His role will involve fostering Festival collaborations and connections with established European companies, as well as scouting cutting-edge emerging work.

Van Ransbeek is a freelance director and established his own production company, The Rainmakers, in Amsterdam this year. He was previously co-artistic director with Ivo van Hove of Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (formerly Toneelgroep Amsterdam), which presented the epic Roman Tragedies and Kings of War at the Adelaide Festival in 2014 and 2018, and will return in 2023 with an adaptation of American novelist Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life.

Adelaide Festival chair Judy Potter described the appointment as a coup.

“Wouter’s connections within the established international arts community are unsurpassed,” she said in a statement.

“This, combined with his strong strategic acumen and keen artistic eye for talent and potential when it comes to emerging companies, should yield wonderful outcomes for Adelaide and South Australia.”

Van Ransbeek will work with new Adelaide Festival artistic director Ruth Mackenzie and chief executive Kath M Mainland. While he is currently visiting Adelaide and will return again for next year’s Festival, he will remain based in the Netherlands.

“We are committed to social, environmental and economic sustainability, so having Wouter based in Europe is a far more climate-conscious way for us to do business in the Northern Hemisphere,” Mainland said.

British arts leader Mackenzie arrived in Adelaide from London last month to take up her new role, overseeing a 2023 Festival program that was initiated by former artistic directors Rachel Healy and Neil Armfield.

She has known Van Ransbeek for almost two decades and says he “possesses a strong instinct for building relationships between artists and audiences, and has a particular talent for scouting and securing the best that the international arts scene has to offer”.

Van Ransbeek, who held roles with several European international arts festivals early in his career before working alongside van Hove for 16 years at ITA, praised the Adelaide Festival’s “unassailable reputation”.

“Along with Edinburgh and Avignon, it is one of the three great festivals in the world, and it is a privilege to be part of the creative team in the company of Ruth and Kath. I look forward to bringing some of the best European companies to South Australia from 2024 to 2026.”

The 2023 Adelaide Festival will take place from March 3-19. The full program was released last month.

 

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