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“Risk is not so risky. It’s a necessity. It is how forms develop, how we find new audiences, new artists, how cultural conversations happen.”
– Angharad Wynne-Jones

In our momentous final, fifth episode on responsibility, Fleur and Jana speak with two great women of the Australian performing arts: all-round cultural leaders Angharad Wynne-Jones, Artistic Director of Arts House Melbourne, and Esther Anatolitis, Director of Regional Arts Victoria (formerly CEO of Melbourne Fringe). In an emotional, grounding ending to the series, we touch on some important, often neglected questions: how do we create an ecology that supports the artist, as well as the arts?”

“The independent arts is a hell of a lot stronger than any arts minister in any doomed-to-fail attempt to politicise the ways that art gets made.”
– Esther Anatolitis

This is a very special episode. As Angharad and Esther spoke with an authenticity and feeling that is rare in public discourse. We felt very privileged to have them with us, and we all left in tears.

Discussed in this episode:
George Brandis, being a person with a ‘decision-making potential and capacity to be confused’, the future, ‘creating new artistic frameworks for established arts companies’ and what that could possibly mean, the difference between advocacy and lobbying, audiences, the importance of having rigorous conversations about art, being accountable to the rate-payers of the City of Melbourne, bushfires, Kat Muscat, burn-out, and what is cultural leadership anyway?!

With this episode ends our season on responsibility, Fleur’s baby, a season which has taken us some very deep places. We will take a short break now, to recover from the rollercoaster and consider what to do next. But stay tuned: we have more exciting and intellectually rigorous conversations to come.

Podcast bibliography:
Keith Gallasch: Interview, Angharad Wynne-Jones, RealTime 109, June-July 2012
Michael Short: Esther Anatolitis enters The Zone, The Age, April 25, 2011
Richard Watts: Kat Muscat’s life celebrated at emotional Melbourne farewell, ArtsHub, August 4, 2015
see Angharad Wynne-Jones speak about FOLA 2014
estheranatolitis.net.