Regional Arts Victoria has announced the appointment of Ros Abercrombie as Creative Producer of Artlands Victoria.
Ros Abercrombie is an expert creative producer and festivals director with over twenty years’ experience in regional, outer-suburban and urban contexts across Australia. She leads a sophisticated and rigorous approach on cultural events, with strengths in concept development, community engagement and place design.
Collaboration is key to the approach Ros takes in building engaging, innovative and memorable events. A signature of her approach is to bring together emerging, established and community artists to stimulate dialogue and create new works in accessible public environments.
“We are thrilled to be working with Ros to bring a vision for Artlands to life,” said Regional Arts Victoria CEO, Joe Toohey. “Artlands Victoria asks us to think differently about what it means to come together and exchange ideas. Ros has a proven track record in conceiving and delivering just such an event, and will empower regional artists to lead the national cultural agenda.”
Ros is a former director or producer of Tasmania’s Taste Festival, Golden Plains Shire’s On The Map and City of Whitehorse’s Illuminate. She has directed six Moomba festivals for the City of Melbourne, and directed two massive City of Melbourne New Year’s Eve major events. Since 2014 Ros has been Director of the Shepparton Festival.
A strong ideas base is important to Ros’ work, and she actively maintains current knowledge and best practice in cultural events through academic engagement. Ros has lectured in festival and event management at the University of Melbourne and others, and she holds several graduate qualifications in social anthropology and event management. Ros regularly consults to urban and regional councils on arts and cultural programming.
“I am excited to be joining the team at Regional Arts Victoria and working with artists in Bendigo, Castlemaine and across the state,” said Ros Abercrombie. “This is a wonderful opportunity to produce an engaging, accessible platform for social inclusion and creativity. I am looking forward to generating partnerships and forming collaborations across all sectors of the creative industries, education, agriculture and the community.”
Artlands Victoria will be held 5 – 9 September 2018, and is presented by Regional Arts Victoria in collaboration with Regional Arts Australia. Further details of locations, programming and partners will be announced in coming months. For more information, visit: www.rav.net.au for details.
Image: Ros Abercrombie (supplied)