censorship – LARSEN

Palestine as a governance issue

By my count, 80 Australian arts and cultural organisations have now been accused of many more instances of censoring, threatening or otherwise harming their own artists, cultural workers or audiences between 2023 and 2026 alone.

Disrupting the arts

Art is the business of disruption.

No matter the medium, platform or level of professionalism, the act of making is innately transformational: whether it turns thought into matter (or the other way around), brings different elements together or breaks them down to be shared or understood in different ways.

Arts board governance under fire: Avoiding reactive decision-making

When arts boards panic and become reactive, they lose clarity and predictive governance suffers, Anna Spargo Ryan writes for the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Are Australia’s arts governance models setting us up to fail?

The actions of Adelaide Festival’s former board prompt important questions about the governance of statutory authority arts boards.

And another thing: issues with appointed boards

My first ‘and another thing’ vlog for the year is inspired by the Adelaide Festival and the need to talk about Ministerially-appointed boards.

‘Masterclass in poor governance’: what was the board’s role in the end of Adelaide Writers’ Week?

I was interviewed by Kim Goodwin for The Conversation on the cancellation of the 2026 Adelaide Writers Week.

Arts boards in crisis: how have we landed here, yet again?

‘There isn’t a single arts organisation in Australia who shouldn’t be paying attention to the issues of censorship, artistic freedom of expression, financial sustainability and broader arts sector survival right now.’

Writers festival reflections

Any day I get paid be a writer is a good day. So I was delighted to book four writers festival events for the 2025 season – which I am now half-way through.

Why we cancelled our Bendigo Writers Festival panel

I was so looking forward to this weekend’s Bendigo Writers Festival, where I was meant to join Madison Griffiths and Cher Tan as part of the Cities of Literature Book Club to discuss Looking at Women Looking at War by the late Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina.

However, following the decisions and actions of Festival and Presenting Partner La Trobe University this week, and in solidarity with fellow participating writers, we no longer feel able to take part.

And another thing: from censorship to systemic change

Over the past 21 months, we’ve seen dozens of Australian arts and cultural organisations censor and silence the very artists and practitioners they rely upon for their work.