Boram Lee

As a child, Boram Lee chafed against a South Korean education system that prioritised rote learning over the creative process.

So when a sympathetic teacher introduced her to independent theatre, she quickly developed an “addiction” that took her from Seoul to Edinburgh and eventually Adelaide. 

Though she initially dreamed of becoming a theatre director, Lee soon discovered that she could make an even greater contribution to the sector by managing artists and helping them to become financially sustainable.

Now as Senior Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management at UniSA, she uses her dual background in finance and the arts to mould the next generation of festival makers. But the lecturer has also learned a lot since she arrived here in 2018. 

Before coming to Adelaide, “I was always an invisible audience member passively consuming the festival,” says Lee.

Now she feels a sense of ownership at every festival she attends, in large part because “Adelaide is extremely inclusive. It really embraces everyone in society regardless of their cultural backgrounds, the colours of skin or their abilities.”

A key part of that inclusivity is representation, both in the audience and on stage.

Since her arrival, Lee has been particularly struck by the proliferation of internationally recognised organisations, including Restless Dance Theatre, Tutti Arts and No Strings Attached, that centre the work of performers living with disability. 

Having grown up in an environment where mainstream festivals would rarely feature such performances, she describes her first encounters with these companies as “a wake-up moment… It was so powerful just being able to see how beautiful [these performers] are, how expressive they are, how talented they are.”

Being immersed in this environment prompted Lee to challenge her own unexamined biases and she has since helped to facilitate several co-productions with South Korean dance companies.

Those performances have served as a timely reminder that in addition to tackling controversial material and promoting tourism, festivals can present a vision of society where everyone feels valued.

“When we’re studying Festivals and Event Management, we talk a lot about whose festival it is,” says Lee.

That means asking “who’s invited, who is it for, and how to make sure that when we make festivals we make them accessible and inclusive.”

But while “it’s all good to have storytelling and artistic curation,” she sighs wistfully, “if it’s not financially sustainable they can’t last,” so budgeting, risk management and sponsorship are also vital aspects of the course.  

And after a life spent immersed in the festivals and the arts, Lee declares that moving to Adelaide is “the best decision that I’ve made.”

It’s a place where you can meet your artistic heroes, from groundbreaking authors at Adelaide Writers’ Week to internationally acclaimed musicians at WOMADelaide.

After being deeply moved by the play Red Rabbit, White Rabbit in Edinburgh, Lee cites meeting Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour as a particular highlight of her time here.

In her role as a lecturer, she frequently invites artists and artistic directors to speak to her students.

Incredibly, she says, “I’ve never heard ‘no’ for an answer. Everybody’s so supportive, and they are eager to share their experiences and knowledge.”

That collaborative approach and accessibility is a large part of the reason she declares Adelaide “the best place to study festivals,” adding that her students from across the globe are absorbing these lessons “and then we are influencing the whole world.

I am so thrilled to see what my students are planning to do when they go back to their homelands!”
 
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This article is part of the Festival City Stories series, a collection of reflections about Adelaide made by the people who make this a festival place. The project was funded through the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Arts South Australia, Arts Recovery Fund, and delivered in partnership with the State Library of South Australia. 

Written by: Alexis Buxton-Collins

Photography by: Alex van de Loo