Asia TOPA has received the Inspire Award for Organisations at the 2026 Asia Pacific Art Awards, in recognition of the triennial festival’s sustained contribution to artistic collaboration and cultural exchange across the Asia-Pacific. The annual awards celebrate the best of Australia’s Asia-Pacific creativity and brings together internationally-leading artists, companies and icons of the field.
This marks the second major award Asia TOPA has accepted in recognition of its remarkable 2025 festival. Last year the festival was awarded the 2025 Melbourne Award for Arts & Events by the City of Melbourne. Performances commissioned and presented at Asia TOPA 2025 have also received an outstanding 15 nominations from Melbourne’s premier, peer-presented, performing arts industry awards, The Green Room Awards.
Asia TOPA’s Creative Director Jeff Khan accepted the Inspire Award for Organisations on Monday night at Government House in Perth, Western Australia. Alongside Asia TOPA 2025 Executive Producer Naomi Velaphi, Senior Curator Tam Nguyen and Arts Centre Melbourne Executive Director, Performing Arts Melanie Smith.
In February 2025 Asia TOPA – Melbourne’s Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts – returned to Naarm/Melbourne after a 5-year absence. Presented by Arts Centre Melbourne across 20 venues large and small, it celebrated Australia’s place as an Asia-Pacific country and brought 410 artists and collectives from 17 countries to the city’s stages, galleries, public squares, nightclubs and university campuses. Attracting more than 750,000 audience members, Asia TOPA created a new sense of community that brought people together across generations, geography and cultural backgrounds.
Performances commissioned and presented at Asia TOPA’s 2025 festival have since gone on to reach more than 20,000 audience members in 12 countries across the Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe. Encouraged by the international community’s response, the Asia TOPA team are now diving into creative developments for a whole range of new performances, ideas and commissions for its 2026-2028 festival cycle.
As a recipeint of an Inspire Award at the Asia Pacific Art Awards, Asia TOPA received $25,000 in recognition of sustained artistic practice and cultural exchange across the region, including collaborations with First Nations, Māori, Pasifika and Asian communities. Asia TOPA is currently seeking new partners to secure its future, and looks forward to sharing more of its forward vision in the coming months.
