Journeying Forward in Darkness: The Future of Arts Leadership.

I would like to start by expressing my deep gratitude and respect to Yarggera and Turrabal people. What a beautiful privilege it has been to gather on your land, to talk, feast and connect. Thank you.

I am so very happy to see at this gathering a cohort of young, emerging and student artists and arts workers. Put up your hands! There you are. The presence of VCA students has prompted me to reflect on my own time there and the journey I have taken through the arts to arrive at this point now, in front of you all today.

I loved my three years at the VCA. It was very much the beginnings of the making of me. It was at VCA I found a place of belonging, adventure, curiosity, creativity, and challenge. It was a place where I learned from my peers as much as I learned from my lecturers. This learning did not cease when I left campus.

I have heard a lot over the past two days of the arts being a fertile place for affirming our strengths, expressing our voices and discovering our kin. I can confirm that my experience of a life in the arts has been one of celebrating and commiserating together, exploring possibilities, revelling in collective curiosity and salving the bruises and blows of being driven to live an examined life. We have attended each others weddings, celebrated milestone birthdays, shared intimacies, buried loved ones and held each other’s vulnerabilities. We talk about being a creative industry or sector but I think in essence we are a community of fellow travellers. It is an honour to walk this path with you and to bear witness to your lives.

I can promise you young ones the same things await for you too. Welcome.

However, in this room we all know that back stage can be a very dark place. Early in my journey I learned that I was both uniquely talented, but also expendable. I learned that I was only ever as good as my last gig and that my first duty was to the art and the artist to the exclusion of all else.

As a young stage manager, I was reassured that it is quite normal to escape to a bathroom and cry out the wrenching anxieties of the job. I was told it was good practice to rinse out the cortisol and adrenalin through tears.

I listened and counselled other creatives, held space and made going above and beyond standard in my practice, the price for the privilege of being allowed in this very special community. For better or worse those are the fires I was forged in.

I quickly came to the to the conclusion that in order to find safety and agency I needed to seek higher ground. I needed to lead. If I could acquire some power perhaps I could help make this a better place for myself and others.

As I progressed through my career I slowly climbed the tree. And with higher ground I gained more perspective.

The all powerful director was revealed to be a precarious worker, just wanting to tell a story.

The artist was drowning in the hustle to stay afloat, do the right thing by their community, make work and a living.

The producer was concealing their overwhelm, juggling the responsibility of maintaining connections, keeping the pipeline of opportunity open while wedged between the artists and their organisations.

The executive was expending all their energies advocating for those below while servicing an impossible funding agreement and answering to a board far removed from the daily reality of bringing art to life.

Surviving, not thriving. It’s never enough. The candle burns at both ends and the well is always two drops short of bone dry.

Someone yesterday observed we are abundant with good intentions but impoverished of capacity. We have spoken a lot about caring for the earth we stand on. We have talked about the consequences of extracting more than our fair share, ignoring the limits to growth and expecting resources to be plentiful and abundant in service of our own personal needs.

We humans are of the earth. Another animal in the wilderness completely dependent on the resources nature provides, gifted with this miraculous force called creativity.

We are not exempt from the laws of nature. Our resources are finite, physically, mentally and spiritually.

We too have been extracting from each other.

It’s time to reassess and replot.

Allow me to take this conversation out of the theatre and into the woods.

Many of us saw the shadows growing longer prior to the pandemic when the sun truly dipped below the horizon. Darkness has fallen. It’s okay, it happens. It’s natural. But it makes it really hard to see the path ahead with clarity or confidence.

How wonderful to have found each other at this clearing.

When enter the wilderness each person shares the responsibilities of leadership. Collectively you work together to ensure the journey is in step with nature, caring for our bodies and the environment around us. Getting to our destination to see the sun rise is a group endeavour, where we offer our talents and our abilities to the collective and in return the collective expresses gratitude for those offerings by way of mutual support. We take turns answering different calls to duty.

Let us band together to plan a journey. Right now we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to forge a new path.

Here at base camp we must equip our backpack. Is the weight you are carrying heavy? Is that helping you? What will give up so you can walk forward? Is your grief sapping your energy? Are you blinded by quiet resentment? Will ghosts of the past just not leave in peace? Are you hungry or injured? Do you need help? What will give you the energy to share the load? What will you bring in service of others?

Our objective is to hike to the sunrise place, determined by us. We will take turns keeping fire, scouting ahead and bringing up the rear, ensuring no one is left behind. We will rest when we are tired, we will eat when we are hungry. We will pick up those who stumble and help each other climb over the rocks. What vistas are we seeking? What trails will we blaze? What instructions will we leave for those who come behind us?

We have gathered together under a new moon, a time for setting intensions and new beginnings. I encourage you to instead of seeing a disaster, embrace the call to action.

We are on a quest.

It is in the darkness of the sky the stars shine the brightest, points of light from the universe, a humbling gift of hope and benevolence, pointing the way forward.