Brad - Service Manager Creative Arts
Passion and ideas: how Brad is helping transform our city’s cultural landscape
It’s hard to pigeonhole Brad. He’s a talented performer, pianist, teacher, musical director, producer, and executive arts manager. But the one quality that unites Brad’s expansive skillset is passion. And it’s a quality he brings in spades to his role as Service Manager, Creative Arts at Redland City Council.
Brad joined us in 2020 after pursuing work opportunities around Australia. His mission at Redland City Council is twofold. Firstly, he’s responsible for managing our beautiful Redland Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) and Redland Art Gallery. RPAC hosts a wide range of touring cultural events, from dance performances to comedy shows to theatre productions, which are facilitated by Brad and his crew. It also hosts community events, including citizenship ceremonies and children’s productions.
“I celebrate that we get to host these community events. It brings different energies and different people into the space. It’s true diversity.”
Perhaps just as important to Brad is the second part of his role, which involves thinking more broadly about arts and culture and helping us transform our local arts and culture landscape so that it best reflects and energises the community.
“There's a big cross-section of our community that doesn’t often visit our galleries or performing arts centres. I want to encourage them to participate and to understand that they, too, can be part of the conversation.”
Brad believes one way to do this is to develop more participatory cultural events in informal, community spaces.
“Soon we’ll be releasing a program for the beautiful over 50s. It’s called ‘Grand Slam’, and it’s a slam poetry competition, so it’s completely participation based. We’re also working on scoping several open-air cultural festivals, plus we’re seeking to connect with younger people through live music. From a cultural and creative point of view, I think we have amazing potential.”