Chocolate Buddha is a convenient place to meet Katrina Sedgwick. The Japanese restaurant is in Federation Square, part of her artsy bailiwick and about 100 metres from her desk.

Handy? Yes. Good food? Definitely. But for Sedgwick, who leads the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation, there’s another connection. She’s still inspired by a visit to two Japanese islands that forcefully demonstrated the power of art to economically transform a place.