MAGNT bans controversial APY Art Centre Collective amid white interference scandal

Darwin’s premier art gallery has made the move to stop working with an indigenous art centre following its expulsion from the Indigenous Art Code.

MAGNT director Adam Worrall says the expulsion of the ­APYACC from the Indigenous Art Code ‘has raised further concerns’. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

The NT’s premier cultural organisation will no longer work with controversial gallery the APY Art Centre Collective following its expulsion from the Indigenous Art Code, The Australian has reported.

Museum and Art Gallery of the NT director Adam Worrall cited “concerns raised about the APYACC and its management” following an investigation by the national broadsheet that uncovered allegations of white interference in Aboriginal art.

“MAGNT won’t accept working with any (arts body) where there’s been (allegations) of coercion, intimidation or the unethical treatment of anybody, especially not artists,” he said.

“And I think that is where we stand in terms of that issue.

“We have really clear guidelines … and people following the guidelines of the IAC is part of that.

Mr Worrall told The Australian he hoped a South Australian-led investigation, which is being backed by the federal and Territory governments, would look at the issue thoroughly.

He said he had great respect for the three people heading the investigation but he also had concerns there was no one with a deep understanding of the way Indigenous art centres operated.

“That’s perhaps something they have to consider,” he said.

It comes after the leaders of the four peak bodies representing every Indigenous art centre in the NT, SA and WA met with federal Arts Minister Tony Burke on Sunday.

They told Mr Burke they did not believe a proper investigation could be held while the ­APYACC’s current management remained in place, according to The Australian.

Meanwhile, while it’s unclear whether the two issues are linked, the APYACC missed out on exhibiting at this week’s Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair for the first time since its inception in 2016.

A spokeswoman for DAAF told The Australian its board had decided not to accept the APYACC’s application to participate this year because it was not a community arts centre.

“The core purpose of our organisation is to provide support to community arts centres,” she said.

“So we would be setting a dangerous precedent by having a secondary market organisation like the APY Art Centre Collective having representation at the fair.”

The individual arts centres that belong to the APYACC were allowed to exhibit but not the collective.