Category Archives: Creative Australia

Creative Australia chief executive facing mounting pressure to resign after Khaled Sabsabi controversy

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Senior arts figure says board and CEO ‘didn’t seem to understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts’

Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette is facing mounting pressure to resign after the body’s decision to reinstate Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s 2026 Venice Biennale representative.

Senior arts figures have also criticised the Creative Australia board, as a former chair of the selection panel for the biennale said the board and Collette did not “understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts”.

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Embattled Creative Australia boss served angry letters from staff and 600 literary figures amid Sabsabi fallout

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Letters from staff expressed ‘complete lack of confidence in your ability to lead this organisation effectively’ and fears over participating in external inquiry

The embattled head of Creative Australia has been served with two letters of complaint collectively written by staff, and a third signed by more than 600 Australian literary figures.

The fallout over Creative Australia’s decision in February to withdraw the artistic team of Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino from next year’s Venice Biennale continues, with its chief executive, Adrian Collette, now on leave and an inquiry under way into the circumstances surrounding the selection and subsequent sacking of the pair as Australia’s representatives.

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