MELBOURNE EXCLUSIVE
Forums
A
Question
of Identity
The Wheeler Centre Talks (Australia)
Presented by Melbourne Festival
and The Wheeler Centre
What does it mean to be Australian
today? Is being Australian important
to the art we produce, or promote?
As Melbourne Festival brings the best of
international art to Melbourne, this series of talks
explores the nature of the Australia we present
to the world. Are our iconic cultural notions and
images relevant to the Australia we live in, and
why are they buried deep in the bush, while most
of us live clinging to the coastal fringe?
Over three nights we present panel discussions
hosted by some of Melbourne’s finest cultural
commentators, to explore our place in the world,
investigate how Australian identity is shifting and
discuss what it all means for the art we create.
The Australian moment – what does
it mean to be Aussie right now?
Chair Phil Kafcaloudes (broadcaster)
What have been the greatest political and
cultural changes in Australia in the last 20 years?
What impact have they had on our identity and
how we see ourselves as Aussies today? How is
this reflected in the type of art we’re producing
and celebrating?
Wed 17 Oct at 5.45pm
The edge of the world –
Australia and globalism
Chair Gina McColl (arts editor of The Age)
The idea of a cultural cringe has haunted
Australia’s arts for decades. Can Australia’s
cultural industries finally claim to be global
leaders? With innovation now as likely to
be driven from Seoul as from Southbank,
50
are we looking in the right directions for
leadership? As art and its audiences increasingly
find themselves online, does the tyranny of
distance recede?
Thu 18 Oct at 5.45pm
How white is our art?
Chair Damian Smith (director and curator of