Art and national interest: the diplomatic origins of the “blockbuster exhibition” in Australia

The first museum blockbusters in Australia were not conceived to support the local interests of tourism. The circumstances that gave rise to the earliest exhibitions were quite different from the situation today. Of these interests, cultural diplomacy was a key rationale behind the Commonwealth's involvement in major art exhibitions, or so-called “blockbusters”. This paper concentrates on the period in the 1970s when art blockbusters first attained national significance. It reveals some of the issues and challenges that followed the Commonwealth's foray into art, focusing on the roles of the various national agencies tasked with managing these events, namely the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, the Australian Art Exhibitions Corporation, the Australian Gallery Directors' Council, and the International Cultural Corporation of Australia.