Marcus Westbury

Marcus Westbury is contributing author to CPD’s recent publication More Than Luck: Ideas Australia. His chapter jointly written with Ben Eltham, Cultural policy in Australia argues that Australia’s fragmented cultural policy needs to move beyond its ‘funding paradigm’. Marcus is a writer, broadcaster, festival director and media maker responsible for some of Australia’s most innovative, unconventional and successful cultural events. He is well known for writing and presenting the three part series Not Quite Art for ABC1 and creating the howshouldivote.com.au website for GetUp that produced personalised how-to-vote cards for the 150,000 Australians in the lead-up to the 2007 Federal Election. A born and bred Novocastrian, Marcus is the founder of Newcastle’s infamous This Is Not Art festival. His other hats include stints as the Artistic Director of Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival and Co-director of the Cultural Program at Melbourne’s 2006 Commonwealth Games. Marcus has contributed to a wide variety of publications including the Griffith Review, Crikey, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, several anthologies, journals and countless websites. He is well noted in Australia’s arts community as a member of several committees including for The Australia Council, Arts Victoria, NSW Ministry for the Arts, The Australian Film Commission and was a participant in the 2020 Summit’s cultural stream.