Thriving in ambiguity and change: Former ABC director of audiences and marketer Leisa Bacon takes the stage as Creative Australia’s development and partners lead

ABC's outgoing director of audiences, Leisa Bacon
Former ABC director of audiences and marketer, Leisa Bacon, is following up a decade-long stint with the public broadcaster by taking up the reins as Creative Australia’s executive director of development and partnerships. It’s a job uniting her passion for arts and culture with her extensive - and highly necessary skillset in stakeholder management – plus a willingness to take on transformative challenges. Because the appointment comes a juncture when the government body, which dishes out more than $250m a year to support Australia’s arts and culture community, reshapes its approach to funding and supporting one of the nation’s most persistently challenged industries post-pandemic.
“I don’t know anyone who is better at working in ambiguity than you” were ABC’s outgoing managing director David Anderson's words to his former director of audiences, Leisa Bacon, when she told him she was considering joining Creative Australia as the official arts council's new executive director of development and partnerships.
“David said to me… this role is going to be a lot of about navigating stakeholders in high levels of ambiguity and you thrive in that. And I thought, ok, I can do this,” Bacon tells Mi3. “You can make it what you want to make of it, which is something I also like. For me, the highlight of the ABC was they let me make the role what I wanted it to be. I’m hopeful of getting that kind of opportunity again at Creative Australia.”
Bacon officially takes up her new gig at Creative Australia on Wednesday. It comes after a decade spent managing marketing, then audiences and marketing, over at the nation’s public broadcaster at a time she readily admits has seen media itself become an increasingly challenged industry.
Bacon brings over 20 years of executive leadership experience in major organisations with her, including government and large commercial businesses, and specialisms in audience engagement, strategic marketing, cultural development and leadership in industry collaborations and partnerships. Prior to the ABC, Bacon held senior roles spanning consumer products, health sectors and the arts such as the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
Bacon assumes the reins from Dr Georgie McClean who, in is leaving Creative Australia after more than three years to run her own strategic consultancy.
“This is an area I am deeply passionate about and which requires new thinking to build pathways, partnerships and investment strategies for Australian artists, as well as new ways to connect with audiences,” Bacon said in the official statement.
Creative Australia is the Australian Government’s principal arts investment and advisory body. Founded as the Australia Council for the Arts in 1968, then re-established by the Australia Council Act 1975, the body began its next evolution in 2023 under the Australian Government’s National Cultural Policy – Revive. The centrepiece of that new strategy was establishment of Creative Australia, a move signalling an expanding Australia Council and a step change at the organisation’s approach. In 2024, it also inaugurated a First Nations-led board.
Notably, Creative Australia stresses decision-making occurs at arm’s-length from the minister responsible for the arts even as the majority of funding is sourced from the Federal Government.
The FY23-24 annual report shows direct revenue received from the Government hit $257.9m for the year, supplemented by another $19.4m in total own-source revenue. In return, Creative Australia outlaid $237.4 million in Australian arts and culture investment over the 12 months via multi-year investments, project grants and strategic initiatives, Music Australia investment and development activity, and directed philanthropic support, including via the Australian Cultural Fund.
According to the 2024-2028 Corporate Plan, this year’s projected revenue is expected to hit $289.6 million, while more than $250m is expected to be outlaid via annual and multi-year grants. According to this document, the trajectory is only going up, with grants expected to nearly $290m by 2027-2028.
Given where the organisation is right now and the various aggregation of agencies and focus it has experienced in the last couple of years, Bacon sees plenty of further shift in both the figures and focus. A potential change in Government could also well shake that up.
“Part of the job is how we work with other government departments investing in arts and culture to make sure this alignment of investment has greater impact. That’s across many sectors – foreign affairs, tourism, trade – because everyone in different ways is invested in arts and culture. Part of the role is influencing other departments to get greater spend for different arts and culture activities,” she says.
Bacon will also oversee Creative Australia’s research, evaluation and impact measurement work. The research component aims to help shape broader industry investment in anything from sector development, education, and tourism.
“One of the reasons I’m excited about research is looking at the impact of different arts and culture activities and how you measure impact. I don’t know the answers yet but it’s really important we’re able to have conversations like that,” Bacon continues.
Development with industry nevertheless will mean hefty stakeholder and partner management, understanding who has the most influence in the area, and where she can create impact. She inherits teams both state-based and national teams.
“I look at it and go wow there’s so much potential. I have to help unlock that potential, but there’s a lot of it,” adds Bacon.
At the end of the day it’s our responsibility to have a positive impact on Australian society. So my audience is still the Australian people. But it’s all about how we make sure we’re having the right level of impact for our arts and culture activities.
Creative industry challenges
Having been on the board of the physical theatre company post-pandemic, Bacon knows how tough it’s been for those working in the arts to bounce back from Covid.
“There’s also not as much money in the economy. Helping re-stimulate that whole area, funding pathways, partnerships, development and all those things – it’s an important time to do that,” she says.
According to Creative Australia’s 2024 instalment of the Artists as Workers: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia report undertaken by David Throsby and Katya Petetskaya from Macquarie University, the latest carried out over the past four decades, only 9 per cent of artists work full-time solely in their creative practice, down from 23 per cent in 2016. The other 91 per cent are also undertaking both arts-related and non-arts work to make a living.
An artists’ average total income (from all sources) is $54,500, which is 26 per cent below the workforce average. While this figure has remained similar since the prior study, when adjusted for inflation, average costs to produce work have increased. At the same time, other work has become more precarious: 59 per cent are now working on a freelance or self-employed basis in arts-related work, up from four in 10, or 56 per cent in non-arts work, up from 26 per cent.
“Post-pandemic, the Government really looked at this and knew it needed a very different approach as the sector requires a lot more support and development. Part of that new strategy from 2024 was rebranding, but also pulling additional areas into it [Creative Australia], such as contemporary music and literature, and a focus on First Nations. They also brought in partnership organisations that used to be separate. So they’ve rebuilt the organisation to have a lot more impact, and so the industry can be less fragmented,” Bacon comments.
“I was interested in an organisation going through a major change and transformation at a time of challenge. These are all the things I get excited about.”
Bacon admits the job also appealed because it’s more than marketing – although that doesn’t mean her audience is any different to the one she served at the ABC.
“At the end of the day it’s our responsibility to have a positive impact on Australian society. So my audience is still the Australian people. But it’s all about how we make sure we’re having the right level of impact for our arts and culture activities. I’m hoping I’m still measuring the audience as the audience – the Australian public.”
For his part, Adrian Collette, AM, Creative Australia’s CEO, was thrilled to have Bacon joining his executive team.
“Her experience in building transformative partnerships will be invaluable as we work to bring together public, private and philanthropic investment to strengthen Australian arts and creativity,” he said.