Olivia Ansell appointed as Sydney Festival’s new director

A Sydneysider with a passion for her city's stories, Olivia Ansell's first Sydney Festival program will be presented in 2022.

‘I’m a Sydneysider and I have a passion for Sydney,’ said Olivia Ansell, the newly appointed Director of Sydney Festival. 

‘I know the city so well and so intimately having spent my whole career producing and curating big international moments, and moments with local artists in this city. So I really want to get in there and use those connections and my passion for the stories we can tell to reinvigorate and rejuvenate the city – and also keep Sydney Festival as one of the world’s major arts festivals and one of the biggest commissioners of international Australian work.’

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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