Vale Fiona Winning: quick links
The funeral of the much-loved Fiona Winning – a dynamic producer and arts leader whose behind the scenes impact and support benefited generations of Australian artists – was held last Friday 5 September, attended by many of her friends, family and colleagues in the arts community.
Alongside the heartfelt tributes and eulogies, her friend, the artist Deborah Kelly, disseminated a laminated card containing a collectively-sourced list of Winning’s precepts and rules for life. Entitled ‘What Would Fiona Do?’, the list is shared here with Kelly’s permission.
Speaking with ArtsHub, Kelly says: ‘A giant has fallen. Fiona was – damn, it’s still unbelievable to speak of her in the past tense – my darling friend and my wise, calm counsel. So many career-ending emails she talked me out of sending. So many artistic ideas she helped me refine and sharpen. Her standing-room-only funeral service was packed with weeping artists, all of us bereft, losing such a loving champion of our most intense, ambitious, sincere works. Our works, and our selves.
‘Fiona Winning’s loss isn’t just personal, it’s industrial. In this grim period of relentless attacks on art from the NSW government, losing such a passionate, skilled advocate is a terribly painful blow to the sector.’
The following obituary is comprised of many voices and sources, including public tributes and personal remarks shared on social media. ArtsHub has sought and received permission from the respective authors where private comments have been republished.
Remembering Fiona Winning
Winning, who died on 22 August, is remembered as a visionary whose passion for collaboration changed lives; as kind, approachable and determined in equal measure; for her unwavering belief in the value of experimental and boundary-pushing art; and for her fearless advocacy for independent artists.
After training in Brisbane, Winning cut her teeth in the arts working with two Brisbane street theatre companies: agitprop ensemble the Popular Theatre Troupe, and the Street Arts Community Theatre Company.
Relocating to Western Sydney, Winning became Artistic Director of Death Defying Theatre (now known as Urban Theatre Projects aka Utp) in the early 1990s. Arts strategist and consultant Jennifer Barry, who worked with Winning at Death Defying Theatre, said of that time: ‘We worked hard but we had lots of fun. To this day, it remains one of the most vital workplaces I’ve had the honour to be a part of in my 30+ year career.’
Of Winning, Barry wrote on LinkedIn: ‘Fiona’s accessible, passionate, and inspiring leadership was the sun around which we orbited. She was ambitious, dreaming big and going hard to make extraordinary things happen. But she was never naive to the challenges we faced and she made sure she brought everyone along with her. She was a true collaborator and a true believer.
‘To me it seemed that the work (and the people she worked with) was what drove her; not pride or ego or wanting to be personally celebrated: community was everything. She was a powerful mix of radical and reliable. I admired her combination of gusto and pragmatism, and as a young arts professional, I learned so much from her,’ Barry explained.
Throughout the 1990s, Winning’s creative practice was prolific and community focused. She worked on TrackWork for Death Defying Theatre (a large-scale performance on trains and platforms across Western Sydney), directed and wrote for projects such as Don’t Die on Friday for the Queensland Nurses Union, Kin Tucka Tiddas for Ngoroe-Kah Aboriginal Theatre Company, and Say It Out Loud for women in the Hunter region, and worked as a dramaturg, lecturer, consultant and facilitator.
Winning was also a member of the Artistic Directorate of Hothouse Theatre in Albury-Wodonga and her work consistently centred community, collaboration and cultural exchange.
Fiona Winning: from PACT to Performance Space
Winning’s career saw her play pivotal leadership roles with many prominent Sydney arts organisations, including PACT Centre for Emerging Artists and as Director of Performance Space (1999 – 2008).
A recent tribute from PACT read in part:
Fiona was unwavering in her support for PACT and our artists. She came to hundreds of shows over the years, lent her expertise to organisational matters and the recruitment of our Associate Artists, and gave generously to our development program to ensure the next generation of artists had opportunities to grow.
It was not just what she did but how she did it, inspiring those around her with curiosity, generosity, integrity, brilliance, and a fierce sense of fun. Full of ideas and action, she fed and represented something larger than herself – a spirit, an ethos, a way of navigating the arts on your own terms.
Ultimately, Fiona, we want to say thank you, thank you, from all of us.
You were a navigator of constellations. You were visionary. You gave profound wisdom and insights into our times.
You were an indomitable force. A witness to our lives. You raised so many of us in the performance and community spaces and we will continue to harvest, for years to come, the seeds you planted.
You were a guide for how to live and work with heart and purpose.
At Performance Space, Winning played a major role in nurturing and mentoring artists at the cutting edge of contemporary performance as well as successfully navigating the company’s move from Cleveland St to Carriageworks.
Perth’s pvi collective acknowledged Winning’s time at Performance Space as playing an important role in the company’s development.
Calling her ‘the fearless fiona [sic], who in our eyes, was a legend, a leader and national treasure,’ the company’s tribute continued: ‘we feel very lucky to have had fiona’s support over the past two and a half decades. as director of pspace, it was fiona who invited pvi to undertake residencies, tours, talks and forums in the naughties. she taught us so much – how to better articulate our practice, how to back ourselves as artists, how to keep going when times felt impossible. she was kind, critical, generous and inspiring.
‘fiona was part of the epic matriarchy of national venue presenters who created time_place_space, a national hothouse lab for experimental australian performance. we attended the inaugural lab in 2002 which was seminal for us as a collective, enabling us to connect with amazing artists from across the country who went on to become our peers, collaborators and creative comrades.
‘her generosity, and unwavering commitment to the arts has helped nurture the careers of so many and at pvi, we feel immense gratitude for her guidance and care over the years. her legacy is everywhere and lives on through all who entered her orbit,’ pvi collective’s statement read in part.
Winning also co-curated Siteworks at Bundanon, convened the 2011 Australian Theatre Forum, and co-designed NIDA’s MFA in Cultural Leadership, Creative Australia’s tribute noted, describing her leadership as being marked by generosity, curiosity, and a fierce belief in the value of artists and their work.
NIDA’s tribute to Winning read, in part:
Fiona was instrumental in establishing NIDA’s Master of Fine Arts (Cultural Leadership) a decade ago, co-designing the program and teaching in early years with great generosity. She believed passionately that cultural leadership is grounded in collaboration, care, and service to community. Through her work, Fiona inspired and mentored a generation of cultural leaders who continue to carry her values forward.
Fiona Winning: Sydney Festival and Sydney Opera House
More recently, Winning worked as Head of Programming at Sydney Festival (2012 – 2018) and Director of Programming at Sydney Opera House (2018 – 2024).
Louise Herron, CEO of Sydney Opera House, tells ArtsHub: ‘Fiona was a beloved part of the Opera House family.
‘As Director of Programming, Fiona combined incomparable professionalism and integrity with insight, imagination, optimism and a wonderful sense of humour. So many of us miss her more than words can say – her flamboyant hair and shoes, sitting with her in a performance, laughing together at ridiculous things, her small boxes of neatly packed lunch. But central to Fiona’s heart and mind was always concern for her friends, her colleagues and the artists she encouraged to believe in themselves.
‘Fiona led our programming team from 2017 until last year. Her achievements included our 2022-24 Artistic Strategy, the independent arts festival UnWrapped, a renewed focus on digital programming, the donor-funded program New Work Now, the Centre for Creativity and, of course, the year-long 50th anniversary program. The list goes on.
‘Fiona was instrumental in building a more contemporary, inclusive culture at the Opera House and across the sector more broadly. Anyone who worked with her over the years will be familiar with her passion for transforming the Opera House into an accessible, civic space – a gathering place for the whole community – and we carry on that vision today in all that we do,’ Herron said.
Creative Australia’s tribute to Winning added more detail to illuminate the many threads of her rich and storied career. She served on the Theatre Board from 2009 to 2013, was a regular peer assessor between 2005 and 2017, and received multiple grants for her own creative work. In 1995, Winning was awarded a Community Cultural Development Fellowship, recognising her leadership in socially engaged practice. She was pivotal in the design, curation and implementation of the five-year interdisciplinary laboratory initiative Time_Place_Space. She also contributed to many projects supported through organisational funding and was frequently cited by other applicants as a mentor, collaborator and inspiration.
Alice Nash, Creative Australia’s Executive Director Arts Investment, said: ‘Fiona Winning was a rare and generous leader whose passion for people and the arts shaped a more inclusive and vibrant sector. She brought intelligence, warmth and fierce advocacy to everything she did. Her legacy lives on in the artists she championed and the institutions she helped shape.’
Winning also held positions on numerous boards and committees, including Accessible Arts, Performing Lines, Critical Path, ReelDance, AsiaLink, the NSW Ministry for the Arts, and the Queensland Community Arts Network. She brought integrity, intellect and care, shaping policy and practice with a deep commitment to equity and inclusion.
A tribute from Create NSW called Winning ‘a passionate and tireless advocate for the arts, and particularly for artists, arts workers and audience members with disability’, adding:
‘During her three years of service on our board, Fiona was generous with her time, creative in her thinking, thoughtful in her guidance, and deeply knowledgeable. Her insights and leadership have shaped the direction of our organisation in meaningful ways, and her legacy will continue to inspire our work.’
A statement from Accessible Arts, whose Board Winning served on for three years, read: ‘Fiona was a passionate and tireless advocate for the arts, and particularly for artists, arts workers and audience members with disability. Her contribution to our organisation, and to the broader arts and disability sector, was both profound and lasting.
‘During her three years of service on our board, Fiona was generous with her time, creative in her thinking, thoughtful in her guidance, and deeply knowledgeable. Her insights and leadership have shaped the direction of our organisation in meaningful ways, and her legacy will continue to inspire our work. We have lost not only a remarkable colleague, but a beautiful soul whose warmth, wisdom and commitment touched all who had the privilege to work alongside her,’ the Accessible Arts statement read.
Fiona Winning: a public celebration
Fiona Winning is survived by her partner of many decades, independent arts producer Harley Stumm. ArtsHub sends its sincere sympathies to Harley and to all Fiona’s family and close friends. A public celebration of Fiona Winning’s life will be held at Sydney Opera House on Monday 13 October from 10am. Registrations are invited, here.
