Writing – LARSEN

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.

The art of governance

Australia’s arts boards are broken. The very ground on which our arts organisations and institutions are built is unpredictable, unsteady and (increasingly) unsafe.

All hole and no plot: fixing Australia’s literary sector

If you could do one thing to ‘fix’ Australia’s literary sector, what would it be?When recently asked to recommend a high-impact, culture-shifting initiative, I found myself flummoxed. More funding? More support? More, um, of the above?

Reading and writing in 2020

2020 was a strange and difficult year. One in which worry replaced creativity, and in which I returned to re-reading, great TV writing and easy reads in search of distraction from the drama outside, and to multi-book series for the relief of staying within the same world for longer than one book alone could provide. But in spite (or because) of all this, I still read 134 books in 2020 (just 13 short of my personal best).

RESOURCE: Tips for writing great arts grant applications

The stakes for arts funding in Australia have never been so high. Unfortunately, neither has the competition. In solidarity with friends, colleagues, clients and organisations who have lost or are in fear for their livelihoods, here are some of my top tips on how to write and submit great arts grant applications. Continue reading “RESOURCE: Tips for writing great arts grant applications”

Reading and writing in 2019

Another New Year, another book tally… which tells me that I read 127 books over the course of 2019 (twenty shy of last year’s personal best). That means I read a total of 753 books during the 2010s decade, averaging just over 75/year or almost 1.4/week during that time.

Positive Negative Space

From June to September 2019, the doors of Adelaide’s Minor Works Building were thrown open to the city’s broad communities thanks to an international collaboration between artists from Australia, the Philippines and South-East Asia. Continue reading “Positive Negative Space”

On rates and reparations: a personal approach

My partner and I have bought a house in Adelaide, our first small piece of ground. With the excitement, anxiety, paperwork, money story and moving boxes has come a surprise serving of white, colonial guilt and responsibility that we didn’t experience when buying our previous apartment in the sky. Continue reading “On rates and reparations: a personal approach”

Reading and writing in 2018

2018 was another huge year of reading and writing… Thanks both to my looser, freelance lifestyle and judging of the Territory Reads Awards, I once again re-set my personal best record to 147 books read over the course of the year (averaging just under 3 books a week – not counting literary journals or children’s books).