‘Creative Australia is not fit-for-purpose’: Arts heavyweights demand answers

As the arts industry welcomes Creative Australia’s decision to reinstate artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative in the Venice Biennale next year, Australia’s arts heavyweights are demanding answers as to how the decision overturning his appointment was reached in the first place.

“It’s absolutely the right decision”: Former director of the NSW Museum of Contemporary Art Liz Ann Macgregor.Credit: Brendan Read

Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino were announced as Australia’s representatives for the prestigious event in February. Days later, the invitation was revoked after a series of questions in parliament from then-Coalition arts shadow minister Senator Claire Chandler about several of Sabsabi’s historical works.

Former director of the NSW Museum of Contemporary Art, Liz Ann Macgregor, said she was delighted the pair had been reinstated. “It’s absolutely the right decision. Now we will also get a chance to judge the merits of the artwork, I mean that’s the most exciting thing, that the detractors, whoever they might be, go to Venice and see the work of an artist that has been so criticised. Now they can make their own mind up.”

While Macgregor said there was a clear failure of risk management, she remains worried the case would have a chilling effect on future selection processes for the Venice Biennale.

“It’s a judgment call for all of us in the arts. One person’s controversy is another person’s innocuousness. What’s going to happen if the expert independent panel takes their selection to Creative Australia which then does a risk analysis, and the CEO, who is not confident in these matters goes, ‘Oh this is too hard. Let’s just quietly bury it’. It’s a problem.”

Former publisher and arts advocate Louise Adler said the key issue was the failure of leadership.Credit: Eddie Jim

Macgregor says there was a risk of such scenarios without experienced arts boards.

“Not just the board, but senior management too. Clearly the wrong decision was made, and the cost has been great pain to the artist and all of those involved. Somebody has to take responsibility,” she says.

Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week and former publisher Louise Adler argues the key issue remains the failure of leadership. “Given all the controversies in the arts community over the past few years, it beggars belief that Creative Australia, with more capacity than most to hire ‘issues management’ advisors, did not have a risk assessment in hand while making the decision to invite Khaled Sabsabi and then to de-invite him,” she says.

“There’s not an arts organisation in the country that hasn’t had to provide their increasingly risk-averse boards with risk assessments,” she says. “If Creative Australia was blindsided by the complexities of inviting Sabsabi, it suggests either a worrying level of naivete or a political judgment that a brown artist from the Western suburbs will tick a whole lot of boxes. Either rationale suggests CA is not fit-for-purpose.”

The Blackhall & Pearl report into CA’s governance and decision-making process for the 2026 Biennale makes the point that it is “surprising” that “given dedicated and experienced crisis management capabilities were available to Creative Australia, these were not called upon … until a day or two before the launch”.

“Creative Australia must renovate its board and leadership”: Former Biennale pavilion curator Juliana Engberg.Credit: Peter Braig

Adler says the review does not go far enough. “For all the detail, [it] does not actually clarify the decision-to-cancel process. The CEO together with the visual arts staff made the decision to appoint Sabsabi, it was then decided to call a board meeting to recommend the cancellation of the appointment.

“What we do know is that the decision to cancel was a reaction to political pressure ... Those who briefed Senator Chandler will probably never be outed. But it is not hard to join the dots.”

Adler’s voice is one of many demanding more answers. Juliana Engberg, a former Venice Biennale pavilion curator in 2007 and 2019, said the review was clear on Creative Australia’s failures and that required an immediate response.

“Creative Australia must renovate its board and leadership,” she said. “Until that occurs there will be a continual distrust for Creative Australia in the arts community. The review makes clear the substantial flaws of process and judgement that led to one of the most disastrous and unfair episodes in Creative Australia’s history.”

Engberg says the arts community demonstrated unity and strength over the past four months: “It collectively enacted a sustained campaign to ensure the miscarriage of justice against Khaled Sabsabi would not go unchecked and would not be accepted.”

Penelope Benton, executive director of the peak lobby group, the National Association for the Visual Arts, said the review points to some big lessons. “Proper risk planning means being ready to back the artist. That is essential if we want bold, ambitious work to thrive on the world stage,” Benton said.

“The handling of this situation raised a lot of serious concerns. Reinstating the selected artistic team is a necessary correction, one that helps to repair confidence and ensure accountability going forward.”

Benton added that the reinstatement sends a strong message about Creative Australia’s future direction. “It shows that public institutions can acknowledge when things go wrong and take meaningful steps to make things right. That takes integrity, and it is an important part of restoring trust.”

Max Delany described it as “a deeply regrettable and shameful episode”.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Max Delany, former head of Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, writing on Instagram described what happened as “a deeply regrettable and shameful episode”. He says the CA report “fails to grapple with several critical underlying and causal issues”.

“Chief among these is the pernicious, vexatious and corrosive influence of lobbyists, conservative media and culture warriors on our public discourse and on the integrity of our cultural institutions – forces that remain largely unexamined in its findings.”

Shadow arts spokesperson Julian Leeser protested Sabsabi’s reinstatement, saying Arts Minister Tony Burke had “serious questions to answer about the credibility of Creative Australia” for a deeply flawed process that “diminishes the power of Australian art as a ‘tool of soft diplomacy’”.

“When the government gives a wink and a nod to decisions like this, it sends a signal that undermines our laws, weakens social cohesion and risks dividing Australians at home, while damaging our reputation abroad,” he said.

Creative Australia’s move will be closely noted by players in other high-profile cases.

Later this year, the case of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra versus pianist Jayson Gillham will be heard in the federal court. The MSO removed Gillham from its line-up after he made unauthorised comments about Palestinian journalists being deliberately targeted by Israel’s military in Gaza at an MSO recital in August last year.

A hearing in the matter of the State Library Victoria versus writers Omar Sakr, Jinghua Qian, Alison Evans and Ariel Ries is expected in the next few months. The authors were sacked as contractors to SLV in March 2024 and argue they were dismissed because of their pro-Palestinian views. SLV denied political views prompted the decision, saying it needed to review its policies and procedures.

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