2005 marked the inaugural Arc Biennial, a three-day festival of exhibitions, panel discussions and lectures celebrating the work of Queensland art, craft and design. In 2005, Arc was based at the Brisbane City Hall, and other galleries and venues throughout Brisbane.

The first event of its kind in Australia, Arc brought visual art, craft and design together in one program of events. The program featured exhibitions, keynote lectures, forums and more with renowned Queensland, Australian and international artists, curators and writers. Most sessions at Arc were free of charge.

Key speakers and events at the 2005 Arc Biennial included:

Matthew Collings is widely recognised in the UK and internationally as a writer and broadcaster, though he is trained and still practises as an artist. He has published several popular and high profile books that challenge the orthodoxy of art writing - erudite, astute, often maverick viewpoints written with simplicity and humour. He has appeared frequently on television as presenter of his own series This is Modern Art, and as presenter of Channel 4's The Turner Prize.

Tracey Moffatt has a reputation as one of one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. At the most productive time of her artistic career, Moffatt is exceptional in that she has already produced photographic images that have achieved iconic status in Australia and overseas. Highly regarded for her formal and stylistic experimentation in film, photography and video, her work draws on the history of cinema, art and photography as well as popular culture and her own childhood memories and fantasies.

John Warwicker, the founder of pioneering UK design collective tomato, in discussion with Jason Grant, director of Brisbane-based graphic design group, Inkahoots. Warwicker and Grant will discuss tomato's print and video projects, and speak about the group's emotive, process-driven visual languages, as well as broader issues concerning contemporary art and design. A must for anyone interested in graphic design as a vital and progressive medium of expression.

De Lama Lamina is a collaborative film work by American artist Matthew Barney and American-Brazilian musician Arto Lindsay. The film documents the pair's participation in 2004's Carnaval de Salvador in Bahia, where their performance intimately linked sound and architecture. Barney's renowned Cremaster Cycle toured the world in 2003, culminating in a retrospective at New York's' Guggenheim.