Five Minutes with Rebecca Lamoin (Director of Public Engagement at QPAC)

Hi Rebecca! Tell us a little bit more about yourself and the work you do at QPAC. 

I believe strongly in art as a generator for social change and so I’m very fortunate to have the role as QPAC’s Director – Public Engagement. Our team is dedicated to supporting audiences and communities to make meaning from live performance and so we have a wonderful open field of ideas and forms to play in and experiment. We focus on creating context for work, opportunities for active participation as well as learning and access. We do a lot of work with schools and early childhood, seniors, multicultural communities and in the space of wellbeing and cultural capacity. Our team also manages the QPAC Museum which collects and documents the history of live performance in Queensland.   

This year’s Brisbane Conference hosted by QPAC will focus on the seven global megatrends and how it would impact the arts and cultural sector. Tell us more about the motivations behind choosing this theme. 

In choosing the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) report Our Future World as a framework for the conference, our intention is to make sure our discussions and debates about our industry are placed within a broad social and political context. Arts and culture, like any field, can turn very self-reflective when we all gather en masse! It’s also true to say that culture intersects with most every area of research and life and that is the approach that we’re applying in the programming of the conference.  The report and the seven megatrends can be found here.   

This will be the very first time the AAPPAC conference is taking place in Brisbane and we‘re looking forward to experiencing your beautiful city! Could you share a few highlights that the QPAC team has planned in this year’s programme? 

There will be multiple opportunities throughout the Conference formal programme and surrounding activity to learn about and experience elements of traditional and contemporary Australia’s First Nations cultures.  We’re planning some hands on moments and live performance elements to break up our conversing. The Conference will coincide with Brisbane Festival 2023 so there will be a lot happening right across the city. And of course, Spring in Brisbane is fantastic! 

What is one place (off the tourist trail!) that we must visit in Brisbane?  

I’d recommend a trip to the Enoggera Reservoir, which contains the heritage listed Enoggera Dam, the second oldest dam in Australia. It’s a gorgeous example of Australian vegetation and has a lot of easy walking tracks. There are a lot of water activities including swimming and kayaking and it’s great to just sit and watch and even picnic. The site also has the Walkabout Creek Wildlife Centre. It’s about a 30min drive from QPAC.   

Tell us about your favourite memory at QPAC! 

Among my favourite memories at QPAC is the opening night of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2019 when the incredible Wynton Marsalis had a room of experienced, hardened arts workers choking up talking about the fierce power of music and education. His talent is obvious and undeniable, but it most certainly matched by his unwavering belief that art can change the world, even if it’s one life at a time. As it happens, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will be back in the QPAC Concert Hall during the Conference.