Garry Stewart has been the Artistic Director of the Australian Dance Theatre since 1999. Since that time he has been the company’s resident choreographer creating the repertoire of the company’s international touring works.

His works have been seen by audiences totalling hundreds of thousands the world over. His deconstruction of Swan Lake – Birdbrain - became the most numerously performed Australian contemporary dance work. His first work for the company, Housedance for the International Millennium Broadcast, was viewed by a television audience of over 1 billion.

His work is also known for collaborations with other artists working in a variety of diverse fields such as robotics, architecture, photography, interactive video, virtual reality and 3D stereoscopic graphics as well as engagement with academics in the areas of neuroscience, psychology, astrophysics and biology.

He has been commissioned to make choreographies for other companies including Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, the Australian Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, Tanz Mainz and the Royal Flanders Ballet. He has also created various innovative video installation works including Collision Course and Proximity Interactive. His 2019 awarding winning short film The Circadian Cycle has been seen in film festivals around the world.

Recently he has been making a cycle of works under the rubric The Nature Series over a four year period. The aim of this series is to look in-depth at the context of humans within discourses on nature and posthumanities.

Stewart has been instrumental in establishing Australian Dance Theatre’s International Centre for Choreography which was initiated after a study of 7 of the world’s leading choreographic centres supported by a Churchill Fellowship. The Centre supports experimental practice and discourses of artists within Australia and internationally.

He has received numerous awards including multiple Helpmann Awards and Australian Dance Awards. He is the inaugural recipient of the Australia Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and was awarded a Centennial Medal from the Australian Government for services to dance. He is included in the Routledge publication Fifty Contemporary Choreographers – a compendium of the leading choreographers working in the world today.

Since January 2020 Stewart has been the Director of Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts at Flinders University. The Centre acts a gathering point for the creative arts research at Flinders. It also serves to enable and facilitate innovative, unexpected and impactful interdisciplinary creative arts research that extends the boundaries of how we perceive and receive the arts within a vastly complex modern world.

Since joining Adelaide Festival Centre in 2006, Douglas has delivered a program-led strategy to grow audiences and position Adelaide Festival Centre as a hub for Asian-Australian cultural engagement. The Festival Centre is South Australia’s principal arts venue hosting more than one million people each year. 

Douglas’ program innovations include Adelaide Guitar Festival and OzAsia Festival, Australia’s premier international contemporary arts festival focusing on Asia. Under his tenure, the Centre has recently completed a redevelopment, the most significant infrastructure project since it opened in 1973 as well as the AUD$66 million redevelopment of the historic Her Majesty’s Theatre.

Douglas came to Adelaide Festival Centre after leading one of the world’s great arts festivals as Director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival. A resident of Asia for 25 years and with international experience in media, tourism, and the arts, he remains closely connected and active in fostering Asian-Australian cultural engagement. 

Douglas held the posts of Deputy Executive Director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Director of Corporate Affairs and Marketing for STAR TV (the Asia-wide satellite television network of Newscorp). He was founding Vice-Chairman of the Asian Arts Festival Association and a board member of the Asian Cultural Council (Rockefeller Foundation). In 2013, Douglas was elected Chair of the Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres (AAPPAC). He is also a member of the Australia-Singapore Arts Group, board member of the Global Cultural Districts Network, advisory board member to the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, and Flinders University Councillor.

Douglas was also a key driver in the successful bid for Adelaide’s accreditation as a UNESCO Creative City of Music. In 2016, Douglas was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the arts and the community. 

Kate Croser is the Chief Executive Officer of the South Australian Film Corporation. Formerly an Emmy award-winning film and television producer, Kate's work has also been nominated for and won Australian Academy Awards and screened at the world’s most prestigious international film festivals.

Kate has established successful independent production and distribution companies including Hedone Productions, nominated for Australian Screen Business of the Year at the 2015 Screen Producers Australia awards. Kate is a member of the board of the South Australian Film Corporation, Ausfilm, SA Leaders For Gender Equity, and previously served for five years as a Councillor for Screen Producers Australia, the peak industry body for independent screen production in Australia.

Heather Croall is an experienced CEO and Director known as a visionary in the creative sector who delivers innovative festival programs, new audiences and organisational growth.

Under her leadership, every festival Heather has run has seen an increase in turn over, been met with high critical acclaim, delivered increased ticket sales and expanded audience demographic. Heather embraces adaptive and agile leadership methodologies and is known for implementing innovative digital platforms and systems that drive change and growth.

Heather is a filmmaker and has produced and directed documentaries for SBS, ABC, Ch 4 and BBC.

She first worked at the Fringe Star Club in the early 1990’s and also ran the film event, Shoot the Fringe from 1992 to 2002, then was Director at the Australian Documentary Conference before going to the UK to take up Festival Director and CEO role at the Sheffield Doc/Fest from 2005 – 2015.

Heather then returned to Adelaide to take up the role of Director and Chief Executive in 2015 at Adelaide Fringe.