New enews just dropped on how the Star Entertainment lawsuit has put Company Secretaries back in the spotlight, arts board governance under fire, censorship vs care in Ballarat, plus free Shepparton workshops, Melb Writers Fest panel and more... katelarsenkeys.substack.com/p/star-enter...
As usual, the full versions and archive of these rants are exclusively for my Patreon followers. If this series, my enews, or any of my work has been of value to you, you can join me as an advocate, ally or accomplice from just $2.50/month (link in bio).
#KateLarsen #Governance #ArtsGovernance
Boards, have you delegated your Company Secretary responsibilities to a member of staff? Or are you a staff Company Sec who’s had that work thrust upon them - without understanding the responsibilities or risks?
Here’s Part 2 of my latest ‘and another thing’ vlog www.instagram.com/p/DXFyVXrErpd/
Join me, Maria Reva and Madison Griffiths for a discussion about Victoria Amelina’s extraordinary and important book, Looking at Women, Looking at War, for the Cities of Literature Book Club at Melbourne Writers Festival next month. mwf.com.au/program/look...
As usual, the full versions and achive of these rants are exclusively for my Patreon followers. If this series, my enews, or any of my work has been of value to you, you can join me as an advocate, ally or accomplice from just $2.50/month (link in bio).
#KateLarsen #Governance #ArtsGovernance
The Star Entertainment lawsuit has put Company Secretaries into the spotlight this month - and sent a lot of organisations into a panic. But most arts, cultural and non-profit orgs should be alert, but not alarmed. Here’s Part 1 of my latest ‘and another thing’ vlog. www.instagram.com/p/DXFpR5Jknla/
Australia’s NFP incorporation and governance models were always unfit for purpose and are setting our organisations up to fail. Huge thanks to Anna Spargo-Ryan for including me in this insightful piece on arts board governance for AICD. www.aicd.com.au/risk-managem...
Resistence is not a one-person job - @anatolitis.bsky.social at #FootscrayWestWritersFest #FWWF2026
Don’t wait for permission or expect it to come, Yves Rees recommends. The people who achieve things are the ones who just do the work. And that find good collaborators.
#FootscrayWestWritersFest #FWWF2026
We have, all of us, in these times of polycrisis, a responsibility to be actively looking for and listening to the voices of people who have been oppressed or silenced - @anatolitis.bsky.social at #FootscrayWestWritersFest. #FWWF2026
‘Why not now? Why not me?’ were the questions that led Yves Rees to start Australia’s newest literary journal, Lantana - which aims to be a platform for writers to do radical imaginary work and shape the political narrative.
#FootscrayWestWritersFest #FWWF2026
The ‘Uyghur Resistance’ publisher Sam Biddle says a lot of publishers are scared of [powerful nations]. First and foremost, they didn’t want their work or message to be changed or censored - which self-publishing allowed them to do.
#FootscrayWestWritersFest #FWWF2026
Kirsty Wilson from Readers and Writers Against the Genocide is that the power of the collective is in its members - in each person bringing and doing whatever they can.
#FooscrayWestWritersWeek #FWWF2026
Photo of a doctor 'I am no longer a doctor. I am a witness. To the slow murder of dignity. To a land where medicine is a cruel joke and survival is a sin. 'Staggeringly powerful' MAX PORTER DIARY OF A YOUNG DOCTOR Notes from the Genocide in Gaza Ezzideen Shehab
How do you publish a book when you’re just a collective? How do you promote a book when its writer is under siege in occupied Palestine and not allowed to leave or even speak to his readers? That’s what Readers and Writers against the Genocide did with Ezzideen Shehab.
PUBLISHING AS RESISTANCE How to find independent pathways to publishing to centre marginalised and oppressed voices.
Esther Anatolitis, with Kirsty Wilson, Sam Biddle and Dr. Yves Rees. PUBLISHING AS RESISTANCE How to find independent pathways to publishing to centre marginalised and oppressed voices.
I’m at Publishing as Resistance at #FootscrayWestWritersFest with @anatolitis.bsky.social with Kirsty Wilson, Sam Biddle and Dr. Yves Rees. #FWWF26
Hear more in my latest ‘and another thing’ vlog about the innate violence of some of our common-practice governance processes - or join me on Patreon for the full version and archive (links in bio).
#ArtsManagement #ArtsLeadership #KateLarsen #Governance ArtsGovernance
"Make sure that these changes trickle down into your governance communications. Take your staff emails and public comms out of legal risk management language and treat the people in your care like people that you care about instead." AND ANOTHER THING ….. @KATELARSENKEYS
“Take your staff emails and public comms out of legal risk management language and treat the people in your care like people that you care about instead.”
2. This list is intended to demonstrate the scale of arts censorship in Australia over the last three years. It does not link to a detailed case studies at this stage. However, most have already been extensively documented elsewhere and should be relatively easy for you to find.
... They have not been accused of censoring or harming others. My apologies for any confusion, which I will try to represent better in any future posts.
Updates to note:
1. NAVA, The Curumba institute and other orgs marked with an * have been included on this list for being on the receiving end of censorship, unsuccessful internal calls for censorship, or other forms of harm...
Biggest thanks to the Binns family for the gift of this lecture series, Dr Deanne Gilson for an extraordinary welcome, Louise Tegart, Pippa Bainbridge and the rest of the Gallery team for the invitation and care, and everyone who came along. I am looking for hope, and I’m finding it in all of you.
Kate on stage at a lectern wearing a readers and writers against the genocide shirt, in front of a projection that reads Art Gallery of Ballarat
Grateful to be back on Wadawurrung and Djajawurrung Country for last night’s Greg Binns Memorial Lecture on artistic censorship in Australia with the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
Because naming names isn’t about cancellation, and it’s not about punishment. It’s the first and vital step towards repair.
1. Adelaide Festival (Adelaide Writers Week) 2. Adelaide University 3. Anna Schwartz Gallery 4. Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) 5. Art Guide 6. Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) 7. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) board member/s * 8. Australian Museum, Sydney 9. Australian National University (ANU) 10. Australian Research Council 11. Bayside City Council, VIC (Let’s Talk Bayside Magazine) 12. Biennale of Sydney 13. Brisbane City Council (Queensland Music Awards)
14. City of Bendigo (Bendigo Writers Festival) 15. City of Port Philip 16. Classic Cinema Elsternwick 17. Collingwood Yards board member/s and donor/s * 18. Creative Australia 19. Deakin University 20. Esoteric Festival 21. Flinders University 22. Government of South Australia (Premier and Education Department) 23. History Teachers’ Association of Victoria 24. La Trobe University 25. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra 26. Melbourne University
27. Melbourne University Publishing 28. Melbourne Writers Festival board member/s * 29. Monash University 30. National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA) donor/s * 31. National Gallery of Australia 32. National Press Club 33. News Corp Australia / Murdoch press (including news.com.au, Sky News channels, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph and affiliates) 34. Nine Publishing / 9News (including Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and affiliates) 35. Nova FM / Nova Entertainment 36. NSW Government 37. Perth Festival 38. Photo Australia 39. Public Libraries Victoria
40. Queensland Government 41. Queensland University of Technology (Carumba Institute) 42. Sports Entertainment Network / SEN Radio 43. State Library of Queensland 44. State Library Victoria 45. Sydney Mardi Gras 46. Sydney Opera House 47. Sydney Theatre Company 48. Sydney Writers’ Festival board member/s * 49. Triple J 50. University of Queensland (UQ) 51. University of Queensland Press (UQP) 52. Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) 53. WOMADelaide 54. Writing NSW 55. Writing WA
Australian arts and cultural organisations, initiatives and groups (or their representatives) accused of censoring, threatening or otherwise harming artists, arts workers or audiences between 2023 and 2026. To note: • Most (but not all) are accusations reported in the public domain. • Most (but not all) were motivated by local responses to Israel’s genocide in Palestine. • Those marked with * include internal calls for censorship that were unsuccessful. • This list does not include censorship or other harm done to artists, arts workers or audiences from non-arts organisations, or from informal groups or initiatives
Latest updates to the long and growing list of the 55(!) Australian arts and cultural organisations, initiatives and groups accused of censoring, threatening or otherwise harming artists, arts workers or audiences between 2023 and 2026. Who have I missed?
Hear more in my latest ‘and another thing’ vlog about the innate violence of some of our common-practice governance processes - or join me on Patreon for the full version and archive at larsenkeys.com.au/2026/03/12/a...
#ArtsManagement #ArtsLeadership #KateLarsen #Governance #ArtsGovernance
"Even though, as current board members, we might not have directly contributed to the problem, it's still our responsibility to fix it - or, at the very least, to not make it worse. And surely this needs to start with acknowledging the harm that our past/ current governance practices have caused, embolden ourselves with the knowledge that they can be changed, and then doing it."AND ANOTHER THING ...@KATELARSENKEYS
“Even though, as current board members, we might not have directly contributed to the problem, it’s still our responsibility to fix it - or, at the very least, to not make it worse.”
LARSEN| KEYS webpage Image of three books Raining on the parade of Generative Al in the arts The Victorian Government released its updated cultural policy, Creative State 2028, at the end of last year. But I won't be surprised if you missed it.
Apparently, I had a LOT to say about last month’s Cultural Industries and Artificial Intelligence Forum from @acmimuseum.bsky.social and Creative Victoria larsenkeys.com.au/2026/03/10/g...
#FACTsymposium #FACT2026 #GenerativeAI #AntiAI #ArtificialIntelligence
Today’s enews includes me raining on the parade of Generative AI in the arts, some thoughts on the violence of common governance practices, and a standing ovation for the end of a literary legacy. Plus a new poem in Cordite, February reading recs, governance and menopause, and more...
Hear more in my latest ‘and another thing’ vlog is about the innate violence of some of our common-practice governance processes (link in bio). Or join me on Patreon for the full version and archive.
#ArtsManagement #ArtsLeadership #KateLarsen #Governance #ArtsGovernance