One of Australia’s leading performing arts institutions is entering an exciting new era.
As Patrick School of the Arts (PSA) celebrates its 21st anniversary, the renowned Melbourne training ground has announced a landmark partnership with Belgravia Arts – an investment that founder Todd Patrick believes will help realise the next chapter of his vision, while creating new opportunities for performers across Australia.
Twenty-one years after opening the school with just three students in a primary school gymnasium, Patrick says the moment is both humbling and energising.
“After 21 years, we’ve achieved a lot,” he says. “I love what I do. I probably enjoy what I do now more than I ever have. But there are still some hefty goals that I want to achieve.”
Those goals became the starting point of conversations with Belgravia Arts.
“They asked me, ‘What do you want to achieve? What is it that you want to do here?’ I went through my five main goals and they said, ‘We can do that with you. We can help you create that long-lasting legacy.'”
For Patrick, whose graduates include Broadway and West End performers, and artists enjoying diverse careers across Europe, the USA, UK and beyond, the partnership is about creating opportunities that extend well beyond PSA’s walls.
“I definitely want to make the pathways from training into industry within Australia easier,” he explains. “A lot of our dancers have to leave the country to find long-term work. Our theatre scene is vibrant, but we don’t have the same volume of opportunities that exist in America, Germany or the West End.”
His vision is to help change that.
“I want to develop and promote more homegrown opportunities for Australians to work in. This joint venture isn’t just beneficial for me and my students. It’s going to be beneficial for the industry as a whole.”
That long-term thinking resonated with Belgravia Arts CEO Ceinwen Evans, whose organisation is building an ambitious vision for arts participation across Australia.
Belgravia Arts describes its mission as building “a national framework and network to position itself as one of Australia’s most trusted and aspirational authorities in the arts”, with a focus on empowering “a new generation of performers whose confidence, discipline and creativity transcend the studio and positively shape the broader cultural landscape.”
Evans says the philosophy stems from Belgravia founder, chairman and CEO Geoff Lord’s commitment to youth participation.
“Geoff Lord aims to get one million kids active. We call it the ‘1,000,000 Kids Initiative’,” she explains. “He is so invested in the vision; he even goes into all his venues!”
While Belgravia has traditionally focused on sport and recreation, Evans believes dance and the performing arts are equally important in helping young people thrive.
“It’s about kids being active. It’s about kids engaging in something and being part of something,” she says. “We know kids absolutely love dance. They’re passionate about it. They live for coming to dance. They’re with their friends. It’s like a sport. We are sport-obsessed in this country, and I feel other forms of childhood development and education can sometimes get pushed to the side.”
For Evans, meeting Patrick confirmed the organisation had found the right partner.
“We had scheduled a 30-minute meeting,” she laughs. “It turned into four hours.”
After touring the campus with Patrick, Evans came away convinced the school represented an opportunity to invest not only in one institution, but in the future of Australia’s creative industries.
“Todd is an inspiring, amazing human being who is a big-thinking visionary,” she says. “His absolute undying dedication and passion to his art form is commendable. He is all in, 150 per cent.”
Evans believes the partnership comes at an important time for the Australian performing arts sector.
“There is a big gap in the market for private investment in this industry,” she says. “Many organisations rely solely on tuition revenue and/or grants, which makes it difficult to take creative risks or provide more opportunities. We can be that underpinning force that helps take things to the next level.”
And the ambitions are anything but modest.
“Together we’ve got bigger plans for the school – world domination,” Evans laughs.
“We want to tour. We want to create. We want to reignite something like the production company. We’ve been asking, ‘How do we create more industry, put Australia on the map and reinvigorate performing arts, not as a little subculture in this country, but as a dominant force that’s popular and desired?'”
While the announcement brings significant investment and business expertise and support, Patrick is quick to reassure students, families and alumni that the heart of PSA remains exactly the same.
“Nothing changes,” he says. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Instead, he sees the partnership as allowing him to do more of what he has always loved.
“Anybody who runs a performing arts institution knows it’s completely consuming. About 85 per cent of my day is business.”
Belgravia’s support will allow him to spend more time where he feels he belongs – in the studio.
“They said to me, ‘What we want is to give you the space to do what you do best, and that’s be creative.'”
Patrick still teaches in every course at the school each week and insists that connection with students will never change.
“I see every single student,” he says. “That’s something I’ll always want to do.”
If anything, he believes the partnership has reignited his own creativity.
“My creative expiry date has probably been pushed out another 10 years,” he says with a smile. “I’m waking up in the morning with ideas again. I have more emotional space to think creatively.”
One of the aspects Patrick speaks about most passionately is ensuring PSA’s culture continues long into the future. Before making the decision to partner with Belgravia, he sought advice not only from lawyers and business advisors, but from many of the school’s most successful graduates like Broadway leading ladies Samantha Dodemaide and Karli Dinardo.
“I wanted them to question me,” he says. “I wanted honest opinions. Our alumni understand the ethics of the school, the creative vision and the culture.”
Looking back, Patrick admits he hasn’t really had time to stop and reflect on everything the school has achieved over the past 21 years.
“I haven’t really given myself the opportunity to process that it’s been 21 years,” he says.
Perhaps that’s because his focus has always been firmly on what’s next.
“When they asked me what I see myself doing when I’m 70, I said I’d love to be sitting in a theatre watching the school flourish. To be able to say that I started it with three students in a primary school gym, and now it’s become this incredible international arts institution.”
For Patrick, this partnership is not about changing what has made PSA successful. It is about ensuring the school has the support to keep evolving, creating opportunities and inspiring the next generation of performers for decades to come.
“This isn’t about slowing down,” Patrick says. “It’s about taking a bigger bite.”
If the past 21 years have been defined by passion, perseverance and extraordinary graduate success, the next chapter may well be defined by possibility, not only for Patrick School of the Arts, but for the future of Australia’s performing arts industry.
By Deborah Searle of Dance Informa.
