Fergus Linehan. Photo: Nic Walker
After a world wide search for a new chief executive officer, Sydney’s Carriageworks made the announcement in May that it had selected Irishman, Fergus Linehan.
Linehan is someone well known to the Sydney arts community, having been director of the Sydney Festival from 2006 – 2009, before going on to helm some of the most prestigious arts companies on the international circuit.
It was almost not to be – in May 2020, Carriageworks, one of Australia’s largest multi-disciplinary arts centres, was forced to shut its doors due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
Fergus Linehan. Photo: Nic Walker
Despite attracting over one million visitors a year and generating over 75 per cent of its own revenue, government health restrictions meant that it had to close its doors for at least six months, a move that forced it into voluntary administration.
“I was at Edinburgh Festival when Covid came and it created havoc in every single company in different ways,” said Fergus Linehan, who spoke with City Hub on the morning of his second day as CEO, “I think that Carriageworks was particularly exposed because a lot of its income comes from commercial sources in a way that is different, and a lot of that disappears overnight.”.
Carriageworks survived the crisis and reopened its doors in August 2020.
Carriageworks – TheNational Image: Zan Wimberley
“It was a very robust business model and nobody in their planning could have predicted it, and we are going back to that robust business model again,” Linehan said.
Carriageworks is located across 51 hectares of the buildings and land that were once the Eveleigh Rail Complex Yards that were designated for repurpose in 2002 and officially opened in 2007.
“I was at Carriageworks when it first opened in 2007, when I was directing the Sydney Festival, and I was lucky enough to bring out the Blackwatch Theatre from Scotland and Zero Degrees (Akram Khan and Sidi Labi) and I had been coming along to the venue,” Linehan said.
Most recently Linehan was artistic director of the Edinburgh Festival with previous positions at the Dublin Theatre Festival and Vivid Live at the Opera House and was recipient of the 2022 Edinburgh Award and the Irish President’s Award.
Carriageworks – TheNational Image: Zan Wimberley
Carriageworks has not only expanded in physical size but also in the scope of the disciplines it presents.
The new CEO cites Carriagework’s location in a growing part of Sydney as one of its biggest advantages.
“The city itself started to push westward and a lot of the cultural infrastructure of Sydney hugs the harbour, in a very beautiful way, but they don’t really fit into the urban community in the sense that at Carriageworks you look across the road and you have people living there,” Linehan said.
“If you go back in terms of Gadigal land, that is important, but also what happened in Redfern in the ‘70s and ‘80s as a centre of political activism is important, and it is a place that was teeming with thousands of people every day for so long.”
In practical terms Linehan sees his new role as being different from that of a festival director due to the fact that he has inherited a team of people.
Jo Lloyd, FM Air, 2023, Performers: Jo Lloyd, Rachael Wisby, Thomas Woodman. Performance view, The National 4: Australian Art Now, Carriageworks. Photo: Zan Wimberley
“And this is also about working closely with those people and the existing companies and this will shape those conversations rather than me coming in and saying this is what we will do.”
Some of the ongoing relationships that Carriageworks has with independent companies includes First Nations dance company Marrugeku, the multi-disciplinary Force Majeure, the biennial National contemporary art event, Vivid, the MCA and Campbelltown Arts Centre.
“The arts are growing ever more fluid and flexible and the definition of art and culture is now moving between things like fashion, design, food and the sort of spaces you need and feel comfortable in in an urban centre…and it feels to me that if you would dream of building something for purpose for today and tomorrow, then this would be it,” Linehan said.
“If you were building an arts centre for the next 50 years, then this is what you would build.”