Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Sunday 26 October
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Join passionate Melburnian culture makers as they interrogate the meaning, purpose and relevance of an international arts festival in Melbourne. With Michael Williams, Jason Marriner, Susan Provan, Richard Evans and Jonathan Holloway.
Eavesdropping on Artists
A series of interactive talks, presented by the Wheeler Centre, in which prominent artists discuss shows presented as part of Melbourne Festival.
The catch? The artists must talk about artworks from outside their own practice.
Come and find out what artists really think about each other’s work, in this fascinating, cross-disciplinary discussion on the practice and presentation of art.
Featuring
Richard Evans
Richard Evans of REĂ Consulting is an experienced practitioner in arts, culture, events and place making. Currently REĂ is engaged by the Barangaroo Delivery Authority to oversee events, public art and the creation of a new 18,000 square metre cultural space within the newly created Headland Park on 22 hectares of Sydney’s waterfront.
REĂ is also currently providing executive producing services for the Corroboree Sydney festival in November. REĂ has recently been working with the NSW government developing a business case to establish the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. It has been commissioned to undertake a range of operational reviews of arts and tourism related businesses, including being part of the team which developed a Master Plan for Centennial Park.
An experienced producer, chief executive, and public servant, Richard Evans has previously held roles as executive director of The Bell Shakespeare Company and The Australian Ballet and CEO of Sydney Opera House. In his role at the Opera House, Richard oversaw 2500 events annually and established a number of new festivals and activations, significantly developing the public domain and overseeing a period of unprecedented economic and visitation growth.
Jason Marriner
Jason Marriner is the CEO of Marriner Group, the family company responsible for four of Melbourne’s beautiful heritage theatres: The Regent Theatre, Princess Theatre, Comedy Theatre and Forum Theatre.
Jason’s involvement in the business started 25 years ago behind the bar at the Princess Theatre, before moving onto programming and management roles within the company. Marriner Group’s ambition is to grow Melbourne’s theatre audience by presenting the best theatrical attractions possible within its theatres and to be good custodians of Melbourne’s unique heritage theatre assets.
Michael Williams
Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne as its ...
Susan Provan
Susan Provan is the Director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival which, along with the comedy program of the Edinburgh Fringe and the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, makes up a trio of the largest comedy events in the world.
In 2017 the Festival sold over 560,000 tickets, was attended by almost 770,000, and broadcast to millions more across prime time television specials on ABC and SBS. Post-festival the Festival’s Roadshow visited almost 80 tiny towns and big cities from one end of Australia to the other as well as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and four major cities in India.
Susan’s previous roles include Associate Producer of State Theatre Company SA and General Manager of Circus Oz. She is a member of the Administrative Committee and chairs the Comedy Panel for the Helpmann Performing Arts awards as well as regularly judging high-profile comedy awards in the UK and North America. She has served on the boards of Neonheart and Strange Fruit performing arts companies and on the Playing Australia Committee for the Federal Department for the Arts and the Myer Performing Arts Awards Committee.
In 2017 Susan was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and earlier this year was acknowledged with a Live Performance Australia Centenary Award for lifetime achievement to Australia’s performing arts industry.