CHAIR REPORT

WELCOME TO OUR 2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Trying to reflect on the year that was 2021, I feel adrift through time and space. When did it start? What marked its ending? I do remember the joy of sitting around a table – in person – with fellow CuriousWorks Management Committee members at the start of the year. I know that many of us were also at Riverside Theatres for Let Me Know When You Get Home, and both cheering and teary at the end of Miranda Aguilar’s moving play.

And then there was the lockdown. Worse this time because the novelty of online ‘pivoting’ had largely just worn a hole in our collective heads. The lockdown specifics changed on the daily, but by and large, helicopters flew overhead. Defence forces patrolled the streets. An hour of exercise per day was confined to a 5km perimeter. It felt like we were just going through the motions, on some days barely surviving, or caring enough to bother. And these were the conditions that the CuriousWorks team had to be alert to and ready to adapt, flip, contort, and develop contingency plans B through to F. They kept going.

Festivals, months in the planning, and already postponed, were rescheduled again. And again. And again. But through the disappointment, and frustration (and renegotiated contracts!), CuriousWorks CEO Vanessa Hyde continued to lead her team to find the opportunity. And so, staff undertook professional development and deep reflection on their practice, including the four Curious Creators selected to become our first Artistic Directorate under the guidance of Andrea Lim, our first Creative Director. Thank you, Vanessa, for your dedication and vision, for keeping the company healthy and growing, and for making what must have seemed like the impossible at times, possible.

CuriousWorks staff and Curious Creators also took part in collaborative research projects and found hybrid ways to deliver components of the major festivals. The FUNPARK Press Conferences are significant events in their own right, and demonstrate the powerful and intimate conversations and authentic voices that emerge when we honour the creative process with our communities, rather than fetishizing just the ‘major event’.

It has also been a pleasure to see Curious Creators step up and take on paid employment within the company this year, part of CuriousWorks mentoring and succession planning strategy. Their ideas, energy, self-awareness, belief in the communities we work with and willingness always to learn, never ceases to inspire me.

And finally, thank you to my fellow Management Committee members. Always conscious of the precariousness of government funding, this year we looked at ways to grow our income generating activities, and are on a continual learning curve about philanthropy and corporate giving. Thank you for your ideas, your time, so generously sharing your contacts and knowledge, your support, honesty and encouragement (especially on bad hair days!).

Immerse yourselves in the remarkable creative output of CuriousWorks’ 2021.

And I look forward to seeing you, and maybe even hugging you, at an upcoming CuriousWorks event soon.


Tiffany Lee-Shoy
Chair, CuriousWorks