Podcasts

The Australian art scene has dramatically evolved over the past decade. A place that used to be seen as belonging to wealthy collectors has opened up to absolutely anyone who is interested and inspired. ‘Front page news’, once dedicated to sport, has recognised the important place of art in our everyday lives.

Kym Elphinstone is the Founder and CEO of Articulate, Australia’s leading communications consultancy for culture and the arts. She’s represented many of Australia’s biggest cultural institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, Carriageworks and the Powerhouse Museum through to grass-roots festivals and art fairs platforming emerging artists. She’s had a major impact on the profile of the arts in this country.

She cites her background in law as a formative experience but one that didn’t offer the creativity she was looking for. In London in the early 2000s, she realised she needed to pursue her first love: the arts. After moving to Sydney, she soon took up a role at the MCA, and a few years later found herself starting her own business with the Biennale of Sydney as her first client.

Listen in as Vince and Kym discuss the difference between art and design, why it’s important to only work with people and on projects you believe in, and public art as placemaking. 

Architects are often drawn to designing buildings that are iconic because they’re incredibly sculptural or different. But it’s designing what he calls ‘Everyday Buildings’, and making them better, that makes this one tick. His firm believes it’s these background buildings that often make cities special.

Paul Monaghan, who co-founded the incredibly successful architecture practice Allford Hall Monaghan Morris in 1989, is an internationally acclaimed architect whose work is focused on redefining the built environment. He’s the Liverpool City Region’s first Design Champion, advises government on how to promote high-quality design for cities and is a generous educator and speaker. He’s also committed to helping young and disadvantaged architects get a foot in the door.

Listen in as Vince and Paul discuss; growing up in 60s Liverpool with his dad’s set squares in the living room when The Beatles were still around, the power of being able to sketch an architectural idea by hand, and the incredible task of working on the UKs House of Commons. 

Warehouse living gained popularity in the 60s and 70s in major urban centres, particularly New York. Industrial buildings were empty, and artists loved their affordability and vast open layouts. But it wasn’t until the 80s that Australia caught on.

Jeff Provan co-founded Neometro, Melbourne’s long-standing design-focused and socially led development group in 1985. He is an active and integral figure in Melbourne’s design community with a raft of accolades for his approach to design, construction and sustainable development.

Jeff’s ongoing commitment to creating homes that make people happy, connect them with their local community, and improve health and wellbeing has a huge ongoing impact on how people live in the city. And his philosophy for creating places that will stand the test of time and be loved by the people who live in them is summarised in The Framework For Healthy Buildings, will be published in October.

Listen in as Vince and Jeff discuss the eternal appeal of warehouse living, designing buildings for people to love, and the elements needed to create a truly healthy place to live. 

Whether we realise it or not, when we’re at work we’re promoting ourselves every day through our personal brands. The way we position ourselves professionally does impact our success. As a freelancer or as someone working within an organisation, this applies to everyone from entry level roles right through to CEOs. Entrepreneurs perhaps have the biggest challenge of all in this space.

Stephanie Bown is a neuropsychologist and leadership expert who incredibly knew she wanted to help people thrive from just 15 years old, in part thanks to the advice of a psychologist uncle. She is focused on inspiring leaders to fully turn up themselves to enable individual and collective success. For Stephanie, it’s all about the pivotal moments that tie us together and those that break us.

Listen in as Vince and Stephanie discuss creating thriving communities at work, what we can all learn from athletes and why it mostly boils down to, ‘just be more you’. 

Music is emotional, and sound is a powerful tool for tuning in to feelings and memories. Music helps us recall people, places and experiences. A song can take us back to a time in our lives we may not have thought of for years or even decades.

Dan Higson and Nick West know this better than most and are leading the way when it comes to creating memorable and emotive sonic branding and music strategy for brands with their globally awarded sound studio, Smith & Western.

Dan began his career trying to be a pop star in 80s London. He even made it onto Top of the Pops, the iconic British music chart TV show. At the same time, Nick was in Japan, going to music festivals in the mountains on weekends. Later he paid his way busking with a digeridoo while learning how to write music in his basement.

Listen in as Vince, Dan and Nick discuss the science behind making music and sounds, why you can’t copywrite chord progressions or drum patterns, and how AI is impacting their industry.

Resilience isn’t always a quality that’s obvious to the people who display it. Often, resilience is survival. It’s resilience combined with a positive outlook, can-do attitude, tenacious nature and sense of community that have helped Dion Horstmans reach a place in his life where he’s able to do what he loves for a living. And it’s not a position he takes for granted.

Today, the artist’s work is displayed in private and public spaces across the world. ‘Supersonic’ – a massive sculpture made up of over 100 pieces of bright yellow tubular steel welded together into the landmark entrance of Melbourne’s Collin’s Square – is seen by millions of people every day.

Growing up between New Zealand and the Cook Islands, things weren’t always so golden. With a single mum living on welfare and violence as a theme, Hortsmans spent his childhood turning to art as a place he could go to be in control, a place of safety. After burning out in the film industry - he was making props and models for blockbusters films like Star Wars, Mission Impossible and Moulin Rouge - he decided to try and make a career of art. It wasn’t long before he received a life-changing phone call.

Listen in as Vince and Dion discuss cutting his teeth working with tools in the film industry, thinking at age 15 he wouldn’t make it to 21, and doing everything from working as a doorman to sweeping the floors of an abattoir. 

Buildings pose a huge problem when it comes to carbon, and the architects of today with a conscience are grappling with the environmental debt of the buildings they design.

Quino Holland, Director at Fieldwork, is tackling the issue with an environmentally conscious sensitivity that also considers how buildings can foster community to improve the lives of the people who live in and around them.

The award-winning architect credits his childhood growing up in a Peruvian mountain village at the gateway to Machu Picchu in the late 80s with his interest in archaeology and the past. But his sights are very firmly set on using his architecture practice to improve necessary and important community infrastructure and decarbonise construction for the future.

Listen in as Vince and Quino discuss community-led development, winning the award-winning Collingwood Yards project as a fledgeling architecture practice and adaptive reuse. 

Architects and building materials are synonymous, but an inquisitive entrepreneur with a passion for using natural materials to create spaces with soul has flipped the architectural surfaces industry on its head. With his collaborative approach, premium product and innovative approach to business Ben Kerr, the Founder and CEO of Eco Outdoor, has the world’s leading residential architects knocking down his door.

Kerr’s hugely successful – now global - business with over 100 highly engaged employees supplies and installs natural architectural surfaces and outdoor furniture to architects in Australia and the USA. In his early days Kerr studied history and economics in London and went on to work as a political researcher for TV. After flunking an interview with the award-winning current affairs program Insight, he decided to help his landscaper brother and saw an opportunity in product. With what started as a pile of pebbles he’s created an international design-led business with purpose focused on his love of modern history and architecture.

Listen in as Vince and Ben discuss the role products play in design, how to ignite and direct passion in people, and how the pallet of materials used to build China’s ancient cities are very similar to those we use today. 

Not many people can say they grew up in an architecturally designed home furnished with modern classics featuring black lacquered ceilings and slides for transitioning between floors.

Daniel Boddam can. He also spent weekends playing with architectural drawings and materials on the floor of his parents' studio, so it’s no surprise he’s established himself as one of Australia’s most sought-after high-end residential architects and furniture designers.

These days he’s focussed on his new furniture showroom, due to open in Melbourne in the coming weeks, and using local materials in an effort to reduce the embodied carbon footprint of his work.

Listen in as Vince and Daniel discuss being exposed to his mother’s colourful homeland Venezuela as a child, the first piece of furniture he fell in love with and the life-changing 'dark period’ in his life.