BIOGRAPHY
Gareth Hart is an independent Artist, Producer and creative leader having spent over 20 years as a practicing artist creating a suite of innovative dance and installation work. This body of work has toured extensively around Australia, received critical acclaim internationally, and even won an award here and there.
Their creative work interrogates personal queer histories, embodied psychologies and the psycho-geography of public and private spaces. This work often manifests in explorations of site-specificity, interrogating the spaces between corporeality, improvisation and inhabited space. This also happens to the be the title of their Master's thesis.
Hart's seminal performance work ‘Ellipsis’ premiered at the 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival, receiving a 5 star review, being nominated for ‘Best Dance Work’ and subsequently invited to re-stage at the 2012 AvignonOFF festival in France. ‘Ellipsis’ was further nominated for a 2012 Australian Dance Award (Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance). Hart's subsequent work, ‘Symphony of Strange’ similarly garnered a 5 star review and nomination for ‘Best Dance’. Following suit, their third Adelaide Fringe work, ‘excavate’ received critical acclaim whilst picking up a ‘Best Dance’ award from festival judges.
Harts work has been experienced extensively around Australia, as well as the UK and France
For a fuller list of recent work, click here
In 2017 Hart was awarded an Australia Day Award for ‘outstanding contribution to the Yarra Ranges community’. In 2018, Hart was fortunate enough to be selected by the Australia Council for the Arts, to participate in the highly competitive Future Leaders program. For the past 10 years Hart has adopted a range of leadership roles across regional arts organisations and festivals, including CEO of Burrinja Cultural Centre, Executive Director of Arts Mildura and festival director of hillsceneLIVE and CRACK Theatre Festival. Professionally, their work in organisational and community leadership is underpinned by deeply held values of humanity and humanness.
In 2013, Hart was fortunate enough to secure a professional secondment with the London International Festival of Theatre, where they assisted the Producing team with the planning and implementation of a major international biannual festival.
In 2014, Hart founded hillsceneLIVE –a live art/performance festival in the Dandenong Ranges.
hillsceneLIVE is an arts festival supporting emerging and experimental artists. The festival aim to create new modes of thought, practice, engagement and participation through the support of bold, brave artists.
In 2018, Hart was selected for the highly competitive 'Future Leaders Program' from the Australia Council for the Arts, and was recently awarded an Australia Day Award for 'Outstanding Contribution to the Yarra Ranges Community'.
Following this formative experience, Hart has held a number of leadership positions within the arts, include Executive Director of Arts Mildura, CEO/Creative Director of Burrinja Cultural Centre, and Executive Producer of Shepparton Arts Festival. For the past two years, Gareth has worked as an Independent Arts Consultant, working with a client base of over 40 nationally recognised organisations, on strategic planning, facilitation, funding reform and executive management.
They are proud to continue forging a way of balancing creative practice and creative leadership.
AWARDS AND GRANTS
Awarded: Australia Day Award – ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Yarra Ranges Community’
Nominated: Australian Dance Award, ‘Outstanding Contribution to Independent Dance’
Awarded: Yarra Ranges Council – Arts and Heritage Grant – hillsceneLIVE (x3)
Winner: Adelaide Fringe Festival – Best Dance Award: Excavate
Awarded: Yarra Ranges Council – Arts and Heritage Grant – Lilydale Pop-Up Theatre
Awarded: Arts Victoria (Creative Victoria) – Professional Pathways Scholarship
Nominated: Adelaide Fringe Festival – Best Dance Award: Symphony of Strange & Ellipsis (x2)
Awarded: Australia Council for the Arts – ArtStart grant
Winner: Water and Muriel McConnan Trust Prize – Outstanding Postgraduate Research
Awarded: Sir Rupert Hamer Family Scholarship (2009)
Nominated: Green Rooms Awards, ‘Innovation and Excellence in Circus’ (Producer)
Awarded: Melbourne City Council – Arts Grant – Move Me Closer
Awarded: University of Melbourne & Victorian College of the Arts – Melbourne Research Scholarship
Hart secured funding from numerous local councils, Arts Victoria and Australia Council for the Arts.
Gareth Hart is an independent Artist, Producer and creative leader having spent over 20 years as a practicing artist creating a suite of innovative dance and installation work. This body of work has toured extensively around Australia, received critical acclaim internationally, and even won an award here and there.
Their creative work interrogates personal queer histories, embodied psychologies and the psycho-geography of public and private spaces. This work often manifests in explorations of site-specificity, interrogating the spaces between corporeality, improvisation and inhabited space. This also happens to the be the title of their Master's thesis.
Hart's seminal performance work ‘Ellipsis’ premiered at the 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival, receiving a 5 star review, being nominated for ‘Best Dance Work’ and subsequently invited to re-stage at the 2012 AvignonOFF festival in France. ‘Ellipsis’ was further nominated for a 2012 Australian Dance Award (Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance). Hart's subsequent work, ‘Symphony of Strange’ similarly garnered a 5 star review and nomination for ‘Best Dance’. Following suit, their third Adelaide Fringe work, ‘excavate’ received critical acclaim whilst picking up a ‘Best Dance’ award from festival judges.
Harts work has been experienced extensively around Australia, as well as the UK and France
For a fuller list of recent work, click here
In 2017 Hart was awarded an Australia Day Award for ‘outstanding contribution to the Yarra Ranges community’. In 2018, Hart was fortunate enough to be selected by the Australia Council for the Arts, to participate in the highly competitive Future Leaders program. For the past 10 years Hart has adopted a range of leadership roles across regional arts organisations and festivals, including CEO of Burrinja Cultural Centre, Executive Director of Arts Mildura and festival director of hillsceneLIVE and CRACK Theatre Festival. Professionally, their work in organisational and community leadership is underpinned by deeply held values of humanity and humanness.
In 2013, Hart was fortunate enough to secure a professional secondment with the London International Festival of Theatre, where they assisted the Producing team with the planning and implementation of a major international biannual festival.
In 2014, Hart founded hillsceneLIVE –a live art/performance festival in the Dandenong Ranges.
hillsceneLIVE is an arts festival supporting emerging and experimental artists. The festival aim to create new modes of thought, practice, engagement and participation through the support of bold, brave artists.
In 2018, Hart was selected for the highly competitive 'Future Leaders Program' from the Australia Council for the Arts, and was recently awarded an Australia Day Award for 'Outstanding Contribution to the Yarra Ranges Community'.
Following this formative experience, Hart has held a number of leadership positions within the arts, include Executive Director of Arts Mildura, CEO/Creative Director of Burrinja Cultural Centre, and Executive Producer of Shepparton Arts Festival. For the past two years, Gareth has worked as an Independent Arts Consultant, working with a client base of over 40 nationally recognised organisations, on strategic planning, facilitation, funding reform and executive management.
They are proud to continue forging a way of balancing creative practice and creative leadership.
AWARDS AND GRANTS
Awarded: Australia Day Award – ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Yarra Ranges Community’
Nominated: Australian Dance Award, ‘Outstanding Contribution to Independent Dance’
Awarded: Yarra Ranges Council – Arts and Heritage Grant – hillsceneLIVE (x3)
Winner: Adelaide Fringe Festival – Best Dance Award: Excavate
Awarded: Yarra Ranges Council – Arts and Heritage Grant – Lilydale Pop-Up Theatre
Awarded: Arts Victoria (Creative Victoria) – Professional Pathways Scholarship
Nominated: Adelaide Fringe Festival – Best Dance Award: Symphony of Strange & Ellipsis (x2)
Awarded: Australia Council for the Arts – ArtStart grant
Winner: Water and Muriel McConnan Trust Prize – Outstanding Postgraduate Research
Awarded: Sir Rupert Hamer Family Scholarship (2009)
Nominated: Green Rooms Awards, ‘Innovation and Excellence in Circus’ (Producer)
Awarded: Melbourne City Council – Arts Grant – Move Me Closer
Awarded: University of Melbourne & Victorian College of the Arts – Melbourne Research Scholarship
Hart secured funding from numerous local councils, Arts Victoria and Australia Council for the Arts.
