Chainsaw Cuts and Catastrophic Consequences. The Cultural and Creative Industries in Crisis.
Event details
Date: 16 June 2025 4pm - 6:30pm, including networking with refreshments
Venue: Beltana House Studio, 364 Carrington Street, Adelaide
16 June 2025
Brought to you by UniSA’s Centre for Enterprise Dynamics in Global Economies (C-EDGE), this seminar is a wake-up call for those shaping the future of arts and culture leadership from around the world. With key speakers deeply engaged in the national and international disruption of creative enterprises, we will explore the fallout from funding cuts, shifting policy landscapes, and the urgent need for new leadership models. This seminar cuts to the core of what is at stake for the cultural and creative sectors.
Join us for a sharp, timely event that brings together bold thinking and critical dialogue. This is the official launch of Ruth Rentschler and colleagues’ authoritative resource, The Routledge Companion to Governance in the Arts World.
Beth Neate
Guildhouse CEO | Creative Industries | Arts Advocate
Beth Neate is the Chief Executive Officer of Guildhouse, South Australia's peak body for visual art, craft, and design. With over 20 years of experience in the creative industries, she has held leadership roles at the South Australian Film Corporation, ABC, SBS, and the United Nations.
As Chair of Tutti Arts, Beth is a passionate advocate for inclusive arts practice. Her career spans sector advocacy, program delivery, community arts, and cultural development, with a focus on fostering innovation.
Tony Grybowski
Arts Strategist | Policy Leader | Sector Reformer
Tony Grybowski is a leading Australian arts consultant and former CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts. With over 35 years’ experience across government, major arts organisations, and national policy reform, he now advises cultural institutions on governance, strategy, and leadership.
Tony is the founding director of Tony Grybowski & Associates and is recognised for his work across the arts in Australia, sector transformation, and inclusive consultation across Australia.
Ruth Rentschler
Governance Expert | Cultural Scholar | Arts Educator
Ruth Rentschler OAM is Professor of Arts & Cultural Leadership at UniSA Business and an internationally recognised scholar in arts governance, inclusion, and cultural policy. She has published extensively on leadership and diversity in the creative industries and brings deep sector knowledge to her work.
Ruth has served on many boards, including VicHealth, Multicultural Arts Victoria, No Strings Attached Theatre, Duldig Studio, and Australian Dance Theatre, where she is Chair. She is a member of Contemporary Collectors Committee at the SA Art Gallery.
Cheryl Bridgart
Textile Artist | Studio Founder | Visual Storyteller
Prolific, innovative, passionate artist working in isolation, inspired by dreams, motivated by the desire to produce visual narratives skilfully handmade by her hands. It is her life, she wears her embroidery, tailored art every day, her identity, she creates every day, she dreams her art and images, in her Alice in Wonderland studio on Kaurna land.
Multifaceted artist recognised internationally for freestyle embroidery and tailored designer Art to Wear. With degrees in Fine Art, she has exhibited & taught overseas and in Australasia.
Boram Lee
Inclusion Advocate | Arts Innovator
Dr Boram Lee is a Senior Lecturer in Arts Management at the University of South Australia and a bilingual theatre researcher-producer. She has spent the past decade forging strategic partnerships between South Korea and Australia—curating exchanges, commissioning co-productions and hosting artist residencies.
Her research examines diversity, access and inclusion, emerging-artist career development and how performing-arts collaborations bolster Korea–Australia diplomatic relations.
Will Tamblyn
Holigraphics expert | AI | Digital content
Will Tamblyn is the co-founder and co-CEO of Voxon Photonics, creators of the world’s most advanced volumetric holographic display. With a background in computer science and a passion for innovation, Will is pioneering the intersection of AI, gaming, and 3D display technology. His work is transforming how we experience digital content—turning screens into shared, immersive spaces and opening up new frontiers in real-time, interactive storytelling.
