About Staff Ben Strout - Executive Director
| Ben Strout - Executive Director |
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Ben was the Executive Director of Arts Funding at the Australia Council for the Arts for nine years. He headed the Books Alive staff for the first three campaigns and was a member of both the Contemporary Visual Arts and Craft Inquiry and the Cultural Ministers Council Small to Medium Performing Arts Examination. He was also a longstanding member of the Asialink Performance / Arts Management Committee and of the Playing Australia National Touring Committee. Ben has a BA cum laude in History of Ideas from Williams College, Massachusetts. He studied theatre in Connecticut (USA) and worked as a performer with theatres in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Connecticut and New Hampshire before arriving in Australia in 1982 to become the Artistic Director of Australia's Theatre of the Deaf, directing and writing productions for young audiences. He joined the Australia Council in 1987 and - except for 1990, when he was the Executive Director of the Australian Centre of the International Theatre Institute - held a number of senior roles at the Council over the ensuing 21 years. Ben joined Sydney Writers' Festival in February 2009. |
