Green Room: Arts and Culture news briefs from South Australia
Apr 11, 2025, updated Apr 11, 2025
Not a retiring type
Douglas Gautier AM has revealed his next move four months after announcing his departure from the Adelaide Festival Centre after nearly two decades as CEO.
“It’s a brave new world for me,” Gautier told InDaily back in December after his exit was confirmed.
“In a way, it won’t exactly be retirement, I’ll be doing quite a few other things and so it’ll be different, of course, but it won’t be empty of things to do.”
A “few other things” is putting it lightly; this week, the Saudi Ministry of Culture has confirmed Gautier’s appointment as the new CEO of the Royal Arts Complex at King Salman Park in Riyadh.
In his new role Gautier will take on a 500,000 square metre arts precinct currently in development. When it does open, the Royal Arts Complex’s footprint will include the Museum of World Cultures, the National Theatre, Arts Library, Arts Cinema, Sculpture Pavilion, the Dome and the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts.
When he does arrive in King Salman Park, Gautier will join ex-British Museum director Dr Hartwig Fischer, who was appointed to head the new Museum World Cultures last July (having stepped down from his last role in the wake of a high-profile theft case).
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“I am honoured to join the Royal Arts Complex at this pivotal stage of cultural development in the Kingdom,” Gautier said of the news.
“This project represents a unique opportunity to contribute to a global cultural dialogue celebrating Saudi heritage and international artistic achievements.”
Australian Dance Theatre performer Kunyi Wu. Photo: Morgan Sette / Supplied
Lofty goals
Australian Dance Theatre has issued a callout for independent dance practitioners around Australia to apply for a $30,000 grant and six-week residency as part of its newly launched LOFT program.
Supported by Creative SA, LOFT will carve out a dedicated space on Level One of the Lion Arts Centre in the city, along with the Tanja Liedtke Studio in Australian Dance Theatre’s Norwood home at the Odeon Theatre.
LOFT features three residency streams: nineteen ‘Experiment’ residencies, where artists gain access to a week of free studio time at the Odeon; eight ‘Explore’ residencies featuring a week of studio time at Level One and $3000 in funding; and one six-week ‘Expound’ residency which includes a $30,000 grant – billed as the largest dance residency in the country.
Executive Producer Viviana Sacchero, who joined Australian Dance Theatre in February after a ten-year stint at The Australian Ballet, will be running the LOFT program.
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“I’ve been really blown away by the dedication and passion of the South Australian dance sector,” Sacchero says.
“In designing LOFT, we wanted to give independent dance artists, particularly South Australian makers, the space they’ve been craving to take their work to the next level, while also giving them the opportunity to foster connections nationally.”
Margaret Ambridge, ‘Bush for Life’
Park Lands Art Prize
Margaret Ambridge has won this year’s Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize. The biennial prize invites artists from around the world to reflect on the city’s green belt, with this year’s competition using the theme ‘INSPIRE’. Ambridge’s winning work, Bush for Life, is a charcoal and ink work on rain-soaked paper.
“Across Tarndanya a cartesian cancer invades, divides and covers the earth, city rain in search of soil, the constant march and retreat of infrastructure on the Parklands,” reads Ambridge’s artist’s statement. “Bush for Life brings the bush in, offers the possibility of respite, natural regeneration, restorative care, home.”
This year’s judges – which included Emma Fey, Deputy Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Eric Green, Director of Samstag Museum of Art, Ngadjan artist and administrator Doreen Mellor, glass artist Liam Fleming, and Adelaide Central Gallery curator Andrew Purvis – praised the work’s reflection of the tension between the urban and the outdoors.
“Bush for Life speaks of the Park Lands and the longer impact of ‘the march and retreat’ of infrastructure. It is a work of delicacy and thoughtfulness, a quiet voice with a sense of loss that has a lingering effect on the viewer. It acknowledges the bush and its elements through an artistic process.”
It’s cultural policy season
The City of Adelaide has followed up last week’s state government announcement with the release of its own draft cultural policy, Culture: The Life of Our City.
The document, which follows several public forums and community drop-in sessions, five advisory groups, and hundreds of community submissions, is now online and open for more feedback along with a 32-page discussion paper.
Have a read and share your thoughts, submissions close Wednesday 30 April.
Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture. Get in touch by emailing us at [email protected]