Intra Asia Network

The Intra Asia Network, or IAN, is a loose consortium of cultural workers and creative spaces, artist exchange projects, community engagement initiatives and artist residency programmes operating throughout Asia. This consortium was founded to facilitate the greater mobility of Asia's cultural producers, practitioners, and creative people through the development, promotion and empowerment of artist-in-residency and artist-in-community projects. Membership represents over 15 countries and hundreds of Asian art spaces and initiatives.

Through the support of Asian Cultural Council Taiwan and other local and international funders, a meeting of 35 Asian artist directors from 15 countries was held in July 2005 in Taiwan. The thrust of the gathering was to discuss the issues and difficulties concerning Asian artists’ mobility and cultural exchange. Asia is in need of understanding itself in both a traditional and contemporary context: a premise of IAN is that 21st century cultural identity in Asia will be understood through movements, projects, and residencies of its own culture workers. The Intra Asia Network for artist residency, mobility, and exchange now comprises members from Taiwan, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and even Australia and New Zealand.

A second meeting of IAN representatives was held, with the support of Asia Europe Foundation, during the annual conference of Res Artis in Berlin, convened by the ufaFabrik. That gathering involved the leaders of 40 Asian culture NGOs and reaffirmed the need for an action group to share knowledge, resources, experience and collaboration across Asian borders.

The third conference of IAN was held in South Korea in September 2006. The workshops were held in conjunction with the 2006 Gwangju Bienniale, while the second half of the gathering was held at Ssamzie Space in Seoul. The objectives focused on the common concerns of many Asian directors and cultural leaders: professional development, management of artist’s space and initiatives, and new models for funding, operating, and advocating for the role of artists' mobility and cultural exchange. This most recent gathering was co-sponsored by Artists Forum International (AFI), with support from Arts Council of Korea, City of Gwangju, the Korean Nonprofit Alternative Space Network, and the Prince Claus Fund.

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