marcus westbury

WHAT is the etiquette for tweeting at the theatre, a concert or any other live performance? Should you do it at all? Or never? Should it be encouraged  even rewarded  or frowned upon? It may not have been the biggest arts story going around in the general community last week but, as you [...]

ARE rising property prices a threat to cultural diversity? How do we keep artist and creative communities living and working in our cities as rising property prices threaten to slowly push them out? Later this week, various venues around Fitzroy will host an “anti-gentrification festival” hosted by the “radical craft group” Craft Cartel. Their aim, [...]

I BOUGHT a guy a beer last week. No, I’m not so cheap that that is remarkable. What is remarkable, though, is that the guy I bought a beer for is a writer and theatre-maker who lives in Chicago and I’ve never met him. The little transaction demonstrated one of the many ways that artists [...]

HOW often does it have to happen? How many times has government – in order to solve one problem such as late-night violence and antisocial behaviour in notorious nightclub zones – implemented a crackdown that inadvertently sideswipes a whole range of people who had nothing to do with the problem in the first place? Call [...]

Some tips on how to start a Renew Newcastle type project in vacant buildings in your own cities and towns from my ABC Arts blog.

LYNDON Terracini has been outspoken and surprisingly frank about the limitations of Australia’s major performing arts companies in recent weeks. The incoming Opera Australia artistic director has slammed Australia’s orchestras and opera companies as “conservative and predictable,” admitted that Melbourne has been poorly served by Opera Australia from Sydney and, most notably, has drawn attention [...]

There is a palpable sense of decline, decay and even a little despair in Europe. I’ve spent the past few weeks passing through major centres such as Dublin, London and Cologne and made a few side trips. The recession is hitting, creative communities are suffering and yet they’re demonstrating initiative and resilience at a time [...]

The discussion just keeps coming… The  HVRF talk i gave last week has garnered a lot of attention for its analysis and response to the problem of dysfunctional commercial property markets. In the contexts in which i find myself talking about Renew Newcastle the economic issues are rarely discussed or analysed. Given the interest i [...]

Just a quick heads up that i am speaking at the Brisbane Ideas Festival on Friday of this week. New Operating Systems for Creativity New York arts worker Liz Slagus, arts commentator Marcus Westbury and Urban Informatics consultant Dan Hill discuss how technology and new media are rearranging our creative lives. Liz, Dan and I [...]

I have two separate speaking engagements this week. On Wednesday night i’ll be speaking as part of the Inspired Media series organised by the folks at Portable Content: Date:    Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Time:    6:00pm – 8:00pm Location:    Horse Bazaar Street:     397 Little Lonsdale Street City/Town:    Melbourne, Australia Their facebook group has all the information. [...]