About Us
Radio National’s weekly arts and culture program, Artworks, looks at the big themes, views, issues and events in the arts here in Australia and overseas.
Artworks features interviews with performing and visual artists, writers, critics and curators on current cultural issues as well as explorations of historical periods and movements, and the way they shape and inform present thinking.
The program presents special features, discussions, extended interviews as well as artist profiles, performance and music. Artworks provides a lively and engaging weekly forum for the nation’s cultural and artistic life.
Amanda Smith: Presenter of Artworks
Amanda Smith trained as a ballet dancer, but eventually realised she was more suited to being a professional talker than a professional fairy.
Before joining the ABC in 1991, Amanda spent 10 years working as an arts administrator. During this time, she served on the board of Chamber Made Opera, and the Victorian Council of the Arts.
Amanda is a graduate of the Dance School of the Victorian College of the Arts. She has a degree in Classics and a graduate diploma in Australian Studies from the University of Melbourne.
At the ABC, Amanda produced various arts programs for Radio National and Radio Australia before initiating The Sports Factor on RN. She presented The Sports Factor from its inception in 1995 until 2002, forging a whole new approach to sports broadcasting.
In 2003, she produced and presented the feature series Great Lovers and in 2006, presented Radio National's Daily arts and culture program, the Deep End.
Dr Lyn Gallacher: Executive Producer of Artworks
Lyn received her PhD from La Trobe University investigating the proposition that language is the mechanism whereby you understand more about what I’m saying than I do.
When she became the executive producer of a weekly arts and culture show she soon realised that this thesis was not enough. If language is art, music, literature, philosophy, science and knitting then it knows more about what I’m thinking than I do.
Lyn’s favourite colour is blue. No. Wrong.
Suzanne Donisthorpe: Producer
Suzanne Donisthorpe has been an arts producer on Radio National for over 15 years. She began life with Wendy Harmer on Kaboom, worked with Robert Dessaix and then Ramona Koval on Books and Writing before producing the Famous Radio National Quiz.
She worked on the Deepend before it morphed into Artworks . She has one daughter, four step daughters and a husband with a dragon on his car. She is also completing a writing course at RMIT and is in the middle of creating the world's next hot novel.
Michael Shirrefs: Producer
With a background in printmaking and music, Michael has been loitering around the arts scene for many a year – all the while producing arts and books programs for Radio National.
Having joined the ABC in 1984 and working in Radio National since 1993, Michael has also spent some years working in radio and museums in London. He's currently busy, when the time allows, being a detective - uncovering a large and fabulous gift of books and cultural objects from the French government to the State Library of Victoria in 1880. It's a terrible job, but someone has to do it!
