The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre: Generating Ideas and Solutions to Achieve Cohesive, Sustainable Societies

The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre is a dynamic and eclectic Centre devoted to generating ideas and solutions to achieve cohesive, sustainable societies. We engage national and international speakers to contribute to a free events programme including lectures and art exhibitions on topics ranging from human rights, science and arts, to environment and more.

In 2018, the Centre to date has hosted high profile guests including environmentalists Tim Flannery and Ursula Rakova, renowned human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC, Australian author Tim Winton, and most recently, His Excellency Christophe Penot, Ambassador of France to Australia.

As the year’s programme continues to grow, we look forward to presenting an even more diverse selection of events reflecting the Centre’s fundamental themes of Strengthening our Democracy; Valuing our Diversity and Building our Future.

This includes collaborations with the annual Adelaide Festival of Ideas, book launches with young Australian writers Bri Lee and comedian Hannah Gadsby, and continuing our partnership with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The second instalment of the 2018 Art Talks in August will feature ASO Composer-in-Association, Catherine Milliken in conversation with ASO Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto, and Soprano Jessica Aszodi. The programme ends the year with ASO Managing Director Vincent Ciccarello, arts consultant and business entrepreneur Kate Gould and UniSA’s Professor Joanne Cys LFDIA. Supporting innovative research, we will also co-present UniSA’s 3 Minute Thesis in August, giving UniSA’s PhD students opportunities for public engagement.

Art by Prisoners, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery Exhibition

In the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, the 2018 Exhibitions programme sees the addition of Art by Prisoners as part of the South Australia Living Artists (SALA) Festival. Featuring selected works created within South Australia’s adult prisons, Art by Prisoners allows prisoners’ artwork to escape temporarily and go on show to the public. The prisoners are anonymous but this exhibition will reveal fragments of their lives both within and beyond prison, allowing us to see prisoners not as objects, but as human subjects.

In collaboration with Neami National, we are also proud to present Throw the Dice, an exhibition showcasing the work of eight local artists experiencing mental illness, curated by artist and poet Elyas Alavi. Through exhibiting their art in this setting, the artists have the opportunity to draw on their strengths and values and to share this as an expression of art. It is also an opportunity to be exposed to the wider arts community and to communicate their vision for the future.

Leon Kassel, Big Yellow Taxi
Throw the Dice, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery Exhibition

As always, there is more to come as the Centre is home to an ever-revolving door of artists, activists and change makers. Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2018 speaker for the highly anticipated Annual Hawke Lecture series.

You can relive all Hawke Centre events through podcasts and videos on the Hawke Centre website including Tender Hearts, Sons of Brutes: Tim Winton on lost boys and toxic masculinity and Bringing the Human Back to the City with ‘artivist’ Dan Acher.