Melbourne International Arts Festival

Brett Sheehy is one of Australia's most accomplished and acclaimed directors, producers and curators.  He is currently Artistic Director of the Melbourne Festival, making him the first person ever to be appointed to direct three of the five international arts festivals in Australia's State capital cities.                                                

Previously, Brett has been Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival (from 2005 to 2008), and Festival Director & Chief Executive of Sydney Festival (2002-2005) where he was also the Festival's Deputy Director (1995-2001).

Brett is best known for commissioning and co-commissioning dozens of new Australian works across every artform; for having debuted for Australia many of the world's finest companies and artists; and for his dedication to performance programs enhanced by substantial visual arts programs. 

Brett presented, for the first time on the Australian stage, the work of Theatre du Soleil, the Schaubühne theatre of Berlin, the Forsythe Company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, the Ballet Boyz, Sir Ian McKellen, Osvaldo Golijov, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Talvin Singh, James Thiérrée, DJ Spooky, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the music-theatre works of Tom Waits, David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim, and singing sensations Rufus Wainwright and Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), to name but a few. 

His 2009 Melbourne Festival saw the Australian debuts of, among others, Sasha Waltz, Deutsche Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Fischerspooner, Sebastian Nubling, Brain Failure, Caroline Stein, Hofesh Shechter, Beans, Peeping Tom Collective, and Ramallah Underground.

Brett has also presented the Australian debuts of many international visual artists, among them Elisa Sighicelli, Francesco Vezzoli, Ivan Navarro, Zhang Ga and Guy Ben-Ner, and his international co-commissions have included such works as the production of Robert Wilson and Tom Waits' The Black Rider (starring Marianne Faithfull and Nigel Richards) and Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing.                                      

Brett's 2008 Adelaide Festival broke box office and attendance records for the Festival's 48-year history, records he had previously set with his 2006 Adelaide Festival.  His 2008 Festival is also believed to have been the world's first ever carbon-neutral international arts festival, an achievement he and the South Australian Government passionately sought to realise. 

Both of Brett's Adelaide programs met with enthusiastic acclaim from artistic, press and public circles, nationally and internationally, particularly their raft of commissioned world premieres and the 2008 Festival's celebration of the contemporary classic music canon.  

With adventurous and exclusive programs of work, Brett grew Adelaide Festival's interstate and overseas visitation from 16% of total attendances to 24% in 2006, followed by a further 105% increase in interstate and overseas visitation from 2006 to 2008.  As well, both programs resulted in a significant financial surplus. 

Works presented as part of Brett's Adelaide Festival and Sydney Festival programs have seen a record 56 nominations for the Helpmann Awards (Australia's national performing arts awards, akin to Britain's Olivier Awards), winning 15.

These 15 Helpmann Awards have included the nation's Best Opera (2006 - Glyndebourne Festival Opera's ‘Flight'), Best Dance Production (2005 - the Australian debut of Shen Wei Dance Arts), Best Classical Concert (2005 - ‘12 Angry Cellos'), Best Special Event (2003 - Brett's in-depth ‘Celebrating Samuel Beckett' project), and Best Physical or Visual Theatre Production (2002 - ‘Same, same but Different').

For Sydney Festival, Brett's four programs included 37 world premieres; saw the Festival double its box office attendances; enjoyed four successive significant financial surpluses;  recorded a 30% increase in attendances to free outdoor events;  established satellite Festival precincts in Greater Sydney; established a loyal audience following in the 18 to 35 age group; was voted Sydney's Best and Most Popular Event by the Sydney Chamber of Commerce; and was twice named the Best Event in New South Wales - in 2003 and 2005 - by NSW Tourism.

At the Sydney Opera House, through his Sydney Festivals, Brett has presented more events across more artforms than any other outside producer (including dance, drama, opera, music-theatre, visual arts, classical music, contemporary music, jazz, design, film, multi-media events, large-scale sculptural installations and outdoor spectacles).

In Adelaide, Brett secured with Adelaide Bank the largest arts sponsorship in the history of the State of South Australia, and one of the largest in Australia, at $3 million over three festivals with an option on a further two festivals through to 2014.

During his Sydney Festival tenure, two of Sydney Festival's corporate partnerships were honoured with Australian Business Arts Foundation (ABAF) Awards including Australia's Corporate Partnership of the Year, from a total of three nominations.

Prior to joining Sydney Festival, Brett was Artistic Associate, Literary Manager and Deputy General Manager of the Sydney Theatre Company, Australia's largest theatre company.  He was also dramaturg of more than a dozen Sydney Theatre Company productions and workshops.

Brett has been a recipient of several awards including two International Society for the Performing Arts Awards (1993 and 1994), the prestigious Mobil Fellowship in Arts Administration (1991), a Qantas International Theatre Scholarship (1987), and a Brisbane Writers' Festival Award for Poetry (1981).  In 1989 Brett edited (with Theresa Willsteed) the award-winning book Sydney Theatre Company 1978 to 1988.

Brett has also been a Script Assessor for the Australia Council (1989-1990), a Reader for the Australian National Playwrights' Centre (1988-1989), and a member of several bodies, among them the Sydney Writers' Festival Committee (1995-1997), the NSW Centenary of Federation Arts and Events Committee (1998-2001), the Board of the Australian Theatre for Young People (2000-2003), the Committee for Sydney (2001-2005), the Arts Advisory Group of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2004-2006), and he is currently a member of the Artists' Advisory Panel of the Bell Shakespeare Company.

In 2005 Brett was named by the Australian Financial Review Magazine as one of the 20 Australians across all fields to be watched for their impact on society in the next 20 years, and in 2007 he was named by ABC's Limelight magazine as one of the five most influential arts figures in Australia.

In 2007 he was also selected by The Bulletin magazine to be the national judge of the ten ‘smartest people' working in arts and entertainment for the annual "Smart 100" issue.  Most recently he was one of twelve eminent Australians appointed by the Australian Financial Review Magazine to its Power Panel; was a participant in the Australian Government's 2020 Summit; and was appointed by the Australia Council as a national Ambassador for the We All Play a Part initiative encouraging nation-wide community involvement in the arts.

Brett's primary advocacy within the contemporary arts is for excellence, innovation, accessibility and dialogue between all artforms in the Australian cultural landscape.