Ricardo PEACH

ARTS LAB MENTOR & PROVOCATEUR 2016

Dr Ricardo Peach is the Director of the Vrystaat Kunstefees/Arts Festival/Tsa-Botjhaba, a multi-artform arts festival in Mangaung, South Africa. The festival is held annually over a six day period during the second week of July. In his independent role he developed and is also the Co-Director of the Program for Innovation in Artform Development at the Vrystaat Arts Festival and University of the Free State.

Ricardo is an independent cultural consultant with expertise in producing, project management, program and policy evaluation and social media. In 2013 he produced The Portals for ISEA 2013 in partnership with Darwin Community Arts, one of the Australia Council’s Broadband Arts initiative projects. He also produced community engaged projects at the Liverpool Regional Museum/Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney when he was curator of the museum, including Sampot and Padaan, a program on Cambodian Australians, VietPOP: Emergence, an initiative for young Vietnamese Australians and Leaving the Crocodile, an exhibition with the East Timorese communities in Western Sydney.

He managed the Inter-Arts Office grants (2006-2012), the last of the CCD grants (2006), initiated the Council’s MOU with UNESCO Bangkok and was the coordinator of the Arts in a Multicultural Australia Policy.

Ricardo was born in Mpumalanga, South Africa and moved with his family to Australia in the 1980s. He currently lives in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Ricardo was a consultant for the SITUATE Art in Festivals Arts Lab in 2013 and is looking forward to working with an exciting new group of artists in 2016.