Looking for hope: censorship versus care

The recording of my Greg Binns Memorial Lecture on looking for hope amongst almost unprecedented arts censorship in Australia is now live on the Art Gallery of Ballarat website.

‘I am trying to be hopeful… because I believe that art and culture have always been ways for us to bring people together, to learn from the past, to make sense of the present, and make space for new possibilities. Just as I believe that cultural organisations have the privilege (and responsibility) of supporting and showcasing work that can change minds and save lives.

So, I’m trying to be hopeful… because we’ve all seen first-hand what arts and cultural engagement can do – and can measure the success and the impact of our work against any metric that anybody likes.

So, I am trying to be hopeful… because I know that arts and cultural organisations were set up in service to a greater purpose, (not just for the sake of their own endless existence).

So, I am trying to be hopeful, but it’s hard… when, over the last few years, many of those organisations have begun (and continue) to make mainstream news headlines for censoring the very art forms, issues or communities they were set up to support or represent – often damaging themselves in the process.

So, I am trying to be hopeful, but it’s hard… when each organisation seems so unable to learn from those who have failed before them, even after the masterclass in organisational failures of the last several years – of which there are too many to even list in full today, given they now include (by my count) 56* Australian arts and cultural organisations, initiatives and groups accused of many more instances of censoring, threatening or otherwise harming their own artists, cultural workers or audiences between 2023 and 2026 alone.”

[* this number has since increased to 87]

You can hear the full recording on the Art Gallery of Ballarat website.

Read more

• Disrupting the arts from Untitled (Autumn 2026: Disruptions), the Art Gallery of Ballarat Association’s member magazine

Further reading: Palestine as a governance issue

Check out all of the articles and resources in my series on Palestine as a governance issue.

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