Heather Robinson

Heather is a creative industries specialist offering practical experience enhanced by an academic research background. She is Co-Director of Lifecycle Productions, responsible for communications, production coordination, project development and implementation. 

Heather has high level experience in cultural project management, strategy development and communications. In 2021, she delivered the Mixed Realities report, investigating the potential intersections between the creative industries and tourism sectors for the Legatus Group of regional SA councils in partnership with Flinders University. 

Between 2015 and 2020, Heather served on the inaugural Board of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas Association Inc. As Executive Producer, she delivered the 2013 and 2016 Adelaide Festival of Ideas developing productive cross-sectorial networks to forge on through the loss of government funding. Heather has been credited with ensuring the festival’s survival through her fundraising capacity, audience development strategies, creative insight, team building skills and high-level project management.

Heather has museum studies qualifications from the University of Melbourne and completed a PhD in Cultural Policy and Evaluation from Flinders University in 2020. Her doctorate was part of the ARC funded Laboratory Adelaide Project exploring the value and meaning of culture within communities that extend beyond economic impact and numbers through the door. Heather applied an insightful, innovative approach to the case of the State Library of South Australia, presenting her data as a story, told from the publics’ perspective. She is adapting this work into a popular format, with the working title Beyond the Books: Cultural Value and the State Library of South Australia. She remains a Honorary Research Associate (History) with the Natural History Museum of LA County for her biography project, Chasing Claire Adams. This work was shortlisted for the inaugural Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for unpublished Australian biography in 2012.

Background:

Heather’s career spans three states, two continents and covers the digital education, government, heritage and cultural sectors. For more information, visit her full profile here.