Death of arts leader Sue Nattrass

Former Adelaide Festival and Melbourne International Festival artistic director Sue Nattrass has died this week aged 81.

The former Adelaide Festival and Melbourne International Festival Artistic Director worked in the industry professionally for 50 years, beginning her career as a Stage Manager in 1962 at the age of 22 at the Union Repertory Theatre Company - later the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC).

In this role she stage managed major musical productions later that year as part of the Tivoli circuit around Australia and New Zealand.

In 1966, she moved to JC Williamson Theatres, where she also became the first woman in a commercial theatre company to assume the roles of Production Manager, Lighting Designer, Executive Producer and General Manager over 17 years.

Joining the Victorian Arts Centre Trust in 1983 and rising to General Manager of the Victorian Arts Centre from 1989 to 1996, Nattrass was, as she recalled earlier this year “the first woman to ever head up an organisation like this anywhere in the world.”

Nattrass admitted she had a “hell of a lot to learn” but clearly applied those lessons to make her mark as the first woman to be appointed Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 1998.

In 2001, when Peter Sellars’ directorship of the Adelaide Festival of Arts was brought to an abrupt halt, Nattrass was brought in to take over as a steady pair of hands.

Nattrass also sat on a wide-ranging number of boards, trusts and foundations, spanning arts, philanthropy, leadership, health, education, business and women’s affairs.

She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2002 Queen’s Birthday Honours, and received the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Cultural Business Arts Foundation in 2006, among other awards.

In 2014, Live Performance Australia introduced The Sue Nattrass Award at the Helpmann Awards for exceptional service to the live performing industry.

Commenting on her achievements, Victorian Minister for Creative Industries, Steve Dimopoulos, said that Nattrass’s contribution to the arts in Victoria “was immense, and we are a different and better place for her being here”.

MTC’s outgoing Executive Director/co-Chief Executive, Virginia Lovett said Nattrass was a “wonderful, generous leader and role model”, while former MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy said Nattrass was “legendary”, and was a “friend, mentor, inspiration and moral compass to so many” who “gave time and counsel to hundreds over decades”, adding “Australia is the poorer for our losing her.”

Image: Sue Nattrass. Credit: Arts Centre Melbourne.