Image: Visiting artist Vic McEwan is inspired by Burnie’s industrial landscape
Heart to Heart
Conversations: Artistic Director Lindy Hume talks with artists visiting Tasmania
Guest Artist: Vic McEwan
We’re often asked what we do between festivals, or how much ‘time off’ we now have until next time. Well, while it’d be nice, kicking back and relaxing isn’t an option. The reality is that from the minute one festival is finished, we’re already well into the next one. Developing the next program, and the one after that, is the vital part of the festival team’s work from now until March 2021.
One exciting part of that work is getting out into the world to see what artists are doing now, where potential intersections might lie with Tasmania’s artists and audiences. This week Executive Producer Vernon Guest has returned from a research trip to some of Europe’s most interesting festivals. In parallel, my work as an opera director has taken me to Seattle and Portland in the USA, where I’ve been meeting with American colleagues. From both our perspectives, it’s fair to say that everyone we speak to loves the idea of visiting Tasmania!
Another part of our planning is meeting with as many artists as possible here in Tasmania about what inspires them, and what they might bring to Ten Days on the Island. It’s pretty much my favourite part of the job, so I thought I’d share it here over the next year with a new series called Heart to Heart.
My first guest for this new series is the amazing Vic McEwan, an internationally-recognised artist and artistic director of the CAD Factory, https://www.
The vivid imagery Vic creates and his empathetic, curious approach and regional perspective resonates perfectly with Ten Days on the Island, so this week we invited him to Burnie to begin discussions about a collaboration for the 2021 festival. Without giving too much away about what that collaboration might be, we’re pretty excited about its potential. Like us, Vic is smitten with the industrial landscape of Burnie.
Interview with Vic McEwan
3 September 2019, Burnie

Image: Vic discovered that a pademelon is a small marsupial, not a piece of fruit.