Lee Cumberlidge

Director

Lee Cum­ber­lidge is an inde­pen­dent pro­ducer and arts event man­ager with a range of per­form­ing arts expe­ri­ence from large scale fes­ti­val man­age­ment to the small to medium com­pany sector.

He is a founder and direc­tor of Insite Arts (www.insitearts.com.au), which pro­duces a range of projects includ­ing large scale out­door work, inter­na­tional col­lab­o­ra­tions, tour­ing of inter­na­tional com­pa­nies in the Asia Pacific region, large scale arts fes­ti­vals such as the World The­atre Fes­ti­val with Bris­bane Pow­er­house and MONA FOMA in Hobart, and pro­duc­ing the works of sev­eral inde­pen­dent artists and com­pa­nies such as Fleur Elise Noble and Rawcus.

Lee worked with Arts Projects Aus­tralia from 1999–2008 in both Ade­laide and Mel­bourne on var­i­ous projects in key pro­gram­ming, oper­a­tional and strate­gic devel­op­ment roles includ­ing the Com­mon­wealth Games ‘Fes­ti­val Mel­bourne 2006’ and the FINA Fes­ti­val. Both fes­ti­vals pre­sented hun­dreds of free per­for­mances across street the­atre, cir­cus, music, and dance from local, national and inter­na­tional artists. Fes­ti­val Mel­bourne 2006 attracted 2 mil­lion atten­dances over 10 days and won a Help­mann Award for Best Spe­cial Event.

Lee has also been heav­ily involved in the man­age­ment of WOM­ADe­laide (1999, 2001, 2003), the Aus­tralian Per­form­ing Arts Mar­ket (2000, 2002), and pro­duc­ing tour­ing pro­duc­tions to var­i­ous major fes­ti­vals and venues in the Asia Pacific region.

In the small to medium com­pany sec­tor, Lee has cham­pi­oned the work of sev­eral Aus­tralian artists and com­pa­nies. He was a found­ing direc­tor of Fresh Track Pro­duc­tions, a com­pany of pro­duc­ers set-up to develop and present the work of inde­pen­dent artists. In 2006, he was one of four recip­i­ents of the Aus­tralia Council’s Devel­op­ing Inde­pen­dent Producer’s Ini­tia­tive, a pro­gram which allowed him to pro­vide the ser­vices and expe­ri­ence of APA to a num­ber of inde­pen­dent Aus­tralian the­atre com­pa­nies in the cre­ative devel­op­ment and pre­sen­ta­tion of their work in Aus­tralia and over­seas. The high­light of this period was pro­duc­ing an 8 week tour of Gil­gamesh by Uncle Semolina (& friends) to the Bar­bi­can Cen­tre, Lon­don; the Fes­ti­val of Aus­tralian The­atre in Bei­jing; the Shang­hai Dra­matic Arts Cen­tre; and the Syd­ney Opera House. Work­ing as an inde­pen­dent pro­ducer  to sup­port Aus­tralian inde­pen­dent artists remains one of the core objec­tives of Lee’s work through Insite Arts. Lee is also a board mem­ber of Inde­pen­dent Pro­duc­ers Aus­tralia, a peer organ­i­sa­tion set up in 2010 to pro­vide sup­port and rep­re­sen­ta­tion to inde­pen­dent producers.