Thursday 27 November – Tom Gutteridge – The role of the arts in creating Australia’s future – Cultural capital and how to accumulate it.

Tom Gutteridge is the Artistic Director of Union House Theatre and former Artistic Director of Black Swan Theatre Company in Perth. He is a performance and multi-media creator, with credits including mainstage theatre and opera direction, sound design and composition, and dramaturgy across a range of media. Recently he directed the successful Australian tour of “Yes, Prime Minister”.

As we morph from being a Western culture into our own unique Eastern/Pacific hybrid, what role will the Arts play in making sense of increasing diversity, rapid change and shrinking resources in our society? Tom is currently working at the University of Melbourne where he is focussed on building a creative environment which more accurately reflects the demographics of contemporary Australia and which provokes emerging artists to question the sources of their ideas. He is interested in the importance of risk – in all its forms – in the development of judgement, confidence and purpose in young people.