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Caroline Bowditch Has A Chat About The Alter State Art Festival


After 16 years living and working in the UK, Caroline Bowditch returned to Australia in July 2018 to take up the role as Chief Executive Officer at Arts Access Victoria. She is best known as a performer, maker, teacher, speaker and mosquito buzzing in the ears of the arts industry in the UK and further afield.

Caroline is a regular consultant on access and inclusion internationally, and has also led international residencies in Sweden, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. She is regularly invited to mentor local, national and international artists at all levels of their artistic development. With the support of the Australia Council for the Arts, Caroline took part in the prestigious CEO Leadership course at Harvard Business School in 2019-2020.

Under Caroline’s leadership AAV has developed key partnerships with major arts and cultural organisations, strengthened AAV’s financial position and transformed AAV into a disability-led organization at every level of operation. Caroline Bowditch is the Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of Arts Access Victoria, the peak body for arts and disability in Victoria. Bowditch returned to Australia in 2018 after 16 years working in the UK. She is best known as a performer, teacher, speaker and mosquito buzzing in the ears of the UK arts industry and further afield. Caroline took part of in the prestigious CEO Leadership course at Harvard Business School in 2019-2020 and under her leadership AAV has developed key partnerships with major arts and cultural organisations including this one with Arts Centre Melbourne and Alter State.

Alter State is a major arts and disability festival engaging artists and audiences from Australia and Aotearoa (NZ).

The inaugural festival will be held in late 2022 as a hybrid offering. This will allow for live performances across Arts Centre Melbourne’s theatres and spaces as well as digital content online.

Caroline said:

Alter State is the most vibrant, hybrid disability arts festival in the southern hemisphere. For me the real strength of Alter State is that it is disability-led, which I feel is essential. It really sets us up for what happens next in the creative industries. The festival will present the most incredible work that has always been out there but hasn’t been known about because it hasn’t been on stages like Arts Centre Melbourne


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