Janet Holmes à Court

So let's talk about this conversation we had with Janet Holmes at court, which I knew that it would be one that you would enjoy.

And it's about her life and art and architecture.

Look, she's a very, very successful businesswoman in her own right, a one-time science teacher.

Now, Robert Holmes Accord, her late husband, was like an old school, what people used to call tycoons back in the day.

Such a good word.

Well, let's just call him an old school tycoon.

When he died in 1990, Janet took over the reins of the family business and really steadied the ship, which impressed everyone.

But it's not really what we're talking about here.

We're talking about her life with art and architecture and how not only has she got this extraordinary art collection, which we'll discuss in this interview, but...

She's helped start the Black Swan Theatre Company in Perth.

She's been instrumental with the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Australian Children's Television Foundation and how I met her in her time as the Commissioner of the Venice Architecture Biennale for Australia.

So she loves art and she loves architecture and so those two things coming together makes her a perfect guest for the podcast.

It does.

Because she's such an impressive human being.

That's why it was important to have her on the podcast.

I mean, for God's sake, she's one of the National Trusts of Australia's living treasures and there's only 100 of them.

She's a living treasure.

And so I suppose this conversation is about celebrating her passions and we did this in her art gallery, which is pretty basic but also not basic at the same time.

It's a big old factory and she was super generous with her time, super charming.

And as always, you're going to love this chat.