Adelaide Festival AD quits to take up government job

Ruth Mackenzie has stepped down as Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival in order to oversee the development and delivery of the SA Government’s new cultural strategy.

5 Aug 2024 9:18

Richard Watts

Ruth Mackenzie CBE leans on the back of a chair, smiling at the camera. She wears a black leather jacket over a black blouse, and her short white hair contains a few streaks of black.

All Arts

Ruth Mackenzie CBE has left Adelaide Festival to take on a new role with the South Australian Government. Photo: Claudio Raschella.

Ruth Mackenzie CBE, Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival, has resigned from Australia’s preeminent multi-arts festival in order to take up a new role with the South Australian Government.

Mackenzie was initially hired to program the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Adelaide Festivals, but moves into her new government role today (Monday 5 August).

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts