BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Jessica Carrascalão Heard is an inspirational leader in the Australian arts industry. You’ve almost certainly heard her voice — whether tuning into 3MBS or listening to her perform as an award-winning soprano in seriously impressive productions.
So it’s only fitting that Jessica was chosen to lead a new interview series called Inspirational Women Arts Leaders, which was launched through the 3MBS Radiothon in May and also took place in front of a live audience.
As the series wraps up and is now available to hear in podcast form, we wanted to know what Jessica took away from these conversations — and what you can take into them as a listener.
Jessica, you’ve just wrapped up a weekly discussion series called Inspirational Women Arts Leaders. How’d it all get started?
The series was the brainchild of the wonderful team at 3MBS. Since 2020, the pandemic has presented unparalleled challenges for us all, and particularly for the arts sector. Now we’re coming out of the locked-down phase of the pandemic, 3MBS felt it was important to preserve this oral history of the past two years to help ensure that the struggles, successes, and innovations of this period is not forgotten.
The series also celebrates the achievements of women arts leaders who navigated their organisations through such a difficult time to help ensure that the arts sector continued to be able to be active even under such enormous strain.
I was honoured to be asked to lead the discussion live to air each week in May — and a special thanks to my colleague Loretto Perkins for filling in for me the second week when I had a COVID scare!
I’d like to know how you would define an “inspirational woman arts leader”.
To me, an inspirational woman arts leader is someone who understands the needs of artists, but also understands the importance of connection between artist and audience. They’re not afraid to lead the charge in ensuring that not only are artists looked after and have creative freedom and expression, but also that the artists’ work reaches audiences in a way that is accessible and engaging, no matter what challenges are presented.
With interview talent such as Collette Brennan and Adele Schonhardt, your description seems to fit. While you’ve hosted these discussions for listeners to learn about arts leadership, what have you learnt from these conversations?
What’s been highlighted for me – and it sounds obvious when I say it! – is that where there are artists at the heart of a question, the number of answers is infinite, and the results are creative and beautiful.
Both Collette and Adele stressed that artists were at the heart of their COVID responses. The result of that support? Innovation, new art, and creative new ways of engaging with audiences that will carry forward.
What do you feel is unique about the experience of being a woman arts leader in Australia?
For women to get into leadership roles – and this is across all lots of sectors, not just the arts – it’s quite simply the fact that they have to work harder to get there.
There are fewer women than men who are CEOs, board chairs, hold directorships or are in key management positions, despite the fact that with more women enrolled in tertiary study, they are more likely to be higher-qualified on paper.
There are many roadblocks in society that prevent women from getting those top jobs. That means to get there, women need more resilience, persistence, confidence, and strength, as well as better ideas and better people skills, to fly in the face of a history that hasn’t taken them seriously.
It’s now available in podcast form. But why was it important to first have a live audience for the series?
As a radio broadcaster, we spend so much time behind a microphone, speaking to an invisible listening audience. May meant Radiothon at 3MBS, and it’s one of those times when we can open up the station to our audience, which is such a treat!
For this discussion series, not only did the audience get to see our guests, but also ask their own questions. Radio is usually a one-way medium, so having that extra level of audience engagement opens up the opportunity for potential new insights, and a deeper understanding of the issues being discussed.
What’s been your mission for the series? I mean, aside from having some amazing conversations with amazing people, why do you want others to listen to what these women have to say?
The past two years have seen the arts hit hard by the pandemic, and this series pulls back the curtain for audiences to show just how difficult this time has been.
However, it’s also a chance to be inspired by the achievements of these wonderful women; how they were able to dig deep and find innovative ways to both help artists through this time.
It’s a lesson in all of those qualities I mentioned, and such an important piece of history that we can look to in the future.
Listen to the full Inspirational Women Arts Leaders Discussion Series online via 3MBS.
The series features Collette Brennan, Adele Schonhardt, Elizabeth Hill-Cooper, Anne Frankenberg, Jennifer Kerr, Fiona Menzies, Deborah Cheetham, and Monica Curro.
Images supplied.
