Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 10 June
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In 2015, a bevy of bright new brains will make their mark on Melbourne’s cultural scene, as new directors start work at some of our most cherished institutions: Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Festival and Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).
In an event jam-packed with creative thinkers and big ideas, Claire Spencer (Arts Centre Melbourne), Katrina Sedgwick (ACMI) and Jonathan Holloway (Melbourne Festival) – well known for their work in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and beyond – will get serious with Wheeler Centre director Michael Williams. Together, they’ll address the most pressing questions, confront the immediate challenges and exercise their keen instincts, as they explore the artistic future of Melbourne.
Are we still a city of big dreams and new voices? Are we maintaining the cultural edge that’s earned us the badge of Australia’s cultural capital? And do we take ourselves too seriously, or is there a sense of humour about our treasured status as the home of black clothes, cafes with crates and the perfect flat white?
We’ll get beyond laneways and trams, in an honest assessment of who we are … and where we’re going next.
Featuring
Michael Williams
Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne as its ...
Claire Spencer
Claire Spencer has been Arts Centre Melbourne’s Chief Executive Officer since November 2014.
Prior to Arts Centre Melbourne, Claire was at the Sydney Opera House for nearly 12 years, her last role being Chief Operating Officer, a role she commenced in October 2010. In this capacity, Claire was responsible for Precinct Businesses (Food and Beverage, Tours & Retail), Finance, Information Systems, People and Culture, Legal and Strategy and Risk Management.
Preceding her tenure at the Sydney Opera House, Claire worked at Ernst and Young (London) and Cable and Wireless (London and Sydney).
Katrina Sedgwick
Katrina has been Director & CEO of ACMI since 2015. She has a particular interest in supporting cross-disciplinary practice and an extensive background as a commissioner, creative producer and festival director. Her previous roles include Head of Arts for the national broadcaster ABC TV as well as founding Director/CEO of Adelaide Film Festival. The Festival’s $1 million AUD AFF Investment Fund was recognised with a week-long celebration at MoMA in 2011. She is on a number of arts and advisory boards, and in 2020 was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to performing arts, screen industries and visual arts administration.
Jonathan Holloway
Jonathan Holloway is Artistic Director Designate for the Melbourne Festival, having just completed four successful years as Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival.
Previously Jonathan spent six years as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and from 1997–2004 established and headed the National Theatre’s events department, where he was the founding artistic director of Watch This Space Festival and co-wrote/directed Robin Hood in the National’s Loft Theatre.
Prior to this, he was resident theatre director of the Wilde Theatre in Bracknell (directing under the name Jack Holloway) and in July 2003 was Creative Director of Elemental, a large-scale theatre, music and spectacle event at Chalon-sur-Saône festival in France.
He has been Chair of Total Theatre Network (the UK’s national development agency for physical and visual theatre), on the Executive of the British Arts Festivals Association and is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.