LARSEN | KEYS – writing | arts | culture

Art of Governance survey findings

In preparation for my Bundanon residency in May 2022, I launched a survey asking the Australian arts sector to share your experiences of being on, employed or contracted by, or reporting to arts, cultural or not-for-profit organisations governed by managing Committees or Boards.

I am so very grateful to all those who shared their time and thoughtfulness (and, in many case, trauma) to contribute to the survey, which will provide the basis for my ongoing work in this area – including an initial analysis coming soon. And, as promised, a summary of the survey’s key findings follows here.

Art of Governance survey opens

In preparation for my 2022 Bundanon residency, I will be undertaking some more research into the governance of arts, cultural and not-for-profit organisations in Australia (and beyond).

Fremantle Press to publish Public.Open.Space

Delighted beyond words that Fremantle Press will publish Public. Open. Space. in July 2023.

Begun during my 2018 Asialink Arts residency at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, it’s a new collection of meme-, micro- and longer-form poems about how our physical and digital spaces are monitored and controlled.

Preparing a cultural policy scorecard

After nearly a decade without a national policy, and a Federal election in sight, the cultural sector is suddenly awash with plans to make a plan.

Reading and writing in 2021

2021 was another difficult year, but one that interspersed bleak blank numbness with the first few stirrings of hope. Hope for the world, but also hope that my ability to think, write and create may (eventually) return.

Resetting our arts boards

Many (if not most) of us are part of the hugely messy and even more misunderstood space that is not-for-profit governance in Australia.

We report to boards, or report to people who report to boards. We apply to the organisations they oversee for our jobs, grants and opportunities. We are board members ourselves.

But this governance model is broken. Even when they’re working well, our boards are usually much harder work than either board members or staff members would like. And good boards can become bad boards in the space of one AGM.

List of Aussie publishers

It’s been a while since I updated my list of Aussie publishers. So with the end of the year and everyone’s 2021 writing resolutions in sight, here are some of the trade publishers currently or soon to open to unsolicited manuscripts.

Isolation (re)reading recommendations

When the world gets hard, I turn back to my bookshelf. Re-reading is solace, my superpower and my safe space.

Changing the culture of arts governance

A new report from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Institute of Community Directors (ICDA) and Our Community has shone the spotlight on arts governance in Australia.

Digital, flexible and accessible: launching Our Hybrid Future

Here are two things about me: I work from home. And I manage teams remotely (or I have done in the past). At the start of 2020, these things – while nowhere near unique – were still rare in the circles I worked in. Most of my friends, colleagues and clients went to work each day in offices, and most of them worked with or managed people within the same buildings they shared.