Episode 5. Wesley Enoch: Revisiting Cultural Leadership Perspectives

Decoding Cultural Leadership

Our guest on this episode is a true luminary of Australia’s arts landscape, theatre director, playwright, festival director and thought leader Wesley Enoch.

Wesley always has clear, captivating views on the state of cultural leadership and the relationship between the arts and society. In this conversation, Wesley gives his views on recent controversies involving the STC, talks about the effects corporatisation has had on arts organisations, and provides a valuable perspective on the intersection of cultural discourse and politics in the recent Voice referendum. He talks about other burning social issues like cultural appropriation in the arts and provides reflections on his landmark Platform Paper, Take Me To Your Leader - 10 years on from its publication.

From his breakthrough in the 1990s with acclaimed productions like "The 7 Stages of Grieving," co-written with Deborah Mailman, to his tenure as the director of the Sydney Festival from 2017 to 2021, Wesley has had a significant impact on Australia’s cultural landscape.

In addition to his Sydney Festival role, he was artistic director at the Queensland Theatre Company, where his visionary productions, including "The Sunshine Club," earned him the 2000 Matilda Award and the 2001 Deadly Award for Best Director.

He has been represented on the national stage with productions like "The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table" , the original stage production of "The Sapphires," a phenomenal success that earned the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Play and toured internationally to Korea and London, and "Black Diggers" and "Black Cockatoo," at Sydney Festival.

In his influential 2014 Platform Paper, Take Me to Your Leader, Wesley spoke of being tired of the narrative that says we're not good enough, that we don't do enough for artists, and that we just need more money.

According to Wesley, artists are the dream weavers, the visionaries - the ones who can shape the future and carry the creative aspirations of a nation. But he posed a crucial question – where are they?

So please enjoy this conversation with Wesley Enoch.

Links:

Take me to your leader: the dilemma of cultural leadership / Wesley Enoch

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/6538552

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Presenter and research: Sam Cairnduff

Creative Director: Niloofar Pashmforoosh

Presented in association with Limelight

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