Experimenta Media Arts has received support from the Australia Council to deliver a series of forums over the next two years to foster media arts curating and collecting in regional and rural areas.

Video installations, interactive artworks and multimedia are now part of mainstream contemporary visual arts and growing in popularity but the question of how artworks should be programmed into exhibitions and added to collections is one still being asked by regional gallery, museum and library professionals.

Experimenta has been successfully touring exhibitions of innovative contemporary artworks since 1986. Experimenta’s exhibitions appeal to a broad cross-section of people, attracting thousands of visitors and developing new audiences for contemporary art.

At most venues the forums will be held alongside the national tour of Experimenta Playground. Starting in 2008, Experimenta will be working closely with host venues, local specialists, NETS, state-wide arts organisations and local regional arts development officers to develop and promote a series of free half-day media art curating events.

The first will be hosted by Performance Space at CarriageWorks in Sydney on 9 May. Other venues in 2008 include the Dubbo Regional Gallery, Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo on 2 June, The Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide on 29 August and the WA Museum, as part of the Awesome Arts Festival, Perth in November. In 2009 venues include Bendigo Art Gallery and Albury Library Museum.