PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
For Melbourne Festival, 2012 was both a finale and a transition:
the year marked the fourth and final program curated for
Melbourne Festival by outgoing Artistic Director Brett Sheehy and
simultaneously a shifting of gears towards the “future festival”.
Along with the familiar business of conceiving, organising and
delivering a major international festival on this scale, we undertook
a period of intense re-evaluation as the board and management
prepared the strategies and the organisation for its transition into
the future. This process of re-framing our expectations of the
strategic and creative leadership needed to lead the organisation
into its next chapter led up to the recruitment of our incoming
Creative Director, Josephine Ridge, and Executive Director, Katie
McLeish. These are important appointments that bookmark the
next chapter of the Festival’s history but they do not signal an end
to the on-going planning process.
The 2012 Festival, with its landmark Foxtel Festival Hub as its
heart and focus, was the largest of the four festivals curated for
us by Brett Sheehy. It featured 85 events, 18 world premieres, 24
Australian premieres, 207 performances and 33 film screenings.
At the heart of the program was the creativity and commitment of
414 international and 599 Australian artists and arts personnel,
coordinated by our team of dedicated and fiercely capable staff. I
thank them all, and especially so our outgoing Artistic Director,
whose vision, experience and enthusiasm knows few bounds.
Brett’s contribution to the Festival’s storyline over the last four
years has pushed artistic boundaries, brought together glorious
entertainments, and created a raft of opportunities for new work
and Australian artists to participate in the unique frame of an
international arts festival.
The 2012 Festival enjoyed strong public and critical support,
delivering a box office of over $2.5million, continuing the trend of
box office takings and total attendances achieved over the last four
years. Details of the 2012 Program appear elsewhere in this report.
I saw no less than 20 performances and events myself. We all have
personal favourites but this year mine were the brilliant Forsythe
Dance Company, the Schaubuhne Berlin’s thrilling An Enemy of
the People, Nilaja Sun’s outstanding one woman performance in
No Child, and taking our 3 year old grandson to Arena Theatre’s
delightful House of Dreaming. A great festival like this offers
something for all ages while the density of programming requires
you to make hard choices. That’s the fun of it.
Along with our ongoing support from the Victorian Government
and the City of Melbourne as our two Public Partners, the Board
was particularly pleased to enjoy to continuing support of our
Principal Partner Foxtel along with many associated sponsors and
donors. I am also very pleased to report significant growth this year
in individual philanthropic support through our Patron’s Program
and the new Presenting Partners program. This latter program
offers the opportunity for Patrons to be uniquely identified with a
particular show or artist. On behalf of the Board and management
team I give thanks to all these supporters. These organizations and
individuals believe in the vision and purpose of Melbourne Festival
and contribute so generously to strengthening our creative and
financial resources, and through that, our ability to present such a
f ine program.
Can I also give our sincere thanks to the Minister for the Arts
during the year, the Hon Ted Baillieu MP. I know he had other
cares of state, but for me his enthusiasm for the arts and his real
appreciation of creativity are important qualities of leadership
often lacking in Australia.
And so the caravan moves on.
Late in 2012 we welcomed Josephine Ridge as our incoming
Creative Director and appointed Katie McLeish as our incoming
Executive Director. Together they will lead the Melbourne Festival
team into the future, guided by the Board’s 2020 vision statement
and the associated development agenda. I note in passing the
switch in title from Artistic to Creative Director which is designed
to signify change and the new model based on wider and deeper
partnerships with local and international artistic managements.
I would like to pay tribute to my fellow Board members who have
brought invaluable and diverse experience, commitment and
willing advocacy to Melbourne Festival throughout this year. I also
sing the praise of Tim Jacobs, our Executive Director for the last
two years, for his astute guidance through this period of transition.
He brought his life long experience, calm and wisdom to the task
of re-imagining the Festival’s future, supporting Artistic Director
Brett Sheehy, and strengthening the Festival organisation and
management practices. Tim helped us to shape the foundations on
which we build the Festival’s future with confidence.
Melbourne is a wonderful city for the arts and to be associated
with the Melbourne Festival is a special privilege. It brings us into
close partnerships with other great arts organisations, large and
small, that together make up the vibrant cultural ecology of our
city. We each do different things but we are all stronger and richer
when we put the different pieces together in service of the people
of Melbourne, of regional Victoria and of visitors. Melbourne
Festival’s role is to provide a period of intense concentration of
the mind, the heart and the spirit on some of the world’s great
performing and visual arts. Concentration gives clarity and builds
community.
CARRILLO GANTNER AO
PRESIDENT
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