To mark the end of 2010, well nearly, we’ve pulled together our thoughts on who we think are some of Australia’s top arts leaders moving us forward into the 20-teens.
David Walsh, Art Collector and founder of Museum of Old and New (MONA)
If you haven’t heard of the previously reclusive David Walsh, that’s about to change. Stories of the man will be everywhere in January with the opening of his $55 million mostly underground, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), set near his Moorilla Estate winery by the Derwent River, near Hobart. MONA will house his provocative private collection worth over $100 million that includes works by Damien Hurst, Jenny Saville, Sidney Nolan, Brett Whitely, and Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili. It will be Australia’s largest private museum by a country mile. A self-proclaimed ‘computer-geek’ Walsh made his fortune through gambling and his part in worldwide highly sophisticated gambling syndicates. He’s is a gloriously unexpected arts leader, a perverse or some may think perverted, Willy Wonker for the arts. This promises to be just the beginning of the ripples Walsh and MONA will create; a refreshing, albeit confounding, incitement to the Australia art scene.
Chrissie Sharp, Director, The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas
As inaugural Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas Chrissie Sharp has had the chance to put her stamp on Melbourne’s UNESCO City of Literature centrepiece. And what a nice stamp it is. The Wheeler Centre has, as is so often aptly put, become part of ‘the conversation’, with topical, challenging, and charming seminars, readings, discussions, and conferences real and ‘un’ – conferenced. Sharp returned to Australia to take up the role in 2009 (after Caro Llewellyn withdrew) having spent almost five years as General Manager at London’s Sadler Wells. Sharp has a strong background in programming from heading the Sydney Festival and time at SBS, but it’s matched by financial and operational nous. When she arrived at Sadler Wells, the theatre was in dire financial trouble. Within 12 months she had the ancient institution back on its feet, and it is now a reinvigorated centre of dance, pulling in box office sales and championing emerging contemporary artists. That combination of acumen and a nose for the zeitgeist along with boundless energy has given The Wheeler Centre a solid start in life.
Judith Isherwood, Chief Executive, Victorian Arts Centre
Another Australian returning from successes overseas, Judith Isherwood took up the position of Chief Executive of the Victorian Arts Centre in late 2009. For seven years she had been Chief Executive of the Wales Millennium Centre, the Welsh arts centre that is house two theatres, most of the Welsh national arts institutions (opera, dance, theatre) and organisations, overseeing its on-time and on-budget construction and first five years of programming. With the refurbishment of the Arts Centre’s Hamer Hall underway and big dreams to make it a conduit between the Yarra’s Southbank and the Sturt Street cabal of arts institutions Isherwood’s hardhat for construction projects was key to her landing the Victorian Arts Centre job. But she has been quoted as saying it’s her ideal job, and that she wants the Arts Centre to be one of the great arts centres of the world. Before heading to the UK she was Director of Performing Arts at the Sydney Opera House. She’s also worked with Melbourne’s Fringe Festival and Arts Victoria.
Gideon Ozbarzanek, Artistic Director Chunky Move
The founder and artistic director of leading Australian dance company Chunky Move, Gideon Ozbarzanek, recently announced he would be leaving at the end of 2011 to pursue other independent opportunities. Since it was established in 1995, Chunky Move has challenged expectations with works that have been innovative, eclectic, physical and bold. Ozbarzanek has been at the forefront of performing arts convergence, collaborating with artists in interactive media, video, music, design and fashion and has choreographed works for stage, installations, specific sites and film. The company is Australia’s most successful contemporary dance export, with an extensive international touring program. There will be many watching to see where Ozbarzanek leading dance next.
Ron Radford, Director, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Part of Ron Radford’s vision for the National Gallery of Australia became public this year with the opening in September of Stage 1, a major extension to the museum with 11 new sunlit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander galleries that showcases many of the 7,500 owned by the NGA never previously publicly displayed. The NGA also now has an impressive new entrance and foyer (long overdue), shop, café, function hall and more amenable facilities and carpark access. It’s all part of making the National Gallery a more welcoming and engaging place to visit, building its audiences but also on its strengths. It’s an exciting development particularly, following the success of the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition, which attracted 476,000 visitors over 80% of whom travelled from interstate to see it. Radford has been with the NGA since 2004, and no doubt hopes to see through Stage 2 refurbishments that will create a Centre for Australian Art, enhance the research and office spaces and, existing galleries, and increase the temporary exhibition spaces and children’s gallery.
Simon Abrahams and Sue Giles, Polygot Theatre
The prize for keeping a positive attitude has to go to children’s interactive theatre company, Polyglot Theatre. When they lost their Australia Council funding in 2007 and things looked grim, Executive Producer, Simon Abrahams and Artistic Director, Sue Giles set themselves a funding target, built a database, looked to the actual and potential donors they could reach and got all their staff and especially their board involved. Through personalised and active on going contact they transformed donations from $1,160 in 2008 to over $80,000 in 2009, far exceeding their original target. The program they developed known as the Ambassadors’ Circle, has raised the company’s profile, given the company new momentum and well known Melbourne philanthropist Betty Amseden OAM has become its patron.
Shelagh Magadza, Artistic Director, Perth International Arts Festival
2011 will be last Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF), Shelagh Magadza will program as she comes to the end of her four-year term as Artistic Director. Next February will see a line up of over 800 international performers and artists including Berlin’s Schaubuhne theatre, Kneehigh Theatre from the UK, and the Academy of Ancient Music, an emphasis on free outdoor entertainment (especially with pyrotechnics) and the christening of the new State Theatre Centre, due to open in January. Magadza was Associate Director for four years before taking the reigns from Lindy Hume, now the Director of the Sydney Festival. Magadza, a Zimbabwean-New Zealander, has premiered significant international works at the festival along side commissioned Australian and particularly multi-lingual indigenous works. She’s consolidated the festival’s international standing as well as its financial position and continued to engaged the Perth community and grow attendances. Her replacement will be Jonathan Holloway, currently Artistic Director of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival.
Marcus Westbury, Cultural Commentator
Marcus Westbury is a serial starter of artsy things and supporter of all arty things ‘start up’. Renew Newcastle which he started with his own cash, the This Is Not Art festival, the computer game developers conference Free Play, as well as pioneering online projects on the ABC and with GetUp! are just some of the projects he’s started, some solo and many assisted. He’s been Artistic Director of the Next Wave Festival, director of the cultural program for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 and just keeps popping up on TV, radio and arts funding and advisory committees. His writing appears just about everywhere that has something to say about the arts, culture or cultural policy. As far as Australian independent advocates for new media, multimedia and emerging artists go, he’s one of a kind.
Tony Ellwood, Director of the Queensland Art Gallery and GoMA, Brisbane
Channelling the new creative energy of Queensland into art has been the focus for Tony Ellwood, Director of the Queensland Art Gallery and the highly successful Gallery of Modern Art. Ellwood has an notable pedigree in curatorial roles, starting in his twenties in the Kimberly with Waringarri Aborinal Arts, to innovating the Bendigo Art Gallery and then spending seven years at the National Gallery of Victoria. In 2007, he replaced the popular Doug Hall who had successful expanded the QAG and overseen the opening of GoMA. Since taking the helm Ellwood has continued QAG momentum with his passion for making contemporary art accessible to a broad audience. Big name exhibitions such as The Andy Warhol Retrospective,Picasso and his Collection and this year’s Valentino, Retrospective: Past, Present, Future have brought in the crowds and raised the profile of the gallery with a national audience.
Simon and Catriona Mordant, MCA philanthropists
This year the Mordant’s 20 years of active support for the arts were recognised with the AbaF Philanthropy Leadership Award. The couple have donated $15m towards the redevelopment of the MCA, a move, which tipped the funding balance and led to the Federal Government committing to supporting the completion of the project. The extension to be known as the Mordant wing will include a Centre for Creative Learning and increase the MCA’s exhibition space by two thirds, making it a truly world-class contemporary art museum. The couple’s philanthropic leadership extends beyond opening their own wallets however, with both Simon and Catriona championing the support for the arts with other business leaders and private benefactors. This year provided the merchant banker with a windfall, when he and his two other cofounders of Caliburn sold their mergers and acquisitions advisory company to the US Greenhill & Co in a five year deal which has seen the company rebadged as Greenhill Caliburn.
