College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Festival director to deliver major lecture

The fourth annual Andrew Carnegie Lecture will be delivered by director of the Edinburgh International Festival, Fergus Linehan.

The talk – Who Is Really Running the Show? – will look behind the scenes in the art world and examine the forces and relationships that make the creative industries tick.

The free event is on Thursday 23 November at 6.30pm in George Square lecture theatre.

The Andrew Carnegie Lecture - Who Is Really Running the Show?

Cultural snapshot

As the need for transparency and accountability has increased in the arts, questions are being asked as to where decision-making lies and what factors are at play in those decisions.  

The artist must navigate their way through an increasingly complex web of impresarios, curators, managers, artistic directors, cultural policy experts, donors, public funders, community associations, politicians and trustees or perhaps take on these roles themselves. 

Linehan will attempt to give a snapshot of where authority and power lie in today's cultural landscape and consequences of art's increasingly wide-ranging role in public life.

International career

Fergus Linehan was appointed Festival Director of the Edinburgh International Festival in October 2014.

He began his career in the theatre in Dublin, going on to direct the Dublin Theatre Festival.  During that time he commissioned work by many of Ireland’s leading writers including Seamus Heaney and Brian Friel.

From 2004 to 2009, Fergus was Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Sydney Festival before becoming Head of Music at Sydney Opera House until 2012.

He was then Festival Director of Vivid LIVE, an annual event celebrating popular music and digital art, until moving to Edinburgh.

Carnegie Lectures

The Andrew Carnegie Lecture Series is a programme of annual public talks at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) by some of the most innovative people working in the arts, worldwide, today.

Together with student workshops, seminars and one-to-one meetings with the speakers, the series places ECA at the centre of international discourse on art and creative practice.

The Andrew Carnegie Lecture Series was established in 2014 as part of the centennial celebrations of Carnegie Corporation of New York, one of the many institutions and organisations established by the Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie.

Steel magnate Carnegie donated much of the wealth he generated by to help improve society, with a particular focus on education. This also led to the foundation of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland in 1901.

Related links

Book tickets

The Andrew Carnegie Lecture Series

Edinburgh International Festival