Kate Larsen’s work radically rehumanises the institutions that shape our lives. Whether as a poet or a strategist, a collaborator or a leader, Larsen looks around at her working context and asks: what happens here? How are people welcomed here? How do we make decisions together here? And, most crucially, most beautifully: how is our humanity enriched here?
Because we all live in hybrid worlds now – and, of course, we’ve lived this way for quite some time. The structures we’ve created to communicate more efficiently, and to make our lives easier, have this curious way of alienating us from one another, as well as from ourselves.
Esther Anatolitis is one of Australia’s most influential advocates for arts and culture. She is Editor of Meanjin, Honorary Associate Professor at RMIT School of Art, and a member of the National Gallery of Australia Governing Council. Esther has led arts and media organisations across all artforms, including Express Media, the Emerging Writers' Festival, Craft Victoria, SYN Media, Melbourne Fringe, Regional Arts Victoria and NAVA. Her consultancy Test Pattern focuses on creative practice, policy and precincts, as well as advocacy and public value.
A hallmark of Esther’s arts leadership career has been her tenacious civic engagement, ensuring that artists’ voices and arts issues feature prominently on political agendas. This work has ranged from strategic development and private advice to public events, regional marginal seat forums, candidates’ debates, specialist workshops and Australia’s first advocacy training program for the arts. A prolific writer, Esther’s work regularly appears in literary journals, newspapers, and arts and design media, and she is a regular Arts Hub columnist. Her book Place, Practice, Politics is published by Spurbuch.
Follow Esther on Twitter: @_esther.
