Brett Sheehy is one of Australia’s most accomplished and acclaimed artistic directors.  He has recently been appointed the Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival (from 2009), making him the first person ever to be appointed to direct three of the five international arts festivals of Australia’s State capital cities.

Previously, Brett has been Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts (2006-2008), and Festival Director & Chief Executive of Sydney Festival (2002-2005) where he was also the Festival's Deputy Director (1995-2001).

Brett is best known for having debuted for Australia many of the world’s finest companies and artists; for commissioning and co-commissioning dozens of Australian and international works across every artform; and for his dedication to festivals enhanced by substantial visual arts and public arts programs.  

Brett presented, for the first time on the Australian stage, the work of Theatre du Soleil, the Schaubühne theatre of Berlin, the Fosythe Company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, the Ballet Boyz, Sir Ian McKellen, Osvaldo Golijov, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Talvin Singh, James Thiérrée, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the music-theatre works of Tom Waits, David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim, DJ Spooky and singing sensations Rufus Wainwright and Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), to name but a few.  

He has also presented the Australian premieres of many international visual artists, among them Elisa Sighicelli, Francesco Vezzoli, Zhang Ga and Guy Ben-Ner, and his international co-commissions have included such works as the 2004/5 production of Robert Wilson and Tom Waits’ THE BLACK RIDER (starring Marianne Faithfull and Nigel Richard), and Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen’s BOOK OF LONGING.
    
Brett’s 2008 Adelaide Festival broke box office and attendance records for the Festival’s 48-year history, records he had previously set with his 2006 Adelaide Festival.  His 2008 Festival is also believed to have been the world’s first ever carbon-neutral international arts festival, an achievement he and the South Australian Government passionately sought to realise.  

Both of Brett’s Adelaide programs met with enthusiastic acclaim from artistic, press and public circles, nationally and internationally, particularly their raft of commissioned world premieres and the 2008 Festival’s celebration of the contemporary classic music canon.   

With adventurous and exclusive programs of work, Brett grew Adelaide Festival’s interstate and overseas visitation from 16% of total attendances to 24% in 2006, followed by a further 105% increase in interstate and overseas visitation from 2006 to 2008.  As well, both programs resulted in a significant financial surplus.  

Works presented as part of Brett’s Adelaide Festival and Sydney Festival programs have seen a record 56 nominations for the Helpmann Awards (Australia’s national performing arts awards, akin to Britain’s Olivier Awards), winning 13.

These 13 Helpmann Awards have included the nation’s Best Opera (2006 - Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s ‘Flight’), Best Dance Production (2005 - the Australian debut of Shen Wei Dance Arts), Best Classical Concert (2005 - ‘12 Angry Cellos’), Best Special Event (2003 - Brett’s in-depth ‘Celebrating Samuel Beckett’ project), and Best Physical or Visual Theatre Production (2002 - ‘Same, same but Different’).

For Sydney Festival, Brett’s four programs included 37 world premieres; saw the Festival double its box office attendances; enjoyed four successive significant financial surpluses;  recorded a 30% increase in attendances to free outdoor events;  established satellite Festival precincts in Greater Sydney; established a loyal audience following in the 18 to 35 age group; was voted Sydney’s Best and Most Popular Event by the Sydney Chamber of Commerce; and was named the Best Event in New South Wales in 2003 and 2005 by NSW Tourism.

At the Sydney Opera House, through his Sydney Festivals, Brett has presented more events across more artforms than any other outside producer in history (including dance, drama, opera, music-theatre, visual arts, classical music, contemporary music, jazz, design, film, multi-media events, large-scale sculptural installations and outdoor spectacles).

In Adelaide, Brett secured with Adelaide Bank the largest arts sponsorship in the history of the State of South Australia, and one of the largest in Australia, at $3 million over three festivals with an option on a further two festivals through to 2014.

During his Sydney Festival tenure, two of Sydney Festival’s corporate partnerships were honoured with Australian Business Arts Foundation (ABAF) Awards including Australia’s Corporate Partnership of the Year, from a total of three nominations.

Prior to joining Sydney Festival, Brett was Artistic Associate, Literary Manager and Deputy General Manager of the Sydney Theatre Company, Australia's largest theatre company.  He was also dramaturg of more than a dozen Sydney Theatre Company productions and workshops.

Brett has been a recipient of several awards including two International Society for the Performing Arts Awards (1993 and 1994), the prestigious Mobil Fellowship in Arts Administration (1991), a Qantas International Theatre Scholarship (1987), and a Brisbane Writers' Festival Award (1981). In 1989 Brett edited (with Theresa Willsteed) the award-winning book Sydney Theatre Company 1978 to 1988.

Brett has also been a Script Assessor for the Australia Council (1989-1990), a Reader for the Australian National Playwrights' Centre (1988-1989), and a member of several bodies, among them the Sydney Writers' Festival Committee (1995-1997), the NSW Centenary of Federation Arts and Events Committee (1998-2001), the Board of the Australian Theatre for Young People (2000-2003), the Committee for Sydney (2001-2005), the Arts Advisory Group of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2004-2006), and he is currently a member of the Artists’ Advisory Panel of the Bell Shakespeare Company.

In 2005 Brett was named by the Australian Financial Review Magazine as one of the 20 Australians across all fields to be watched for their impact on society in the next 20 years, and in 2007 he was named by ABC’s Limelight magazine as “One of the top five most powerful people in the arts in Australia”.   

In 2007 he was also selected by The Bulletin magazine to be the sole national judge of the ten ‘smartest people’ working in arts and entertainment for the annual “Smart 100” issue.  Most recently he was one of twelve eminent Australians appointed by the Australian Financial Review Magazine to its Power Panel, was a participant in the Australian Federal Government’s 2020 Summit, and has been appointed an Ambassador for the Australia Council’s Major Performing Arts Group’s We All Play a Part campaign.

Brett’s primary advocacy within the contemporary arts is for excellence, innovation, accessibility and dialogue between all artforms.