ACMI CEO & Director Katrina Sedgwick joins leadership group shaping Victoria’s creative future

Twenty of Australia’s brightest creative minds have been announced as the new Creative Industries Advisory Group charged with shaping Victoria’s cultural future from 2020. The group, to be chaired by Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley, was announced at the opening of the 2019 Creative State Summit. ACMI Director and CEO, Katrina Sedgwick, will take up the key role of deputy chair alongside Nicole Beyer, Executive Director of Theatre Network Australia.

Music powerhouse Adam Briggs, fashion designer Lisa Barron, media and marketing guru Russel Howcroft and game developer Lisy Kane are among the group. As well as dancer Rosalind Crisp, writer Alison Croggon, emerging producer and community arts worker Lana Nguyen, and spoken word artist and author Abraham ‘Abe’ Nouk.

In line with the Summit’s theme What’s Next? the group will deliver invaluable insights on challenges and opportunities, and find innovative ways to strengthen and grow the impact of our creative industries. 

A pioneer in this area, Sedgwick will bring her expertise in fostering creative industry talent to this new role. This includes her experience establishing the Australian museum-first ACMI X creative tech accelerator, as well as ground-breaking moving image commissions including the Australian-first Mordant Family VR Commission, which engages practicing artists to create a debut VR work. Sedgwick also spearheaded ACMI’s visionary $40 million renewal. The transformed museum is set to open mid 2020.   

The group will also help develop Victoria’s next four-year creative industries strategy, following the landmark Creative State launched in 2016.

The current strategy’s 40 actions and $115 million investment has ensured Victoria’s creative and cultural offering remains the strongest in Australia.

The group was appointed following an expression of interest process that attracted applications from across Victoria.

The value of Victoria’s creative industries has increased by 23 per cent in the past four years with the sector now injecting $31 billion into the state’s economy. Jobs in the creative industries have grown by 15 per cent, to 260,000, in the same time.

Among the first tasks of the Advisory Group will be to support an extensive public consultation process in July to ensure that future strategy is informed by the experiences and needs of the community.

For the full list of Creative Industries Advisory Group members, visit creative.vic.gov.au