Marcus Westbury has created some of Australia’s most innovative, unconventional and successful cultural projects and events. He is the founder and current Chair of Renew Newcastle, an innovative urban renewal project.   Marcus was the driving force behind Newcastle’s This Is Not Art festival - now Newcastle’s largest annual tourism event and one of the largest media arts events in the world.

 

From 2002 to 2006 Marcus was the Artistic Director of Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival and was a co-director the Cultural Program of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. Marcus also co-founded Free Play - Australia’s largest independent computer games developer’s conference - and was a manager of the Australia Council’s LOUD media festival and NOISE youth media arts festivals.

 

Marcus has been the writer and presenter of two series of ABC TV’s Not Quite Art and his writings about art, media, culture, cities and politics have appeared in Griffith REVIEW, Crikey, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, several anthologies, journals, and countless web sites. He has sat on Committees of The Australia Council, Arts Victoria, NSW Ministry for the Arts, The Australian Film Commission and numerous government agencies. Marcus is currently a member of the Creative Australia advisory panel, was a 2020 Summit delegate and works part time with the Centre for Creative Industries at QUT.

Marcus Westbury

Marcus Westbury