SALA (South Australian Living Artists) Festival grows from 1998 to be the world's largest open access visual arts event
SALA (South Australian Living Artists Festival), by 2024, grew from being week long to the entire month of August, involving more than 700 exhibitions and events across South Australia and more than 10,000 artists taking part.
SALA (South Australian Living Artists Festival) became the world’s largest open-access visual arts event from its start in 1998.
Founded by Paul Greenaway (director, Greenaway Art Gallery) and Sam Hill-Smith (Hill Smith Galler),through the Australian Commercial Galleries Association, SALA grew, by 2024, from being week long to the entire month of August, involving more than 700 exhibitions and events across South Australia and more than 10,000 artists taking part.
The SALA Festival’s policy of inclusiveness allowed all South Australian visual artists of any level and working in any medium to be included. As part of building new audiences for the visual arts, SALA began offering art tours in 2002 to encourage office workers to visit galleries in their lunch breaks; also bus tours to regional areas, and bilingual tours.
The not-for-profit SALA Festival relied on state government support, private sponsorship and earned income to invest back into South Australian artists. Its 2024 festival won best category in the state-government-sponsored arts and culture Ruby Awards.
From 1999, as part of the festival, the South Australian Living Artist book, published by Wakefield Press with funding from South Australian government, featured a leading South Australian artist or craftsperson with potential for national and international promotion. Those published were: Annette Bezor, 1999; Kathleen Petyarre, 2000; James Darling, 2001; Nick Mount, 2002; Ian Abdulla, 2003; Deborah Paauwe, 2004; Michelle Nikou, 2005; Aldo Iacobelli, 2006; Julie Blyfield, 2007; Gerry Wedd, 2008; Angela Valamanesh, 2009; Khai Liew, 2010; Hossein Valamanesh, 2011; Mark Kimber, 2012; Stephen Bowers, 2013; Nicholas Folland, 2014; Giles Bettison, 2015; Christopher Orchard, 2017; Clare Belfrage, 2018; Louise Haselton, 2019; Kirsten Coelho, 2020; Roy Ananda, 2021; Mark Valenzuela, 2022; Helen Fuller, 2023; Julie Robinson, 2024.
