Powerhouse Parramatta opens amid allegations of misconduct

By Daniel Okafor

Powerhouse Parramatta, a vast new arts and technology museum in Sydney, opens on 7 November, according to The Art Newspaper. The publication reports allegations of misconduct relating to chief executive Lisa Havilah, who led the project and stepped down in August.

In The Art Newspaper’s podcast, Ben Luke speaks with its Australian reporter, Elizabeth Fortescue, about the building and the scandal. The episode summary gives no particulars about the allegations, their status or Havilah’s reasons for leaving.

That absence matters. A public museum opening is a civic milestone; a leadership dispute attached to it is a governance test. The episode offers an examination, not a verdict.

What does the Powerhouse opening put at risk?

Neither the allegations’ status nor Havilah’s reasons for leaving are specified. Powerhouse’s opening turns the museum’s leadership into a test of institutional credibility, with the 7 November launch set to place those questions before the public.

Opening day now resembles a civic celebration with the leadership questions still printed in the programme. That is the sharpest problem in The Art Newspaper’s Sydney report: scale and scrutiny have arrived together. Neither cancels the other. The museum’s opening date does not settle the questions attached to its former chief executive.

Why does the supposed ceasefire not stop the damage?

The second report shifts to southern Lebanon, where a supposed ceasefire (a declared halt to fighting) has not stopped damage to heritage sites and objects. Sarvy Geranpayeh tells Luke that Israeli military activity continues to damage heritage during the war between Hezbollah and Israel.

The episode summary names no individual monument and gives no damage estimate. Geranpayeh’s conversations with politicians, heritage professionals and artists give the report breadth, while the absence of sites and totals keeps the scale of destruction unmeasured.

The segment therefore treats the destruction as a political, professional and artistic concern, not merely an arts-sector one. The tension is explicit: the fighting has supposedly paused, yet destruction continues.

Why does Dan Flavin’s 1966 work anchor the podcast?

The episode’s Work of the Week is Dan Flavin’s “greens crossing greens (to Piet Mondrian who lacked green)” (1966). The Art Newspaper calls it “a landmark work for the US artist,” says it was first shown at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, and identifies it as one of the highlights of Dan Flavin: Some Light.

Flavin’s title carries its own argument. The 1966 piece reaches Bilbao through an exhibition opening on 11 November. That gives the work another institutional setting.

Luke discusses it with Lauren Hinkson, curator for collections (the specialist responsible for a museum’s holdings) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Hinkson is organising Dan Flavin: Some Light at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

By pairing a 1966 work with Mondrian’s lack of green, Flavin makes the show feel argumentative, and Hinkson’s role ensures the argument receives institutional framing. The episode also records the Van Abbemuseum’s earlier showing. Bilbao therefore continues an exhibition history already begun in Eindhoven.

The show runs from 11 November to 4 April 2027. Its compact run gives audiences a defined window to encounter Flavin’s landmark work, while the earlier Eindhoven presentation establishes that the Bilbao show is a return, not an origin story.

Powerhouse’s 7 November opening will test whether public confidence can survive the leadership allegations. Geranpayeh’s Lebanon account keeps attention on destruction after a supposed ceasefire. Hinkson’s Bilbao show moves Flavin’s landmark work into a new setting. For Powerhouse, the immediate verdict is simple: a major opening still needs a credible institutional record.