Artlink

Cover of Artlink Magazine vol. 28 no.2, June 2008

Artlink is an international quarterly magazine specializing in contemporary art.

History

It was founded in 1981 in Adelaide, as a bi-monthly 20-page black and white magazine with the initial aim of providing a national profile for South Australian art, and linking the various contemporary art organisations which existed in Adelaide. A small seeding grant was provided by the South Australian Department for the Arts. A Committee was set up comprising representatives of the Experimental Art Foundation, the Contemporary Art Society, the South Australian School of Art Student Union, the Women's Art Movement, and the Friends of the Art Gallery of SA. Each of these organisations had a guaranteed page in each issue over which they had complete control. This "Artlink Adelaide" format continued to serve a very useful purpose from 1981 - 1986 after which changes in management, member organisations and the growing demands of the field led to a broader national outlook.

1989 saw the beginning of a series of Themes for each issue - Public Art, Community Arts, Design, Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, Architecture & the Environment, Multicultural Arts, Museums on the Edge, Thinking Craft/Crafting Thought, Naive & Outsider Art, Film & Video, Sculpture, Contemporary Arts of the Region : South East Asia & Australia, and new methods of researching and national networking, as well as a wide canvassing of funding sources. More colour illustrations and perfect (square-back) binding were notable changes at this time.

From small beginnings, distribution has developed into a many-layered operation which includes subscriptions, bookshop and art gallery outlets, newsagents, regional galleries and, from 1989 till about 1994 bulk orders from various organisations for community distribution eg education depts, government depts (eg ATSIC, OMA, DFAT) and units of the Australia Council. Since late 1992 Artlink has also been distributed throughout the United States and from 1998 into Canada and New Zealand.

In 1999 Artlink was offered the chance to produce a special issue on contemporary Indigenous art as a sequel to a previous issue in 1990 which had since become a classic and much quoted reference. The offer came jointly from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australia Council (ATSIAB) and was targeted at international visitors to Australia for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. 20,000 copies were printed the bulk of which were distributed as complimentaries to visitors. This issue titled Reconciliation: Indigenous art for the 21st Century is 128 pages in full colour throughout and has been widely praised by the art world and the general reader alike.

In March 2004 the special issue 'The China Phenomenon', co-edited by Binghui Huangfu and Stephanie Britton, was launched in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing to critical acclaim. Special support for this issue and promotion in China was received from the Australia-China Council, the NSW Ministry for the Arts. Assisting in the launches were the Asia Art Archives in Hong Kong, the Duolun Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, and Red Gate Gallery in Beijing.

External links

• Artlink's official website