Cover Image: A collage of Isha Sharvani, Marrugeku and The Last Great Hunt — three voices shaping the story of WA performance at APAM 2026.

The Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) 2026
Boorloo / Perth, 23 – 27 February 2026

There’s something quietly revolutionary about the Australian Performing Arts Market decamping to Boorloo/Perth for the next five years. Not simply because it shifts the nation’s premier industry gathering 3,200 kilometres west – though geography matters – but because it fundamentally reimagines who gets to be at the centre of the conversation.

From 23-27 February, hundreds of presenters, producers and cultural leaders from across the globe will descend upon the Whadjuk lands during the Noongar season of Bunuru, converging with the final week of Perth Festival. It’s a confluence that executive producer Virginia Hyam describes with understated precision: “Two very different programs that complement each other day into night.”

For Western Australian artists, the stakes are high. Where previous APAMs required eastward pilgrimages – complete with the financial and logistical burdens that accompany any West Australian artist’s journey beyond the Nullarbor – this iteration invites the world to witness what’s been quietly fermenting in this geographically isolated corner of the continent.

Consider Marrugeku, the First Nations-led company that has spent three decades touring contemporary performance from its bases in Broome and Sydney. For them, APAM represents “a heaven sent opportunity,” as they prepare to invite international presenters to their Broome avant-premiere season of Ngurragabu. Their challenge – and their opportunity – lies in bringing artistic teams to engage with Yawuru Buru, the Country itself, and the unique cultures that make Broome what it is.

Or take Isha Sharvani, the Indian-born West Australian artist whose aerial dance work KIN has evolved over four years from a solo rope-based piece into a full-scale Indo-Australian production. Made in collaboration with her partner Russell Thorpe, her brother Tao Issaro, her mother Daksha Sheth, and her father Devissaro, the work embodies precisely what APAM 2026 gestures toward: intergenerational storytelling, cultural fluidity, and work that speaks across borders. “My blood runs red, unbound by borders,” Sharvani says, articulating a vision of culture as shared and evolving rather than fixed.

Then there’s The Last Great Hunt, whose Lé Nør [the rain] stands as one of their strongest works – larger in scale than their previous productions, beloved by audiences, and interrupted in its momentum by COVID just as it was finding pathways beyond existing networks. The work presents an imagined country with its own culture, language and traditions, functioning as what the company describes as “a faux foreign film made live on stage.” It’s fully subtitled, designed for easy translation, and requires no prior knowledge – a philosophy of radical accessibility that feels increasingly urgent.

What unites these disparate practices is a sense that APAM offers more than mere exposure. As The Last Great Hunt puts it, they’re seeking “relationships that extend beyond single presentations” – touring pathways, co-presentation opportunities, genuine partnerships. It’s about stewardship rather than transaction, about venues becoming collaborators rather than simply rental spaces.

Hyam is clear-eyed about the opportunity. “We are inviting hundreds of delegates from across the globe to Perth, many visiting for the first time,” she says. “So of course we want them to experience Perth in its best light.” The marketplace will flow between the Pan Pacific and Fremantle, with conversations aligned to local voices alongside international agency. And crucially, there’s a workshop facilitated by Creative Climate exploring how the arts sector can strengthen its commitment to caring for Country and advancing climate justice – sustainability embedded as core principle rather than afterthought.

The geographic specificity matters. Having APAM on the lands of the Whadjuk people during Bunuru – the hottest time of year, when communities traditionally gather near waterways to feast and celebrate – shapes both the curatorial framework and the lived experience of the event. Hyam speaks of APAM “flowing like the Derbil Yerrigan, in a constant but flexible manner,” acknowledging that place drastically informs programming and strategic priorities.

For Sharvani, hosting APAM in Western Australia “shifts the centre of gravity.” It’s profoundly impactful for one of the world’s most geographically isolated regions to host Australia’s key performing arts market. “It creates access to national and international networks that might otherwise feel distant,” she notes, “enabling the building of personal, artistic, and professional relationships without the added barriers of geography.”

The convergence with Perth Festival creates what The Last Great Hunt describes as “a rare ecology where audiences, artists and industry are all encountering the work simultaneously.” It means conversations with delegates are grounded in live audience experience – the responses rippling outward, extending the life and reach of the work beyond the compressed intensity of the marketplace itself.

When asked what would signify a transformative outcome, The Last Great Hunt hopes to leave “feeling expanded: clearer about where the work sits internationally, and energised by the sense that what we’re making in Western Australia can resonate far beyond it, without losing its roots.” It’s a sentiment that captures the peculiar position of West Australian artists – simultaneously connected to and distant from the wider world, making work that is distinctly of this place while speaking to universal human experiences.

Sharvani articulates a vision of what success might look like: “New relationships built on trust, shared values and curiosity – relationships that continue to generate conversation and possibility of exchange.” It’s about hope, she suggests, in a world that often feels strained and divided.

Looking beyond 2030, Hyam hopes “that Perth is well placed on the international map for ongoing creative exchange and dialogue.” It’s a modest ambition, perhaps, but one with profound implications. Because if APAM’s residency in Perth succeeds, it won’t simply be about Western Australian artists accessing opportunities. It will be about fundamentally reshaping the national and international perception of where vital contemporary performance is being made, and by whom.

The market comes west. The world follows. And for once, we don’t have to leave home to be part of the conversation.

The Australian Performing Arts Market 2026 runs 23-27 February.
For full details here.