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Ex-Sydney Festival Director delivers first program in new Toronto festival role

Australian arts leader Olivia Ansell sends a postcard from Canada after her first months in new festival role.

15 Jul 2025 9:00

Jo Pickup

Olivia Ansell: a portrait photograph of a smiling white woman in her forties with long light brown hair with her arms crossed in front of her, wearing a black short sleeved top standing in a light-filled white-walled room next to a window with light coming in through the window. Toronto

Performing Arts

Luminato Festival Director Oliva Ansell. Photo: Jenna Hum.

After a calm and steady end to what was at times a turbulent stint as Sydney Festival Director for Olivia Ansell – a tenure that included Israel Embassy funding-related artist boycotts and the cancellation of the Festival’s inaugural mid-city music program Summergound in 2024 due to weak market conditions – the esteemed Australian arts leader and her family set off for Canada in March this year to begin her new five-year appointment as Artistic Director of Toronto’s popular Luminato Festival.

For the Luminato Festival, THAW’s 2.7-tonne block of ice and its solo aerialist performer was suspended over Toronto’s Sankofa Square.

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Jo Pickup

ArtsHub's Arts Feature Writer Jo Pickup is based in Perth. An arts writer and manager, she has worked as a journalist and broadcaster for media such as the ABC, RTRFM and The West Australian newspaper, contributing media content and commentary on art, culture and design. She has also worked for arts organisations such as Fremantle Arts Centre, STRUT dance, and the Aboriginal Arts Centre Hub of WA, as well as being a sessional arts lecturer at The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).