Performing Lines announces new Senior Producer NSW

We are delighted to announce the appointment of our new Senior Producer NSW, Vanessa Wright, who will lead the company’s NSW team and program. Vanessa comes to Performing Lines after close to five years as the Senior Producer of Darwin Festival.

“Vanessa joins the team of fine humans that make up Performing Lines and I’m thrilled to be working with her. Her extensive networks and national experience and high aspirations for NSW artists will propel them and the NSW sector to new levels of achievement.” says Performing Lines Executive Producer Marion Potts.

On joining the organisation Vanessa states: “I’m so excited to be coming on board with Performing Lines and to have the opportunity to work with such a talented and dynamic group of artists. Artists such as Andrea James, who’s spectacular Sunshine Super Girl is embarking on a mammoth national tour, Nigel Jamieson who is always making ambitious and surprising work, the incredible performance artist Emma Maye Gibson (Betty Grumble) who is currently touring Enemies of Grooviness Eat Shit, the iconic Paul Mac, Ghenoa Gela, Raghav Handa and Charmene Yap & Cass Mortimer Eipper. I can’t wait to support the work of these artists, artists who are exploring what is critical and urgent right now, telling important personal and collective stories.”

A fair skinned white woman, Vanessa Wright stand in the centre of the frame smiling. She has shoulder length wavy brunette hair and wears a turquoise smock and large teal hoop earrings. Behind her, out of focus, is a wall of leaves.

Performing Lines supports independent artists and the independent arts ecology, working across Australia and internationally, providing opportunities and giving support to artists at all stages of their careers in the realisation of their visions. Vanessa joins our excellent team of Senior Producers including Samantha Butterworth (VIC), Anette Downs (TAS), and Jeremy Smith (WA).

The NSW office oversees a broad array of artists and programs from varied disciplines and backgrounds. For national initiatives the team occasionally collaborates with colleagues in other states, affording strong national and international networks for our artists and community. In 2021, in spite of the challenges posed by COVID-19 Performing Lines NSW produced:

5 presentations
7 creative developments of new works
4 early stage developments of works by emerging and independent NSW based artists
A number of sector initiatives including Local Giants, our national capacity building program for Regional Arts, created in partnership with Regional Arts Australia and PAC Australia.

As we seek to deepen our engagement with the NSW sector and respond to a rapidly evolving globally connected sector, we are privileged to have Vanessa’s leadership driving our team.

For further information, please contact
Marion Potts, Executive Producer, Performing Lines
marion@performinglines.org.au

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Performing Lines is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, the NSW Government through Create NSW, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, the WA government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, and the Tasmanian Government through Arts Tasmania.

Vanessa Wright Biography

Vanessa Wright is a creative producer and programmer with experience in multi-arts festivals and grass roots creative spaces. For the past 5 years, Vanessa has been the Senior Producer at Darwin Festival, producing a diverse program of bold contemporary work that has championed independent and Northern Territory artists. Vanessa began her career in Canberra, as a Co-Producer and later a Managing Producer of You Are Here Festival (2011-2016), supporting emerging and experimental artists to develop and present new work. She has also worked as a Producer on Liveworks Festival for Performance Space (2017), a Creative Producer for Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres (2015-2016), and a Producer for Melbourne Fringe Festival (2015-2016). She has participated in Next Wave’s Kickstart Helix program (2018) and is an Australian member of the Asian Producers Platform. Vanessa is passionate about creating and nurturing opportunities for artist development, building strong creative communities and connecting artists and audiences.

Performing Lines

Performing Lines produces provocative contemporary performance by Australia’s most audacious independent artists.

We curate a portfolio of work that is propelled by pressing questions and new ways of seeing the world. We champion the unconventional, the marginal, the rebellious and the new. Our purpose is to embrace risk and to ensure that the breadth and plurality of Australia’s creative potential is represented and celebrated. Performing Lines is led by Executive Producer Marion Potts, and manages teams in Sydney, Perth, Hobart and Melbourne, with a network of producers and presenters around the country and the world.