This month’s visiting Australians add to a rich network of expats living and working permanently in the Big Apple who are making waves in theatre, music, visual arts, photography, architecture, food, film and design.
“They’re making an incredible impact for Australia. But we’re not wearing Australian flags around our necks,” says Gantner.
Vallejo Gantner, 50, is the new artistic and executive director of PS21, a contemporary performance centre in upstate New York.Credit: Ashley Gilbertson
“It is not people jumping up and down chanting, ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’,” Gantner says. “It is actually people who are wanting to come to New York and test themselves and their creative mettle ’gainst one of the most challenging and hard cities to make it in the world.”
Gantner now splits his time between the city and Chatham, a town in upstate New York near the capital, Albany, where he was last month appointed artistic and executive director of PS21, a contemporary arts space on a 100-acre site far from the bustle of Broadway.
The 50-year-old is planning a winter program that takes some inspiration from the success of Hobart’s Dark Mofo: “Thinking of ways of embracing the cold and embracing the dark”. Hobart, he says, shows how art can drive not only economic activity but new ideas about how a city, even a relatively small one, defines itself.
The lighting of the Empire State Building in green and gold was sponsored by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the Australian Consulate-General in New York. Consul General Heather Ridout said it celebrated not only Minogue but the many Australians contributing to art music and culture in the city.
Kylie Minogue and Australian Consul General Heather Ridout at the Empire State Building lighting ceremony.Credit: John Nacion/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust
“These are some of the biggest events in New York’s arts calendar this year, and Australia is front and centre in all of them,” Ridout told this masthead.
Casting her eyes around the ceremony, Minogue said: “I feel like everyone’s shining in their individual ways and that’s what I love to feel and see around me.”
In a city known for strong opinions, not everyone was swept up in Empire State Building event. “I had no idea and to be honest, couldn’t care less,” Gantner said. “That is not how we advance a case that Australia is a culturally significant, vibrant, exciting place to live and work and make your way.”
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In a whirlwind visit, Minogue also attended the premiere of George Clooney’s Broadway debut, Good Night, and Good Luck alongside Hugh Jackman, Uma Thurman, Jennifer Lopez and Pierce Brosnan.
Her two concerts were effectively mandatory for the thousands of Australians living in New York. Kip Williams, who left the STC last year after eight years as artistic director, attended and posted photos with the superstar in the green room.
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