Of the many reactions reverberating through the Australian arts sector amid the Adelaide Writers Week fiasco, the one with perhaps the greatest irony behind it is the feeling that we have been here once or twice (or 67 times) before, and that the Adelaide Festival Board should have known better after a plethora of recent arts board controversies that have harmed artists, programs and organisations.
And of course there are the actions of Creative Australia’s Board, who rescinded the Venice Biennale invitation of its chosen 2026 Biennale artist Khaled Sabsabi in February 2025; an act which triggered strong arts sector backlash and prompted a costly independent review of the Board’s process and ultimately resulted in the Board’s decision being reversed. Sabsabi was reinstated as Australia’s 2026 Biennale representative five months later.
