Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 14 February
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In 2012, Ideas for Melbourne will be the talk of the town.
With city elections looming in 2012, we’re kicking off this year’s programming by turning the spotlight on some of Melbourne’s biggest civic issues. Over the course of a week, we’ll be asking the city’s most controversial questions, giving you the chance to ask the city’s best placed commentators, experts and policy-makers the questions that will decide this year’s elections. Our aim is simple: to generate public conversation on the issues that matter to Melbournians most.
In this session, we ask: can Melbourne still claim the title of Australia’s cultural capital? Explore this question with Gina McColl, Carrillo Gantner and Susan Provan and Gerard Vaughan.
Tweet at this event: #IdeasMelb
Featuring
Carrillo Gantner
Carrillo Gantner is President of the Melbourne Festival and chairman of the Sidney Myer Fund.
His many achievements include being the first drama officer at the Australian Council for the Arts (1970-1973), general manager of the Melbourne Theatre Company, and being founding director, executive director and artistic director of Malthouse Theatre (originally the Playbox Theatre Company).
Carrillo has also been counsellor (cultural) at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, chairman of the Performing Arts Board and a member of the Australia Council. He has been chairman of Asialink and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and president of the Victorian Arts Centre Trust.
Carrillo was awarded an officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to the performing arts and Australia’s cultural exchange with Asia. In 2007, he was Victorian of the Year. In March 2011, Carrillo was awarded a Green Room Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to the performing arts.
Gina McColl
Gina McColl is The Age’s arts editor. Before becoming a journalist, Gina taught fine arts and cinema studies at the University of Melbourne.
She joined BRW in 1997, where she edited BRW.com.au, flagship issues, and covered cultural and social trends. Previously the visual arts feature writer for The Sunday Age’s magazine, Gina joined The Age in 2010.
Gerard Vaughan
Dr Gerard Vaughan was appointed director of the National Gallery of Victoria in 1999.
He is an art historian with extensive experience within the international art and museum worlds. His research interests are particularly concerned with the history of taste and art collecting in the 18th and 19th centuries, ranging from neo-classicism to post-impressionism. He was previously director of the British Museum Development Trust.
Susan Provan
Susan Provan is the Director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival which, along with the comedy program of the Edinburgh Fringe and the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, makes up a trio of the largest comedy events in the world.
In 2017 the Festival sold over 560,000 tickets, was attended by almost 770,000, and broadcast to millions more across prime time television specials on ABC and SBS. Post-festival the Festival’s Roadshow visited almost 80 tiny towns and big cities from one end of Australia to the other as well as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and four major cities in India.
Susan’s previous roles include Associate Producer of State Theatre Company SA and General Manager of Circus Oz. She is a member of the Administrative Committee and chairs the Comedy Panel for the Helpmann Performing Arts awards as well as regularly judging high-profile comedy awards in the UK and North America. She has served on the boards of Neonheart and Strange Fruit performing arts companies and on the Playing Australia Committee for the Federal Department for the Arts and the Myer Performing Arts Awards Committee.
In 2017 Susan was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and earlier this year was acknowledged with a Live Performance Australia Centenary Award for lifetime achievement to Australia’s performing arts industry.