Qtopia Sydney Appoints Arts Leader Cecily Hardy As New CEO

Qtopia Sydney has announced Cecily Hardy as its new CEO, with the arts and cultural leader appointed to oversee the precinct’s next phase of development as a home for LGBTQIA+ history, culture and community.

Hardy brings 20 years of experience across arts organisations, major festivals and community cultural projects. Her appointment also carries a personal connection to the history Qtopia preserves: raised in a queer family, she is the daughter of someone who marched in 1979, a year after the police crackdown at the first Sydney Mardi Gras.

Qtopia occupies the former Darlinghurst Police Station, where participants in the 1978 march-trned-riot were detained.

“Qtopia Sydney exists because people fought to make sure our stories would be remembered,” Hardy said. “As the daughter of someone who protested one year on from 1978, that history matters deeply to me.”

Hardy spent six years as CEO and Executive Producer of physical theatre company Legs On The Wall, leading its artistic and organisational renewal. Most recently, she was Executive Producer of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas and Director of Public Programs at The Ethics Centre.

She also worked on the Helpmann Award-winning Namatjira Project, which secured the return of Albert Namatjira’s copyright to his family. Her career has included touring work across Australia and internationally, and she recently helped Divine Playhouse navigate its controversial shutdown.

“As Sydney loses queer spaces, Qtopia has a chance to be somewhere everyone in our communities can gather, create, look to the future, and feel safe,” Hardy said.

Since opening in February 2024, Qtopia has presented exhibitions, performances and education programs celebrating LGBTQIA+ lives, preserving histories of activism and honouring those affected by HIV/AIDS.

Hardy said she wanted to build on that work while expanding opportunities for artists, audiences and communities to use the precinct.

“I’m excited by what Qtopia Sydney can become as a cultural space people return to again and again,” she said.

“There is enormous opportunity ahead to bring fresh energy, ideas and vision to the precinct, while staying firmly rooted in community, and recognising everything that has already been created here.”

You can read an exclusive Q&A with Cecily over on Star Observer.