Keith Lawrence

Contributing Writer

Keith Lawrence - T J Bateson

British by birth but I currently live in Melbourne, Australia (and have done so since 2003).

The arts have been my passion and profession for more than 25 years, whether it be as a community arts officer in the London Borough of Southwark, running the Lillian Baylis Theatre at Sadler’s Wells or the dance specialist for the British Council (all in London). The latter job gave me the opportunity to travel extensively round Europe and Africa and kindled a second passion in me – travel. I may sometimes have found myself in Rome or Nairobi for 3 days with very full schedules, but I would still find time to see something of the place, even if it meant getting up at 6am.

This led me into travel writing and my first foray into writing for pleasure (up until then my writing was mostly marketing and reports!). After five years of the British Council in London, I was posted to a diplomatic position in Israel where I was responsible for the arts program. A wider net of arts – film, visual arts, literature as well as drama, dance and music – meant a wider range of interests alongside new cultural experiences and exposure.

And, rather than returning to London and the UK, decided to take up the offer of a job here in Melbourne and took it. I stayed for 6 years before deciding in September 2009 to strike out and go freelance. So now I have many fingers in many pies (we freelancers can’t be overly choosy when first going out alone!).

I run a contemporary art gallery (Tacit Contemporary Art), work part-time for a film and screen production/marketing company and am a freelance writer. Written work includes published articles in magazines and newspapers, ghost writing and editing personal life stories, copywriting for corporate websites, newsletters etc… More recently, I was appointed the artistic director of the Australian Film Festival that takes place annually in Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa) with 2011 my first and I've certainly retained the gig for 2012.

You name it, I will do it .