The Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs is celebrating a wildly successful Desert Mob 2018, with the event breaking all records for the second year in a row.
Desert Mob 2018 has cemented its importance in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art landscape with well over $1 million in total sales recorded as the exhibition and art fare came to a close.
Minister for Tourism and Culture, Lauren Moss said this result demonstrates the importance of Desert Mob in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art landscape and congratulated the team at Araluen Cultural Precinct for delivering such an incredible event and exhibition and the Desart team for their work with remote Aboriginal art centres.
The 2018 Desert Mob Exhibition showcased 262 remarkable works of art from 236 artists drawn from 31 remote Aboriginal art centres across the NT, SA, and WA.
Visitors came from across the nation and the globe with significant works acquired by state collecting institutions such as the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art and the Art Gallery of NSW, as well as the Commonwealth Government agency Artbank.
Significant private collectors were also in attendance, some of whom were camped out at the Araluen Galleries doors from 10am ahead of the 6pm opening in order to acquire the most highly valued artworks.
The dates for next years opening weekend are Thursday 5 to Saturday 7 September 2019.
