As global uncertainties around the Middle East conflicts intensify – including disrupted tours to and from Europe on account of the war – Australian performing arts companies have more reason than ever to be turning their minds to our northern neighbours in the Asia Pacific.
Yet regardless of any quick-response pivots, there has actually been many years of sustained and meaningful work by artists, companies and presenters to increase dialogue and touring across the Asia Pacific.
More recently, the Federal Government has also been showing bolstered enthusiasm for engaging with Asian countries in our region, primarily for reasons of security and diplomacy.
There was good evidence of Australian artists’ strengthening ties with the Asia Pacific at this year’s Australian Performing Arts Market. Known as APAM, it was held in Perth in February, with a record representation of Asian delegates in attendance.
Of the approximately 540 total APAM attendees, 50% were international guests, and around 30% of those were from Asia, from countries including China, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
With these recent developments in mind, several producers who have existing relationships with partners across the Asia Pacific say there is every reason to continue building relationships with Asian presenters, venues and artists, while noting there are some limitations to what’s possible within the current market conditions.
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Artistic reciprocity and exchange
Australian producers and curators Kate Ben-Tovim and Tam Nguyen are co-directors of Turning World, a boutique cultural agency that focuses on connecting contemporary cultures across Australia and the Asia Pacific.
As experienced facilitators of creative projects, tours and exchanges throughout the Asia Pacific region, Ben-Tovim and Nguyen say they are encouraged by what they observe as a new enthusiasm to forge ties across the Asia Pacific from the Federal Government and many Australian artists.
As Ben-Tovim tells ArtsHub, the Federal Government’s current Southeast Asian economic strategy to 2040 – titled Invested – and its launch of the ASEAN-Australia Centre in 2024, signal new government interest in increasing activity between the two regions over the next 10 to 15 years.
‘The Federal Government is certainly talking more about the importance of Southeast Asia now,’ Ben-Tovim comments.
‘The fact that its Invested 2040 strategy has a pillar dedicated to the creative industries is significant in showing how the government sees artists and the creative industries as contributing to this major regional economic strategy.’
The Federal Government’s Invested policy also forecasts investment potential for Australian businesses working in Southeast Asia as being a healthy 4% annual growth on investment returns (on average) from now until 2040.
But as Ben-Tovim and Nguyen explain, while there is clear potential for greater touring and exchange here, many relationships are still in their early stages, and will need more time to develop into longer-term meaningful exchanges.
‘There’s a bit of a lack of cultural sector literacy between our two regions,’ Nguyen tells ArtsHub.
‘It’s like we don’t know each other that well yet. We don’t know when many festivals and arts meetings are on in Southeast Asia, so we don’t go regularly and see work, and meet each other at these events. So, there is quite a lot of mapping work to be done so we can better align schedules and strengthen dialogue around those kinds of events and opportunities.’
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Nguyen adds that many of the insights she and Ben-Tovim have gained around cultural exchange in Southeast Asia have come about through scoping trips the pair conducted last year, where they met artists, curators and venues across Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to map the potential for future partnerships.
‘We were supported by the ASEAN-Australia Centre to do this work and we’ll continue doing it later this year on more scoping trips to other countries in the Southeast Asian region,’ Nguyen says.
‘What’s been really positive about the work we already have done so far is that we can see strong willingness on the part of Australian and Southeast Asian artists to build creative relationships based around genuine reciprocity and exchange.’
Covid setbacks still being felt in some parts of Asia
While producers like Ben-Tovim and Nguyen are busy laying important groundwork for what will hopefully grow into more robust arts activity across Southeast Asia, some Australian producers have already established firm partnerships with artists and presenters in other Asian countries.
One such company is Sydney-based production company CDP Theatre Producers, which specialises in touring theatre for young audiences.
As company co-director Yolande White tells ArtsHub, CDP has enjoyed a good deal of touring success in Asia over the past decade, with shows like Meeting Mozart – featuring acclaimed Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi – proving especially popular with Asian audiences.
As White explains, CDP have taken Meeting Mozart to China three times over the past 10 years, with its first tour to China receiving support from the Federal Government (through the then Australia Council, now Creative Australia).
‘We had never worked in China before that first government-supported tour, but audience numbers for that first tour were better than our Beijing presenting partner had expected,’ White explains.
‘So, from there, we were able to present two additional tours of Meeting Mozart to China and those two subsequent tours didn’t need government funding – they were commercially viable tours.
‘We then had a fourth China tour of that work planned for 2020, but Covid shut us down – as it shut the whole world down at that time,’ she says.
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Evidently, the Covid shutdown years have proven a major hurdle for many Australian arts companies with existing touring relationships with Asian presenters, especially in China, whose opening up period has been slower than others in the region.
‘China has been very slow to come back from Covid,’ White comments.
‘In fact, at the moment, it’s not looking so good for us in terms of commercially viable tours to China because its presenters, who were previously confident about local audience demand for our work, do not have that same level of confidence because their audiences have been slow to return.’
On the bright side, White says CDP still has some good touring partnerships in Hong Kong, whose Covid experience wasn’t quite as long-lasting as China’s.
‘Hong Kong’s larger English speaking ex-pat community is also beneficial for us because our theatre works are based around English text,’ White says.
‘Overall, we want to remain active throughout Asia because we have built some excellent relationships there, and there is good demand for our work.
‘But current market conditions, especially in China, remain challenging.’
Why keep going international when it’s so financially risky?
In light of these weak spots, and with the sharp cost increases of producing new performing arts work in Australia in general in recent years, not to mention the higher costs of touring these works, the question remains, why try to tour works internationally at all at the moment?
For White, despite the persistently high (and arguably worsening) cost pressures associated with international touring, maintaining a presence internationally is vitally important to the wider performing arts ecosystem and to companies’ longer-term business viability.
‘It’s so often the case that if you can’t find international opportunities for great works, they can die simply for lack of them being shown enough,’ she tells ArtsHub.
‘They just drop off the radar if they don’t stay in circulation internationally, and that is a major concern for really great works that deserve long lifespans.’
In terms of remedying this situation, White can only hope the Federal Government is cognisant of the current issues, and can look to support both new and more established production companies in keeping their work in circulation throughout Asia.
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‘We received some excellent support from the Federal Government to help us get started in Asia,’ White continues.
‘That investment in audience development, in what were then emerging markets, was so important for us to build what have become very strong relationships with our current partners in China.
‘It’s just a shame the present market conditions in some Asian countries are not yet what they were pre-Covid, because before Covid, our touring trajectory was looking really good and was commercially viable.’
