Ian worked for the Adelaide Festival as General Manager and in associated roles on 8 Adelaide Festivals, (83-98) with 7 different Artistic Directors.

In 1997 Ian was appointed as Consultant to Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) for the Olympic Arts Festival and worked as Executive Producer – for the 1997 Festival of the Dreaming.

Ian is Director of Arts Projects Australia a company he co-founded in 1997 where he has continued since 1999 as sole director. APA is an independent arts and event management company with a fulltime staff of 7, producing events and international tours nationally and within the region.

APA was the event producer of the Performing Arts program for the 2006 Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival in Melbourne, event manager for the establishment and first 7 years of the Adelaide Film Festival (2003 – 9) and for the Australian Performing Arts Market (1998-2012) with Ian undertaking the roles of Producer & Executive Producer for these events. APA was also event manager for the Australian International Documentary Conference (2005-12).

In addition to producing the WOMADelaide festival and delivering the international program for its sister event WOMAD New Zealand, APA has produced a range of international performing arts tours between Australia, Hong Kong & New Zealand which have included Druid’s Walworth Farce, Stephen Petronio, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance, Kronos Quartet, the Peter Brook productions (Fragments, Magic Flute, 11 & 12, Sizwe Banzi is Dead & The Suit) Les Arts Sauts, Philip Glass Ensemble, the international tours of “Cloudstreet” to Zurich, London, Dublin, New York & Washington, Tim Supple’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble, Grupo Corpo, Goran Bregovic, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, Transe Express, Circolombia, Kneehigh Theatre’s Red Shoes & Brief Encounter and most recently Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal with performances in the Adelaide & New Zealand festivals, Cirque Alfonse BARBU the Manganiyar Classroom and Ludovico Einaudi’s national tour.

APA worked with Creative New Zealand in producing the Touring Australia Initiative which produced 7 tours over 2013-16 to 18 different venues and cities across Australia of performing Arts productions.

Ian was Chairman of the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals and instigator of the Major Festivals Initiative, a Board member of the Sydney Dance Company 1999-2004 and in 2003 he was recognised by the Government of France as a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres and in 2008 was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Facilitators award and was Chair of the Theatre Panel of Live Performance Australia’s Helpmann Awards (2009-14) and Ian was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday 2017 Honours List as a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts through the production, management and promotion of festivals, theatre and performance events.

He is Chair of Festivals Adelaide http://www.festivalsadelaide.com.au/ - an organisation established to represent Adelaide’s 10 major arts & cultural festivals, and director of the WOMADelaide festival.

Ian has been involved with WOMADelaide since the first event was presented in 1992 as part of the Adelaide Festival.

www.artsprojectsaustralia.com.au