The Museum of Brisbane has been tasked with investigating a new Brisbane-wide visual arts event, with the view to it becoming a major cultural offering for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.
In the lasting round of Queensland Government grants from the Grow Cultural Tourism Fund, the museum has been allocated $20,000 for “an independent feasibility study and in-person research to determine the potential economic, cultural and community impact of a major new Brisbane-wide visual arts event”.
A statement from Arts Queensland said the potential festival would launch in 2026, “aspiring to be a dynamic cultural tourism offering of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games”.
It was one of four organisations granted funds to conduct feasibility studies, with the others being:
- The Crackup Sisters: $26,800 for a feasibility study and strategic plan for The Crackup Comedy Festival, an annual week-long festival in five communities across western Queensland. The study will engage with local businesses, community, producers and artists to develop a strategic plan for a 2026 festival.
- NorthSite Contemporary Arts: $30,000 for a feasibility study for the Oceania Print Festival in Cairns, proposed to drive cultural tourism and cement Far North Queensland’s status as a hub for print in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Feral Arts: $20,000 for a feasibility study and test event for The HallowGreen Festival concept as an integrated part of the Light Industry Pilot Project and Forum, co-funded by Creative Australia, the University of the Sunshine Coast and Feral Arts.
More than $600,000 was allocated in the latest round of funding in a program which supports the Queensland Government’s Towards Tourism 2032 initiative that aspires for “Queensland to be Australia’s destination of choice for domestic and global visitors seeking the world’s best experiences by 2032”.
