Annual Report 2011 - Sydney Opera House

8annual report 2010/11imagination lives insidefrom the chief executiveSydney Opera House underwent A significant organisational refresh this yearto ensure that it aligned with the long-term strategic priorities.Short-term planning around thenew business model and organisationstructure has also taken place.The organisation is now structured tobetter align activities and resourcesto deliver on the four strategic priorityareas set out below.Artistic Excellence (P.16)Bringing the best of the world’s performersto our stages for the community’senjoyment is a key goal. I am pleasedto advise that this year 10 productionspresented at Sydney Opera House wereacknowledged by receiving a HelpmannAward for distinguished artisticachievement and excellence. Sydney OperaHouse Presents won four awards andresident and supported performing artscompanies collectively won six awards.Our annual festival of contemporarymusic, Vivid LIVE, attracted local,interstate and international audiences toSydney during May and June 2011 in whatwas the most successful Vivid LIVE todate. Over 40,000 tickets were purchased,59% of which were sold to first-timepatrons to Sydney Opera House.Sydney Opera House welcomed the BerlinPhilharmonic Orchestra to Sydney for thefirst time in November 2010 as part of theWorld Orchestra Program. The programalso gave young music students inGosford and Sydney the once in a lifetimeexperience to work with some of theOrchestra’s musicians in master classes.Programming for young audiences grewthis year with 379 performances attracting88,173 people, an increase of 46%.Community Engagement and Access (p.32)A lot of work has gone into initiativesto maximise community access andensure diverse community interests arerepresented at Sydney Opera House.This year a number of community andcharitable organisations were providedwith complimentary tickets and tourexperiences. Our first ReconciliationAction Plan was developed, the Inthe House youth engagement programcommenced and the 10,000th childattended a performance through the ArtsAssist program.As part of reaching out to local, nationaland global communities a world-wideanimation competition was launchedas part of the GRAPHIC festival. TheYouTube Symphony Orchestra was verysuccessful in its second year and wepartnered with Opera Australia andCinemaLive to distribute performancerecordings to global cinema networks.The Kids at the House productionSaltbush toured to Western Sydney.We launched Insiders, the first SydneyOpera House membership program,providing discounts and priority service;introduced sign-language tours; andconducted the first audio-description ofan opera in NSW in collaboration withOpera Australia and Vision Australia.A Vibrant and Sustainable Site (p.42)As part of our goal to build a vibrant andcompelling site we opened Opera Kitchen,a new culinary offering this year. Twonew tourism packages were also launchedto the industry providing more optionsfor our customers.This year we commenced the VehicleAccess and Pedestrian Safety projectwhich will remove some 1,100 weeklyheavy truck movements from publicareas, replaced four escalators deliveringimproved reliability and installed a newsound system in the Drama Theatre.