[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2185850849.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tJust 10 weeks prior to the opening of Sydney\u2019s latest cultural institution, Powerhouse Parramatta, its chief executive Lisa Havilah has stepped down amid ongoing \u201cinvestigations into governance and procurement,\u201d according to a statement released on Thursday from the office of Australia\u2019s Minister for Arts John Graham.<\/p>\n
\n\tSince her 2018 appointment, Havilah has been overseeing the $915 million build of Powerhouse Parramatta\u2014the city\u2019s most significant cultural infrastructure project since the Sydney Opera House, which opened in 1973 for an estimated cost of AU$102 million.<\/p>\n
\n\tHavilah previously served as the director of Carriageworks in Redfern, a suburb of Sydney, for more than seven years. She joined Powerhouse, which is also known as the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS), as its CEO in 2019.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn Havilah\u2019s absence, an interim team will oversee the organization in the months ahead of its inauguration, with Abbie Galvin, the government architect for New South Wales, stepping in as CEO and former Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron named strategic adviser; both are expected to start on September 1. The opening date of Powerhouse Parramatta, set for November 7, is not expected to be impacted.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think obviously, it\u2019s challenging \u2026 these things are always somewhat surprising,\u201d Powerhouse Trust president David Borger told radio station 702 ABC Sydney of Havilah\u2019s departure. \u201cObviously it\u2019s not an ideal situation this close to the opening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEarlier this year, Australian politician Chris Rath raised budget concerns that Havilah vehemently denied; however, it is unclear if this issue is directly connected to the current investigation.<\/p>\n
\n\tA spokesperson for the Department of Creative Industries characterized the situation as \u201ccomplex and involv[ing] multiple lines of inquiry\u201d to Australian broadcaster ABC News<\/em>, but offered no further details.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Department has a responsibility to address these matters with due diligence and procedural fairness,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cAs the investigation is continuing and no formal findings or conclusions have been made, it would not be\u00a0appropriate to provide further comment at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPowerhouse Parramatta did not immediately respond to ARTnews<\/em>\u2019s request for further comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/powerhouse-parramatta-ceo-lisa-havilah-ousted-amid-investigations-1234796200\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2185850849.jpg?w=1024″] Just 10 weeks prior to the opening of Sydney\u2019s latest cultural institution, Powerhouse Parramatta, its chief executive Lisa Havilah has stepped down amid ongoing \u201cinvestigations into governance and procurement,\u201d according to a statement released on Thursday from the office of Australia\u2019s Minister for Arts John Graham. Since her 2018 appointment, Havilah has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2116773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2116773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2116773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2116773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2116773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}