AS if the  Canberra Theatre Centre didn’t have enough on its plate this week, the arrival of the Australian Ballet, from Sunday it’s embarking on the 27^th annual conference of The Australian Performing Arts Centres Association—APACA.

As you’ve already guessed, the event will be officially opened by creative director of Canberra 100, Robyn Archer.

As well, a bevy of high profile speakers like  Richard Gill, Diane Ragsdale, Tony Grybowski, Katie Dawson, Brant Pope, Dave Brown and former Canberran Stephen Champion to name a few will be taking the podium to address the theme, “Fear No Art.

According to APACA’s executive director, Rick Heath, “the conference will examine exactly what it is that the performing arts contributes to liveable communities and what we, or others, might fear in the absence of that.”

APACA president Tim Munro says, “like the city of Canberra itself, APACA conferences are an incubator of great ideas and progressive discussions and where better to have a conference titled ‘Fear No Art’ than during Canberra’s centenary celebrations surrounded by some of the nation’s most significant cultural assets.”

Naturally the Canberra Theatre Centre’s director Bruce Carmichael is talking up the camera locations are this year’s event. “It makes the conference very accessible to local venue managers and arts practitioners. The information exchange at these conferences is phenomenal,” he says.