A really interesting event is about to take hold: and my interest in it, is because in the last 3.5 years since coming back from living and working as an artist in Canada.. I have been hell-bent on re-defining theatre practice in Sydney. Obsessed with new writing, I have created production platforms which by the end of this year will have ensured that over 50 works (which does not include my own work) have been nurtured and brought before an audience… culminating in over 200 opportunities being forged for emerging artists… and WE ALL MAKE a difference!
Check out this event! Details below…

Media Release Thursday 19 March 2009
CREATIVE SYDNEY
May 27 – June 13
www.creativesydney.com.au

Creative Sydney is a festival celebrating the wealth and diversity of the city’s creative talents from May 27- June 13. In its inaugural year, Creative Sydney will feature a provocative talks program and event series at the Museum of Contemporary Art; a conference, Creative Futures, held at Sydney Opera House on Saturday June 13, as well as the launch of Creative Catalysts – a list of Sydney’s creative pioneers.

Creative Sydney aims to put the spotlight one of the city’s most abundant resources. The creative industries employ five percent of the total NSW workforce (equal in size to the finance industry and 1.5 times larger than agriculture)*.

Creative Sydney will involve artists and practitioners from the full range of Sydney’s creative sectors including music, design, architecture, gaming, photography, performance, writing, radio, film, TV, media arts, advertising and visual arts.

Over three weeks from May 27 – June 12, the MCA’s Foundation Hall will be home to the Creative Sydney event series, featuring talks, performances, exhibitions and seminars showcasing local creative industries and creating a hub for like-minded Sydneysiders to meet, interact and network.

Creative Sydney will then take over the Opera Theatre at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday June 13 for the Creative Futures conference, featuring leading local and international cultural entrepreneurs, designers and academics in the creative industries and investigating the opportunities and challenges that face the creative industries in 2009 and beyond.

In addition to the Creative Sydney’s events and conference, the Creative Catalysts project will see the formation of a group of 100 Sydneysiders who have initiated something new and original within their creative field. From filmmakers, to fashion designers, bloggers to photographers, Creative Catalysts will expose Sydney’s most exceptionally talented and inspiring individuals.

Curated by Jess Scully (SOYA, SummerWinter magazine) and Marcus Westbury (ABC TV’s Not Quite Art, Newcastle’s This is Not Art Festival, Melbourne’s NextWave Festival) and produced by Mixed Industry (Noise, Cockatoo Island Festival), Creative Sydney’s full program and the Creative Catalyst list will be launched in April, stay tuned to www.creativesydney.com.au for updates.

Creative Sydney is part of Vivid Sydney, a unique new public festival featuring Luminous music festival at Sydney Opera House, Smart Light Sydney and Fire Water. Vivid Sydney is one of five anchor events in the first ever NSW Master Events Calendar created by Events NSW on behalf of the NSW Government. For the full Vivid Sydney program visit www.vividsydney.com.au

*New South Wales Creative Industry Insights Report, NSW Department of State and Regional Development, December 2008

Media Enquiries: helene fox publicity +61 (0) 412 085 032 helenefoxpublicity@gmail.com

CREATIVE SYDNEY: THE TEAM

Brandon Saul, Director

Passionate about music, arts and popular culture, coupled with an entrepreneurial verve, Brandon Saul is a director of Mixed Industry. With an extensive history in events, his production credits include Homebake, the Byron Bay Arts and Music Festival, The Great Escape, Bondi Xmas & NYE Events and the renowned Cockatoo Island Festival in 2005.

Brandon is also the Executive Producer of the now international media-arts festival NOISE (www.noise.net). He has held this position over the project’s many incarnations since the “LOUD Festival” shook up the Australian media in 1998. Respected as an innovative strategist, Brandon was central in developing this media-based youth arts festival model – which has now been replicated in Canada, The United Kingdom and Singapore.

A lawyer and accountant by training (though he chose to practice neither), Brandon wrote his honours paper in 1995 on the digital download of music and other art forms and its implications for Australian artists.

Brandon is also the Vice President of Sydney’s community radio Broadcaster FBI Radio. He was instrumental in getting what is the largest community broadcast licence in the world off the ground. FBi’s only purpose is to promote new Australian music and the Sydney cultural community.

Stuart Buchanan, Executive Producer

Stuart Buchanan brings career-long experience in the creative industries: as Marketing & Press Manager for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (the largest arts festival in the world), Head Of Marketing and member of the Senior Management team for London’s world-renowned Royal Court Theatre, General Manager of Sydney’s FBi Radio and work for Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, Mayfest International Festival, Belvoir Street Theatre, Siobhan Davies Dance Company, London Philharmonic Orchestra and more.

Stuart’s other key strength is in the digital realm: he began developing web and digital projects in 1994 and has managed developments for both the music & broader creative industries (including work for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Depeche Mode). From 2002-2007, Stuart managed web development for the UK band Goldfrapp and, in 2003, the ‘Goldfrapp – Black Cherry’ site won the MTV Europe Web Award. In addition to web work, Stuart presents the international music show ‘Disorient’ on Sydney’s FBi Radio and from 2003-2008 edited the blog ‘Fat Planet’ which was featured in the UK’s Guardian newspaper in 2008 as ‘Best Blog For World Music’.

Jess Scully, Artistic Director

Artistic Director, Jess Scully has established a reputation for exposing new talent in design, art, photography and creative culture. She is the founding editor of SummerWinter magazine, has been Creative Director of the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards (SOYA) since 2007 and is currently contributing to Hijacked, a series of books featuring emerging Australian photographers. Since starting up the former Sydney arts and culture title, STU Magazine in 2002, Jess been editor of YEN, Hotpress and Empty magazines and is a contributor to Harpers Bazaar and NineMSN.

Marcus Westbury, Program Consultant

Marcus Westbury has created some of Australia’s most innovative, unconventional and successful cultural events. Marcus was the driving force behind Newcastle’s This Is Not Art festival. This Is Not Art is now Newcastle’s largest annual tourism event and one of the largest media arts events in the world. From 2002 to 2006 Marcus was the Artistic Director of Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival and was a co-director the Cultural Program of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. Marcus also co-founded Free Play – Australia’s largest independent computer games developer’s conference – and was a manager of the Australia Council’s LOUD media festival and NOISE youth media arts festivals.

Marcus has been the writer and presenter of two series of ABC TV’s Not Quite Art and his writings about art, media, culture and have appeared in Griffith REVIEW, Crikey, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, several anthologies, journals, and countless web sites. He has sat on Committees of The Australia Council, Arts Victoria, NSW Ministry for the Arts, The Australian Film Commission and numerous government agencies. Marcus is currently on the Federal Arts policy advisory group appointed by minister Peter Garrett, was a member of the Federal Government’s 2020 Summit Arts panel and works part time with the Centre for Creative Industries at QUT in Queensland.

Anique Vered, Producer

Anique Vered is a producer, arts administrator and creative practitioner specialising in festivals, websites and cultural development. Since graduating from an Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts – Acting from The Actors Centre Australia, Anique has dedicated herself to enriching Australia’s arts and cultural industry. She has coordinated events and festivals such as Token Word, The Knock Knock Festival and Underbelly Public Arts Lab and Festival, and has performed at various events including The Great Escape and The National Young Writers Festival.

Anique held the role of Arts and Cultural Executive Producer at FBi Radio before moving to community arts and new media organisation Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE). She is one half of new arts duo, Patches, who practice a multi-disclipinary approach in the form of performance, installation, video, audio, the written word and online. Anique is now producing two new arts websites to be launched in late 2009 as well as the inaugural Creative Sydney festival.

Helene Fox, Publicist / Producer

Publicist and producer, Helene Fox has worked on an extensive range arts, culture and music events and festivals in Sydney and abroad, from the internationally renowned to the fringe. For the last three years, she has been employed by the Sydney Festival as Publicist (2007, 2008) and as Senior Publicist (2009), which included looking after publicity for the inaugural All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, curated by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and held on Cockatoo Island in January 2009.

Helene has also been employed as a publicist for Biennale of Sydney 2008, Sculpture by the Sea (2004, 2005, 2006) Reportage Photojournalism Festival (2006), Reelife Short Film Festival (2003, 2004), Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Fringe (2005 & 2008); and for Underbelly Public Arts Lab & Festival, Helene was Publicist (2007, 2008) and Associate Producer (2008).

As a freelance publicist, Helene has provided services for Griffin Theatre, Performance Space, CarriageWorks Arts Centre, Vitamin Records, The Studio at Sydney Opera House and various independent bands, artists and theatre companies. Helene developed her appetite for festivals at Live Bait Music & Arts Festival held at Bondi Beach Pavilion in 2004, when fresh out of uni, she worked in the box office and produced and promoted a series of outdoor short film screenings for the festival.

Media Enquiries: helene fox publicity +61 (0) 412 085 032 helenefoxpublicity@gmail.com