Shelagh

Shelagh Magadza
Artistic Director 2008-11


In the first year of her four-year term as Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival, Shelagh Magadza enjoyed the Festival’s most successful year ever.

Shelagh's ambition to take the Festival experience to as many people as possible - not only as a celebration of the arts, but also as a celebration of the city of Perth - was realised in spectacular fashion with record box office and attendance figures.

Highlights under her direction included the sell-out season of National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch, the vibrant Indian reworking of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the critically acclaimed dance work Borrowed Light and the site-specific installation piece Don’t Look Back that took the people of Perth on an ethereal journey through the now disused Old Treasury Building.

The new contemporary music venue on The Esplanade, Beck’s Music Box, proved popular, and the Perth Writers Festival’s move to the campus of The University of Western Australia was also highly successful, with the grounds providing an idyllic setting for the five-day event.

Shelagh is a vocal advocate for the arts and was invited to participate in the Australia 2020 Summit on the Towards a Creative Australia panel.

Previously the Perth Festival’s Associate Director Shelagh joined the Festival in 2002. She has extensive experience in Festival management through various roles in New Zealand and Edinburgh over the past thirteen years.

During a ten-year association with the New Zealand Festival, Shelagh took responsibility for program management and became Executive Producer for new works commissioned by the Festival. She has also worked with the Asia Pacific Festival, the Assembly Theatre in Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival, the Georgian International Festival of Theatre and the Harare International Festival of Arts.

Shelagh holds a Masters in International Relations (Victoria University, Wellington) with research focused on international cultural exchange. She has worked in a non-professional capacity with various community organisations and non-governmental organisations on multicultural issues.

She has been a Council member of the New Zealand Volunteer Service Abroad and a board member of KULCHA: Multicultural Arts of Western Australia.