The objective of the Council's international relations program is to
encourage greater attention to, and understanding of, international security
issues of mutual concern to Australia and India and of the international
relations stance of each country.

To encourage discussion in Australia of the impact on the international
security environment and on bilateral relations of the May 1998 Indian and
Pakistani nuclear tests, the Council provided funding toward travel costs for
participation by Professor Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Security Studies at
the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and Air Commodore Jasjit Singh,
Director of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Analysis, New Delhi, in the
Dialogue on Security and Disarmament in the Asia Pacific, conducted by Monash
University in Melbourne during August 1998.

Performing and visual arts

The objective of the Council's performing and visual arts program is to
develop in India and Australia an appreciation of the quality, diversity and
sophistication of each country's performing and visual arts. The program
includes projects in arts management.

Portraying a Nation, an exhibition of photographs of Australia by leading Indian photographer Satish Sharma, recorded aspects of contemporary Australian life with particular emphasis on families and multiculturalism. Jointly funded by the AIC and the Australian High Commission, Portraying a Nation opened in New Delhi in March 1999 and later went to other major Indian cities. Satish Sharma (above at the exhibition opening) took the photographs during his visit to Australia in August-September 1998.

During 1998-99, the Council funded high-profile performing arts tours in
both countries. From Australia, the Council provided funding to the Jazz
Coordination Association of Western Australia to enable the Perth Jazz
Orchestra to participate in the biennial Jazz Yatra, the leading Indian
international jazz festival, in Mumbai and Pune in November 1998. The
orchestra, including sixteen musicians and supporting personnel and also
providing from its ranks the Jamie Oehlers Quintet, played a leading role in
the festival and the performances of both groups received glowing reviews.

In the other direction, the Council provided funding for the concert tour
of Australia in February and March 1999 by Indian santoor (hammered
dulcimer) virtuoso Shiv Kumar Sharma, accompanied by the eminent percussionist
Shafaat Ahmed Khan and by Rahul Kumar Sharma, also on santoor.
Organised by the Melbourne-based Nataraj Cultural Centre, the tour included
concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Castlemaine (Victoria), Canberra, Perth, and at
the World of Music and Dance festival in Adelaide. The performances attracted
standing ovations at each location.

The Council contributed to costs of production in Australia of a compact
disc recording of a musical collaboration between the Australian Art
Orchestra, led by Paul Grabowsky, and the Indian Sruthi Laya ensemble, led by
Karaikudi R Mani. The recording, bringing together Australian contemporary
music and music from the Carnatic tradition of Southern India, will document a
long-term working relationship between the two ensembles in composition and
performance, which emerged during the 1996 Australia India-New Horizons promotion in India.

The Council also provided funding to the Asialink Centre at the University
of Melbourne for a performing arts residency by Australian jazz musician and
composer Nick McBride at the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad
for four months from September 1999, and for performing arts, visual arts and
arts management residencies by Australians in India to be implemented in 2000.

The major Council-supported visual arts event of 1998-99 was the Portraying
a Nation photographic exhibition on Australia by leading Indian
photographer Mr Satish Sharma, which opened at the India International Centre
in New Delhi in March 1999. Portraying a Nation was subsequently
exhibited at the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi, and was scheduled for
exhibition in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Calcutta during 1999-2000.

Jointly funded by the Council and the Australian High Commission in New
Delhi, Portraying a Nation featured photographs taken during a visit to
Australia by Mr Sharma in August-September 1998, and recorded aspects of the
Australian landscape and Australian life, with particular emphasis on families
and multiculturalism.

The Council agreed to provide funding to a consortium comprising the
National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia and the
Australian National University to conduct the first stage of an Indigenous
artists exchange, comprising a residency at a leading arts centre in India in
late 1999 by a small group of Australian Indigenous traditional artists and an
exhibition of their work. Subject to the outcomes of the first stage of the
exchange, the Council indicated its willingness to consider funding for a
second stage, comprising a residency and exhibitions by Indian Indigenous
artists in Australia, in a later year.

The Council provided funding to the Queensland Art Gallery to support the
participation of Indian artists in the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial, the major
regional contemporary art exhibition, in Brisbane from August to September
1999. The Council's decision recognised the success of Indian participation,
with AIC funding, in the Second Triennial in 1996.

With Council funding assistance, arts management consultants Ms Joanna
Caust and Mr David Fishel participated in seminars and workshops conducted by
the Sanskriti Institute of Management for Cultural Organisations in New Delhi
in December 1998 as part of a training program for arts administrators in
India.