How to create an Australasian city

Arts organisations committed to long-term cultural engagement with the Asia-Pacific have transformed Brisbane; Bjelke-Petersen would barely recognise his old fiefdom.

Yang Liping Contemporary Dance’s Under Siege at Brisbane Festival. Photo credit: Xiao Quan.

Cities, like people, tell different stories about themselves at different times of their lives. In earlier decades Brisbane’s story revolved around corruption and cultural isolation; more recently it has shifted to a different story, in which independent artists are forced to relocate to larger, southern cities in order to continue practising their craft.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts