Brisbane's longest-running ARI relaunches, supported by Metro Arts
In 2026, Metro Arts is proud to relaunch our Artist-Run-Initiave in Residence program. The program was previously delivered 2008-2017 and is widely regarded as propagating a dynamic grassroots moment in Brisbane’s cultural history – supporting young and emerging artist-run projects with space, business development and curatorial support that bolstered a range of independent practices in domestic, found or commercial spaces following their incubation in the program. These projects served as crucial training grounds for a generation of Brisbane curators and artsworkers.
In a significant moment of mutual reinvention, Metro Arts hosts Boxcopy as our 2026-2027 ARI-in-Residence.
Boxcopy was, significantly, our first ARI-in-Residence in 2008, then ran independently until 2021 as Brisbane’s longest-running ARI, before shuttering due to ongoing limitations in the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Now, Metro Arts supports the relaunch of Boxcopy with a team of returning and new directors, supported by a legacy chair – providing project funding, venue access, business development support, and curatorial mentorship. Boxcopy has a substantial legacy profiling emerging artists in exhibitions and public programs, driving contemporary discourse, exploration and production.
Through late 2026 and into 2027, Boxcopy will inhabit Gallery 2 deliver an independent curatorial program alongside Metro Arts exhibitions in Gallery 1.
Jessica Carmody (she/her) is a contemporary artist and academic living and working in the Tulmer (Ipswich) and Meanjin (Brisbane) regions of Queensland, Australia.
Her print-installation practice explores memory, transcorporal traces, and domestic archives through feminist examinations of gender and the home. She holds a BFA (Visual Arts) and MPhil (Creative Practice) from QUT and is currently completing a practice-led PhD on the ‘haunted home’ and the spectral in contemporary women’s art. Within the arts community, Jessica serves as a Co-Director of Boxcopy ARI, a Sessional Academic at QUT, and is involved with a number of arts writing and publishing projects.