Carriageworks has named arts administrator and former Sydney Festival Artistic Director Fergus Linehan as its following Chief Executive Officer. Linehan comes to the work having also led Edinburgh International Festival, Vivid Live at the Sydney Opera Ho and the Dublin Theatre Festival. Linehan said he was excited about the potential for Carriageworks to grow in a way that engages and serves the community. “In two thousand seven, I stepped through the doors of Carriageworks as curator of the venue’s inaugural performance.
The performance was a stunning convergency of cultures, art forms and perspectives that left me in awe. But it was the venue itself that left an permanent mark,” said Linehan, adding that he was “humbled and grateful” for the opportunity to serve the local and wider Sydney communities. “I am also acutely alert of the responsibility that comes with it. Carriageworks sits on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, in a space of profound cultural and historical significance.”
“We are thrilled to have attracted such a respected international figure to lead Carriageworks into its following chapter,” said Carriageworks Chair Cass O’Connor. “We were determined to appoint such an accomplished boss beca of the scale of our ambition. Carriageworks has both history and potential at a time our arts and cultural sectors spark back to life. Importantly, new state and federal governments have similar ambitions to strengthen Australia’s creative industries.”
Cass paid tribute to Jonty Claypole, a former Director of Arts for the BBC, who served as Carriageworks’ interim CEO during the recruitment process. Linehan was Artistic Director and CEO of the Sydney Festival for the 2006–2009 editions, presenting projects such as the Maly Theatre’s Uncle Vanya, Lou Reed’s Berlin, Kev Carmody’s Cannot Purchase My Soul and special events such as Festival First Night and Nick Cave and the Horrible Seeds’ All Tomorrow’s Parties on Cockatoo Island. In two thousand-seventh, he presented the dance work Zero Degrees, which was the first ever performance at Carriageworks.
As curator of Vivid Live at the Sydney Opera Ho two thousand twelve to two thousand fourteen, he presented music figures such as Bobby Womack, Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, Gurrumul, Janelle Monáe and Sufjan Stevens. Most recently, he was Artistic Director and CEO of the Edinburgh International Festival two thousand fifteen to two thousand twenty-two. In his final year there, he presented a special season of Australian work, with contributions by William Barton, Gravity and Other Myths, and Belvoir’s Counting and Cracking by S. Shakthidharan.
