When Wesley Enoch wrote his influential 2014 essay "Take Me to Your Leader," the acclaimed theatre director and cultural luminary was issuing a clarion call. At a time when Australia's arts sector was reeling from funding cuts and policy upheaval, Wesley saw an opportunity - and an urgent need - for artists to step up as the nation's moral compass.
"Cultural leaders, like business leaders, should be articulate risk takers, inclusive trendsetters, persuasive visionaries and thick-skinned passionate advocates," he declared. It was a provocative challenge in a field where artists have long been encouraged to let their work speak for itself rather than wade into the messy fray of politics and social change.
But for Wesley, silence was no longer an option. "We reserve the right to have an opinion about things in the world," he explains. "We are actively engaged in public discourse and discussion through the making of our work."
A decade after penning that treatise, Wesley's conviction in the essential role of artists as society's truth-tellers has only intensified. But he fears the cultural sector has lost ground in asserting its voice and values in an increasingly polarised and corporatised public sphere.
"What has really happened is a lot of our captains of industry have stepped in and become on our boards," Wesley observes. "Even when people come into crisis management situations, it's rare to hear an organisation talk about its values - even though we have to put them in our strategic plans."
Wesley points to the recent controversy surrounding the Sydney Theatre Company's production of The Seagull, where several actors wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves during the curtain call in an apparent statement of solidarity. The incident ignited a media firestorm and resulted in the resignation of two Jewish board members, highlighting the competing stakeholder pressures facing arts organisations.
"The Sydney Theatre Company has suffered greatly, those artists have suffered greatly through this trolling," Wesley laments. "And no one is wiser about what the situation is."
Wesley's key missing ingredient was genuine conversation—both within the company and with the wider community. He contrasts the fallout with a similar moment in his own 2021 production, "The Visitors," where the cast engaged in weeks of dialogue before co-crafting a nuanced message calling for Middle East peace.
"Something about being in the middle of it is really important for artists because that's what we do," Wesley reflects. "We weaken ourselves by stepping away from the debate. We should be encouraged to step into the middle of the debate - and through having the debate, inform ourselves, inform others, educate, lift up the level of discussion."
It's an approach Wesley has long modelled in his own boundary-pushing career, from his early collaborations with Indigenous artists to his recent tenure as Director of the Sydney Festival. In navigating thorny issues like the Israeli sponsorship controversy that engulfed the 2022 Festival, Wesley has sought to create space for difficult but essential conversations.
"In principle, the right leans towards individual rights, the right for the individual to go about their business unimpeded," he explains. "And the left is more about collective solutions, how we together as a community can make things happen. I think the arts need to consider this as well."
Wesley argues that the sector's growing reliance on philanthropy and corporate sponsorship has muted its appetite for creative risk and dampened its ability to speak truth to power. "Once you're successful is the very time you need to move on - either move on from the job or move on from what you've been doing - and break it a little bit so you can get to the next step," he cautions.
But he also sees signs of hope in a rising generation of arts leaders who are rejecting the "MBA mindset" in favour of a more holistic approach to cultural value. "The arrogance of the artist was that we could sit separate from society and comment on it," Wesley muses. "But more and more, our independence is shrinking, and our stakeholders are growing. So how do we stand by our values and keep talking about them in a persuasive way?"
For Wesley, part of the answer lies in reimagining the artist-audience relationship as a genuine partnership rather than a transactional exchange. He points to innovations like pay-what-you-can ticketing and participatory programming as promising models for building a more inclusive and engaged arts ecosystem.
But he also wants to see artists reclaim their role as "the leaders in terms of the imagination, the collective imagination" - the visionaries who can light the path to alternative futures. "Artists are no longer playing characters, they're lending their brand to a character," Wesley worries. "What that's brought is more tension between the private individual space and these collective workspaces."
It's a tension that will only intensify as arts organisations grapple with the complexities of cultural representation in an era of identity politics and polarisation. But for Wesley, retreating from the public square is not an option - no matter how heated the debate becomes.
"As an individual, I can say this is my brand, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing - and I'm playing a character that doesn't believe those things," he offers. "But at the end of the show, when I'm taking a bow, am I allowed to be an individual or am I still part of the collective?"
It's a question with no easy answers - but one Wesley believes the arts are uniquely placed to explore with curiosity, empathy and moral courage. And it's a challenge he plans to pursue as he looks ahead to the next chapter of his storied career.
"I've been part of a movement that says now every major theatre company needs First Nations work or it's seen as deficient," Wesley reflects. "So what is it about the world that I want to make sure changes so that I can go to my last days saying I did everything I could to make a difference?"
As the newly appointed Deputy Chair of Creative Australial, Wesley has a powerful platform to shape that change at a national level. But he also recognises that true cultural leadership happens at the granular, human scale - in the rehearsal rooms and boardrooms where artists and administrators grapple with thorny questions of identity, authenticity and the greater good.
"The arts should be a very soft place to have a disagreement," Wesley insists. "I liked it, I don't like something, I agree with something, I don't agree with something. The arts are a great testing ground for how your friendships and relationships are working, because you can navigate the disagreements."
It's a perspective forged by Wesley's own lived experience as an Indigenous artist who has often found himself at the crossroads of competing cultural and political imperatives. But it's also a testament to his enduring faith in the transformative potential of open and honest dialogue - the kind of dialogue that great art, at its best, can inspire.
"I'm all for people having an opinion that someone else strongly disagrees with - call it out, have an argument, have an opinion, that's fine," Wesley affirms. "As long as it's not hate speech or calls to violence, if it's about ideas, let them be ideas."
In an age of soundbites and echo chambers, it's a radically humane proposition - one that calls on all of us to summon our highest selves in the pursuit of mutual understanding. And it's a vision of cultural leadership that feels more urgent than ever as Australia navigates an uncertain future.
"What is the big, lasting piece of work that needs to be done?" Wesley muses, contemplating his own legacy. "I want to make sure that I can go to my last days knowing I did everything I could to make a difference."
With luminaries like Wesley Enoch lighting the way, Australia's cultural sector has a fighting chance of rising to that challenge - and, in the process, reclaiming its rightful place as the conscience and catalyst of our democracy. Not as didacts or demagogues but as dream-weavers and storytellers, conjuring new possibilities from the raw clay of our shared humanity.
In a world of soundbites and echo chambers, there are few roles more essential or more exhilarating. As Wesley's remarkable journey attests, it demands equal parts grit and grace, chutzpah and humility, steadfastness and suppleness.
But for those with the courage to walk it, the rewards are immeasurable: a chance to shape the soul of a nation, one brave act of imagination at a time. To lead not from above, but from within - embodying the change we seek with every choice, every gesture, every offering.
"Artists are no longer playing characters, they're lending their brand to a character," Wesley reminds us. The same could be said of cultural leaders in these tumultuous times - called to bring our whole messy, miraculous selves to the vital work of remaking and reimagining our world.
With leaders like Wesley Enoch guiding the way, we can be sure that the path will be one of conscience, curiosity, and expansive compassion - a lodestar for a cultural landscape in flux, beckoning us ever onward into a more inclusive, more empathetic future.
After all, as Wesley is fond of saying: "What are we here for, if not to make a difference?" It's a question that cuts to the heart of cultural leadership in the 21st century - and one that will continue to summon the best and bravest among us to the stage, no matter how bright the lights or long the odds.
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Decoding Cultural Leadership is a podcast that explores the intersection between the arts, culture and society and interrogates what it means to be a cultural leader in the 21st century.
In each episode, host Sam Cairnduff talks with some of the most influential organisational leaders, creators, policy-makers and thought leaders, building an understanding of their approach to shifting the dial in a complex, constantly changing world.
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