During their participation, they not only acted as lecturers but also as true mentors as they engaged in in-depth discussions with the participants. They allowed participants an honest and open insight into their careers, including both success stories and failures.
The mentors and speakers present during the Keynote/Webinar - Back to Live were:
Guest Speakers:
- Rucera Seethal (Artistic Director National Arts Festival Grahamstown/South Africa)
- Fergus Linehan (Director and Chief Executive Edinburgh International Festival/United Kingdom)
Moderators:
- Fanny Martin (Art of Festivals/Canada)
- Erica McCalman (Art Oracle/Australia)
Guest Speakers
Rucera Seethal
Rucera Seethal is the Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival (NAF), the flagship festival held annually in Makhanda (Grahamstown)/ South Africa and the biggest festival of its kind on the African continent. She officially took up the position in January 2020 but has been engaging in Festival curation processes in the interim. Seethal was Programme Manager at Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, where she was responsible for the Performing Arts portfolio across Switzerland and SADC, and for co-adjudicating its Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation regional grant programme. She was art director and production manager at Chimurenga, the award-winning arts, culture and politics magazine, between 2004 to 2011. In 2016, Seethal was on the jury of the ZKB prize at Theatre Spektakel, Zurich; and she is negotiating curatorial responsibilities with SPIELART Theatre Festival, Munich.
Fergus Linehan
Fergus Linehan has been Director and Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival since 2015. Fergus was born in Dublin where he began his career in the theatre, producing many shows and going on to direct the city’s major arts event, the Dublin Theatre Festival. During that time he commissioned work by artists including Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel and Roddy Doyle as well as a new generation of Irish writers and choreographers. From 2004 to 2009, Fergus was Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Sydney Festival where he presented performances by artists such as John Tiffany, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Wheeldon and Björk to name but a few. From 2010 to 2012, Fergus was Head of Music at Sydney Opera House where he refreshed the year-round music programme spanning jazz, world music, pop, rock, electronic music, and visiting classical artists and orchestras. From 2012 to 2014, Fergus was Festival Director of Vivid LIVE, an annual event, celebrating ambition and innovation in popular music and digital art.