QTopia Sydney welcomes Cecily Hardy as its new CEO

The home of NSW queer history and culture has a new Chief Executive Officer, as Cecily Hardy ushers Qtopia Sydney into its next phase as a cultural and community precinct.

Qtopia Sydney has appointed arts and cultural leader Cecily Hardy as its new Chief Executive Officer, as the organisation focuses on sustaining and growing its role in Sydney’s cultural and community life.

Since opening in February 2024, Qtopia Sydney has established a permanent home for LGBTQIA+ history and culture.

Cecily’s appointment will see the precinct build on those foundations, expanding opportunities for community, artists and audiences to gather, create and contribute to Sydney’s cultural life.

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

“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.”

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Cecily has lived a life ‘on every kind of stage’

Cecily was Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer of physical theatre company Legs On The Wall for six years, 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. Her career has spanned major festivals, nationally and internationally touring work, and cultural projects developed with communities across Australia and the globe.

Beyond the boardroom, Cecily has been a television host, a professional actor, a qualified auctioneer and a popular marriage celebrant – a life lived, quite literally, on every kind of stage.

Cecily shared that Qtopia Sydney had an important role to play not only in preserving and sharing LGBTQIA+ history, but in contributing to the cultural life of Sydney today.

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

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‘This is an important moment for Qtopia Sydney’

Cecily steps into Qtopia knowing exactly what this place is for, and exactly why it is worth protecting.

“This is an important moment for Qtopia Sydney,” said the Qtopia Sydney Board, “And Cecily is exactly the leader to take us into it.”

“Her track record of building sustainable, artistically ambitious cultural organisations grounded in community has us genuinely excited for what Qtopia Sydney can become as a cultural institution of national significance.”