‘Masterclass in poor governance’: how did the Adelaide Writers Week fall apart?

When former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pulled out of the Adelaide Writers Festival, following the disinvitation of Australian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah, she was just one domino in a catastrophic series of events that saw the major festival cancelled. As accusations continue to fly as to who drove the axing of Abdel-Fattah from the programme, Melbourne academic Kim Goodwin questions the role of boards in such events.

This week the Adelaide Writers Week was cancelled for 2026 – less than a week after Palestinian-Australian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah was disinvited by the Adelaide Festival board. This came despite the “strongest opposition” from Writers Week director Louise Adler, who resigned on Tuesday morning. The board has announced its remaining members will step down too. (One exception is the Adelaide City Council representative, who will stay on until their term expires on February 2.)

Adler calls the cancellation “no surprise”. She told the Guardian “I am so sorry that this masterclass in poor governance has landed us in this position”.

Last week, the board claimed it “would not be culturally sensitive” to program Abdel-Fattah so soon after the Bondi attacks, due to unspecified “past statements” – though “we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s [sic] or her writings have any connection”. One “statement” being cited now is Abdel-Fattah’s social media comment (which she has confirmed) that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety”.

Today, the board apologised to Abdel-Fattah, who was programmed to discuss her 2025 novel, Discipline, “for how the decision was represented”. It said “this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history”.

Over the weekend, three board members resigned. On Sunday, Marque Lawyers, acting on behalf of Abdel-Fattah, wrote to Adelaide Festival board chair Tracey Whiting AM, requesting all pertinent information used in the board’s decision for potential litigation purposes. By Monday, Whiting had tendered her resignation as well.

Overall, “more than 180” presenters withdrew from the festival. They included international drawcards Zadie Smith, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, M Gessen and Yanis Varoufakis – as well as prominent Australian authors Helen Garner, Hannah Kent and Trent Dalton.

The board’s statement today, sent to festival participants, said the resignation of its remaining members will “allow for an orderly transition to a new Board to secure the success of the 2026 Adelaide Festival and beyond”.

There were no artists or writers on the Adelaide Festival board.

“This whole debacle is an object lesson in why representation from artists and writers in leadership positions is essential,” Miles Franklin shortlisted author Jennifer Mills, chair of the Australian Society of Authors, told The Conversation. She declared she was “furious”.

In an arts organisation, the board’s role is one of governance, not management. The board sets the conditions for success and accountability, but it is the staff and artistic leaders who deliver the work. A board should provide strategic stewardship, financial and risk oversight. Importantly, their role is to be guardians of artistic purpose.

Increasingly, arts boards are weighing up artistic purpose against perceived organisational risk. This is often putting them at odds with those tasked with executing these decisions. We saw this last year, when Creative Australia backflipped in their appointment of the Venice Biennale artistic team artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino.

Boards are usually made up of a range of members, who bring essential skills to the governance role. This generally means a balance of expertise, networks and lived experience.

Many would expect arts organisations to have artists or those with strong arts knowledge on their boards.

Over the past 30 years, however, there has been a strong push towards corporatisation of arts boards. Arts organisations have adopted private-sector style governance models, with organisations seen as “enterprises” rather than cultural institutions. Board appointees are more likely to come from financial, legal or marketing backgrounds than to be artists or arts workers.

The Australian arts sector operates on an “arm's length principle”, where organisational and funding decisions are protected from political interference.

Questions have been raised, however, about political involvement in the Abdel-Fattah case. Australian author and journalist Walter Marsh cited South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas’ intense media activity around the decision, among other things.

Malinauskas – who faces a state election on March 21 – says he didn’t pressure Adelaide Festival to drop Abdel-Fattah and that decisions were made by the board. “If Writers’ Week seeks my views on things, and I certainly offered them, it’s up to them whether or not what decisions they make and they get held account for them accordingly,” he said.

South Australian Greens MLC Robert Simms has called for “an independent review, with involvement from the arts community to look at all of the things that have gone on here […] and to look at the independence of the board”.

The resignation of the Adelaide Festival board and today’s statement led to speculation as to what has occurred within the boardroom. Mills questions the decision-making process and its subsequent impact on the arts community.

“I’m not clear on how and where these decisions were actually made, and that’s part of the problem,” she said. “It’s become clear to me that we need to democratise our arts institutions, not just in terms of changing who sits on boards, but in terms of their entire structure, to ensure there is some accountability and transparency in future.”

The events that unfolded this week are the most recent in a long line of controversies, cancellations and conflicts between boards, staff, artists and the communities they engage with.

The State Library of Victoria, Bendigo Writers Festival and Creative Australia have all, over the past year, faced scrutiny when decisions made by boards have raised questions around artistic independence and freedom of speech.

Artists and arts leaders are calling for a renewed recognition of arts expertise, to recognise the “dreamers and visionaries” who show us what we can be. This means our arts organisations should be governed by artists and those who deeply understand the sector.

As Adler wrote: "In my view, boards composed of individuals with little experience in the arts, and blind to the moral implications of abandoning the principle of freedom of expression, have been unnerved by the pressure exerted by politicians calculating their electoral prospects and relentless, coordinated letter-writing campaigns."

Others say changing board make-up is not enough. Kate Larsen, a prominent arts writer and consultant, told me, “It’s clear we need more and deeper artistic and sector knowledge informing our organisational decision-making.”

But it’s not as easy as appointing skills-based boards. She believes we “need to radically rethink our unfit and outdated not-for-profit governance models – including the idea of having ‘boards’ at all”.

For now, the Adelaide Festival board, like those that have faced similar situations, have recognised the need to reengage with their stakeholders, community and audience. Let’s see what happens next.

Kim Goodwin is a Lecturer in Arts Management and Human Resources, The University of Melbourne.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.