Barry Strickland is a freelance, independent consultant within the arts, culture, heritage and tourism arenas, and was formerly with ArtsWA and was an award winning writer-producer-presenter with ABC Radio National. He lives in Highgate. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Barry was part of the team that created the original Artrage Festival and was later a co-creator of the hugely successful QFest: Cue Outback Festival. He was also a co-creator of the award-winning Golden Quest Discovery Trail and worked on the development of the National Trust’s Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail as well as Northcliffe’s Southern Forests Sculpture Walk. While with ArtsWA (1995-98), he was responsible for the identification of the former Red Cross building as a potential arts hub, his concept resulting in the King Street Arts Centre.
His numerous arts sector consultancies include a range of clients, from local governments to state dance and theatre companies. Barry was instrumental in Artrage's incredible successes with Fringe World. Barry has gone on to conceive and co-write several TV documentaries, including Hoover's Gold (2006) and the multi-award-winning The Fabulous Flag Sisters (2008). Barry is also an author, and in 2011 was coordinating producer for HELIX, a multi-award winning solo dance work. In 2013, Barry was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by The University of Western Australia.
We met Barry at his home and were privileged to view his collection of early career acting and modelling photos as well as spending a lovely time talking about his stories and memories.