Our History
APAC has a rich history of providing outstanding performing arts education in Brisbane.
Since its inception in 1993 as the Australian Stage Combat School (ASCS), evolving into the Actors Conservatory, the now renamed and expanded Australian Performing Arts Conservatory (APAC) has spent 27 years producing professional graduates who have gone on to successful careers across theatre, film and television.
Our vision & purpose
We will achieve our vision by striving to be the best through constant innovation, being courageous, and by taking risks to create a learning environment the best talent aspires to.
APAC is where amazing artists aspire to become their best, to realise their dreams with the support and guidance of proven performers with academic excellence and rigour.
EXCELLENCE
APAC is where amazing artists aspire to become their best, to realise their dreams with the support and guidance of proven performers with academic excellence and rigour.
RESILIENCE
Taking and making opportunities that emerge out of challenges and threats.
ARTISTRY
Nurturing, developing, creating, and expressing innovative ideas, cultural contributions, aesthetic solutions.
A PORTRAIT OF APAC
Diverse by nature. Inclusive by choice.
A culture of creativity is life at the conservatory, and it takes all kinds.
Diversity invites us to think differently and creatively – it’s our strength.
Inclusion is necessary to give ideas air to grow.
Together they enhance our ability to differentiate ourselves.
APAC is the place where you will be empowered to share your voice, your story, have the freedom to
create your dream, and realise your passion.
If you are driven to create, we’d love for you to join us.
John Martin
CEO
DIVERSITY – OUR COMMITMENT
APAC has a long and proud tradition of diversity, inclusivity, and support – for all students, of all backgrounds, at all levels – who are driven by their passion to tell their stories,
So what makes a ‘typical’ APAC student?
Well, quite a range – from a former African child-soldier who had never heard of Shakespeare, right through to high-flying entrepreneurs; students with disabilities and academic challenges, for whom we have adapted and tailored learning; teaching processes to accommodate their respective learning journeys, international corporate lawyers; taxi-drivers who emerged to become nationally acclaimed actors and award-winning film producers.
We have welcomed the diverse, embraced the passionate, developed the dream, cultivated the confidence, nurtured and focused the talent, to graduate adaptable, creative, employable, professionals artists, all of whom are able to articulate their own stories through the performing arts in their own unique way, representing and giving voice to a diversity of cultures and communities.
We continue to develop partnerships and build relationships with a range of cultural organisations, offering access to higher education together with professional pathways to all who demonstrate their deep passion and commitment.
We ‘get’ diversity and inclusivity; we welcome diversity and inclusivity; we are defined by diversity and inclusivity.
Dr Christiaan Willems
Director of Higher Education
APAC acknowleges the traditional custodians of the land on which we work, the Jagera and Turrbal people. We give our respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. We honour the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and acknowledge that they have been creating and storytelling on this land for thousands of years.
APAC recognises and seeks to practice the Universal Declaration of Human Rights