In August 2019, Diversity Arts Australia published Shifting the Balance: Cultural Diversity in Leadership within Australian Arts, Screen and Creative Sectors – a study that found that culturally and linguistically diverse Australians were underrepresented across every leadership role in every cultural sector.
In this episode of We are Creative, the team chat with Lena Nahlous (CEO of Diversity Arts Australia) and Tessa Leong (Artistic Director of Contemporary Asian Australian Performance) about the impact of that report, and what needs to be done to shift the balance in the right direction.
‘I always talk about how good intentions aren’t enough to ensure sustainability, continuity, and that targets can be really useful because they create accountability,’ says Nahlous.
For Jeong, it’s a question of everyone contributing, not just the lucky few who have seen success. ‘We can’t rely on one or two astonishing artists to bring the rest of us up,’ she says. ‘We need to all structurally change what we’re doing.’
A 3-part ArtsHub series exploring key issues in the arts.
Episode 3 presented by Richard Watts and Carielyn Tunion
In-partnership with Create NSW.
Article and podcast source: ArtsHub