00:00Gillian, thanks for joining me.
00:04Pleasure.
00:05How much damage has the Writers Week controversy
00:07done to the Adelaide Festival?
00:09It's been a sad incident,
00:12and I think it's obviously left a hole in the 2026 program
00:18that's been keenly felt.
00:20But we, I think, after having collected ourselves,
00:23are very committed to bringing it back stronger than ever in 2027.
00:28Do you think the event still has public support?
00:30Absolutely.
00:31In fact, we've been really heartened by a lot of the messages of support
00:36that have come from various parts of the festival community,
00:39from donors, but especially audiences.
00:43The messages of support have been overwhelming.
00:47Looking at this whole saga, would you say it was preventable?
00:51I think there is in the arts generally at the moment
00:56a very live and febrile conversation
01:00about where we're intersecting with politics.
01:03So we're not the first arts institution
01:07that has kind of come to grief
01:10over some of these kind of political questions,
01:12and I'm sure we won't be the last.
01:15I think it probably was preventable,
01:19and part of what we need to do from here
01:22is to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
01:24Why did you advise the Festival Board
01:26not to uninvite Rwanda Abdel Fattah?
01:29Well, I thought that there were a number of recent examples
01:35that we could point to where wading into cancellation
01:41of individual artists had caused damage to a festival
01:47or a company or an institution.
01:50I also felt that we needed to trust the judgement
01:54of the Director of Writers Week.
01:57It's kind of their job to make assessments
02:01about the suitability of a writer or not,
02:03and I kind of value that quite highly.
02:07Members of the Board, the Chair of the Board,
02:09and the Director of Writers Week resigned
02:11over the way all this unfolded.
02:13Did you think about resigning?
02:15There was a moment where I had to consider
02:18whether implementing the decision
02:20was consistent with my other responsibilities
02:25and obligations to the festival, yes.
02:28What led you to the decision not to resign?
02:30Well, I wanted to be available for the staff
02:34to help get through what I knew was going to be
02:37a really traumatic and disruptive period.
02:41I've only been at the festival for less than six months
02:45and I felt like we could get through this
02:48and that we had a plan and have a plan for the next three years
02:52that's going to set the festival up really well.
02:54Yes, looking to the future, how will you navigate
02:57having Randa Abdel Fattah appearing at Writers Week next year?
03:01Well, that'll be a conversation between the Director
03:04of 2027 Writers Week and Dr. Abdel Fattah.
03:10I imagine that the conversation might be about the novel discipline
03:14that she was going to speak about at the 26 Writers Week
03:20and that's a really interesting and insightful
03:24and novel worthy of the conversation.
03:28Are you concerned that that appearance will overshadow
03:31the rest of the festival or the rest of Writers Week
03:33in the same way that it did this year?
03:35No. There's over 200 authors at Writers Week,
03:39many of whom will be noteworthy, I'm sure.
03:42So I think it will be one of the many things
03:46that generates conversation out of the week,
03:49as there always are a number of things that generate conversation.
03:53Regarding the decision to invite her next year,
03:56are you concerned that it might affect government support for the festival?
04:00No. Why not?
04:02Because the government has, through this process,
04:05reaffirmed its commitment to the curatorial independence of the festival.
04:10Are you personally assured that you are completely independent of the government?
04:15Yes. I mean, we're a statutory authority, so we have very tangible links to government
04:23in the same way that six or seven other arts institutions in the state do.
04:28But in terms of the curatorial independence, I'm absolutely assured of that.
04:32But you do rely on government funding. Are you concerned about losing any of that?
04:37No, I'm not. The assurance is there that the funding is not at threat.
04:45The Premier has been at pains, I think, to point out his ongoing commitment
04:51to the curatorial independence of the festival and Writers Week as part of that,
04:56and I take that at face value.
04:58Certain sections of the community believe that the Premier is more focused on sports than the arts.
05:04Do you think he adequately supports the arts?
05:07I think across the country it has to be recognised that arts funding is not the same as it has been in the past.
05:21South Australia is just one of many in that respect.
05:26I do think there's a conversation for the community to have about investing more in arts and culture
05:34because of what we contribute back to the community in terms of social value and economic value.
05:40And I think there's an opportunity to recognise the power of the arts to bring us together
05:45and support it better than we do.
05:48I guess back to that initial question, do you think that arts has been undervalued by this Premier?
05:55I wouldn't say specifically by this Premier. I wouldn't...
05:58By this government?
05:59I wouldn't frame it that way.
06:00I would only just recognise that there's a trend that's been going on for a long time
06:07that predates this Premier and this government and is much broader afield in the country,
06:14and South Australia is part of that.
06:17And I think we need to have a national conversation about reinvesting in arts and culture.
06:23On the festival line-up, how's this year's program looking?
06:26Fantastic. And the response to it since it was first released in October
06:31has been among the strongest audience responses to the festival in some years,
06:35which has been really gratifying.
06:37Comparing ticket sales this year to this time last year,
06:40have you seen any impact following the Writers Week controversy?
06:43Ticket sales have been really healthy.
06:45We lost some momentum through the first half of January, as you can imagine,
06:49but we've really started re-advertising in the last couple of weeks
06:54and the response has been really good.
06:56Julian, thanks for your time.
06:57Thank you for having me.
06:58Thank you for having me.
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