The radical plan to finally give Gen Z a voice in Sydney's museums and galleries
As a university student, NSW Arts Minister John Graham would often attend theatre performances and realise he was the youngest person there.
Even now, as the sector's state leader, Graham still sometimes finds himself 'at the younger end' of audience demographics, which is why NSW will become the first state to legislate to give a voice to Generation Z on the boards of leading cultural institutions.
Under draft legislation before parliament, emerging arts leaders aged between 18 and 28 years will be eligible for a guaranteed seat on the board of the Sydney Opera House, Art Gallery of NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Australian Museum, State Library of NSW and Museums of History NSW.
The bill was drafted after Graham became impatient for real-time demographic changes on the boards and trusts of the six institutions. If adopted, the laws will apply from October this year.
'There is a range of other views around mentoring and more gentle ways to [achieve those aims] but I don't accept that,' Graham told the Herald. 'I want these representatives on the board as equal participants. There are two goals: to bring on the next-generation audiences, and [to bring on] the next-generation cultural leaders.'
The youth seat plan comes amid concern that arts boards across the country are stacked with too many corporate leaders and patrons without real-time arts experience. It follows the Creative Australia board's sacking of its freshly appointed Venice Biennale representative, Khaled Sabsabi, in February.
Last year, Sara Mansour from Bankstown Poetry Slam became the Opera House Trust's youngest-ever board member, aged 30. She said it has given her valuable experience in the way cultural organisations deal with complex operational, financial and governance issues.
'Given young people make up over 30 per cent of NSW's population, I think this initiative from the arts minister is brilliant,' she said. 'It not only gives them a seat at the table – it allows them to be heard, and it is also enabling them to gain integral corporate governance and strategic experience that they then can take back to their own community to upskill at a grassroots level. '
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