in its field. Since 1974 EAF operations and programs have been funded both by the Commonwealth Government (through the Australia Council for the Arts) and by the State Government of South Australia (through Arts SA). The EAF regularly secures additional funding for many of its projects and initiatives.

further → PROGRAM

THE EXPERIMENTAL ART FOUNDATION:
* maintains dark horsey, the EAF Bookshop and Library, which represent an important information resource for artists and art audiences , both in South Australia and internationally. The Bookshop stocks the latest Australian and international publications on contemporary visual arts, filmmaking, literature, philosophy, as well as literary and cultural theory. The Bookshop is the only Australian outlet for many of these titles. The Library contains nearly 3,000 publications and documents on the experimental Australian and international arts practice over the last 35 years and is an important research facility for students, academics and artists.
* Organizes forums which premier and discuss work by, or issues relevant to, artists. The EAF organizes symposia and events that bring together researchers and creative practitioners from various interrelated disciplines in order to exchange and debate issues of interest - recent events include the 2007, IDEOLOGY of the IMAGINARY in the 21st CENTURY and the 2009 Life, death & biotechnia
* Disseminates information about its activities and the artists represented, nationally and internationally
* Hosts visiting curators and arts professionals from Australia and overseas and facilitates their access to SA artists and arts practice
* Provides information on opportunities for professional development and on current national and international developments in the arts
* Maintains a publishing program
* Encourages practice by young and emerging artists and cultural producers
* Maintains subsidized artists' studios focused on the production of new work
* Provides initiatives within the exhibition program designed to facilitate the fostering of emerging artists
* Provides information and administrative support for the applications of grants and associated projects
* Facilitates access to fax and photocopying facilities, and other equipment useful to artists both in the production of their work and in the advancement of their practice
* Maintains a specialist archive in performance, post-object and conceptual art and in the production of artists' books. The archive includes a comprehensive slide-file of events and exhibitions at the EAF since 1974
* Administers grants on behalf of artists for their own projects and initiatives
* Operates as an umbrella organization for arts initiatives (In 1985 EAF initiated the pilot project which led to the establishment of the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT), and between 1997-2000 housed the electronic Writing Research ensemble (eWRe);
* Houses Feral Boffin + Distingue, publishers and distributors, as well as Little Esther Books

EAF Policy is determined by Council whose members are elected at Annual General Meetings. EAF Staff have Council membership through proportional representation with elected Council members.

images from top to bottom: installation of Mark Siebert's Forever 27, May 2009; Fleur Elise Noble, Work in Progress, 2009; linda lou murphy un/gather, performance, 2008; Talks series 2009;Art in the Biotech Era, ed. Melentie Pandilovski, published by the EAF 2008; Mischa Kuball, Re:Mix Broca II (Letters/Numbers) 2008; Aldo Iacobelli from time to time one talks to the moon 2007; Stelarc opening, 2007; Calin Dan from here til there, an Emotional Architecture Stopover, published by the EAF 2007; Dark Horsey Bookshop