What is an inkhorn?
An inkhorn was a small vessel of horn, worn at the scholar's belt to carry ink. By the 16th century the word had become an insult: "inkhorn terms" was what Tudor critics called the elaborate Latinate vocabulary flooding into English from Continental scholarship. Too complex, they argued. Too obscure. A way of controlling access to ideas rather than sharing them.
They weren't wrong.
Complex language can exclude, mystify, and deceive. Jargon used to evade accountability is as real a problem now as it was then.
But the humanists on the other side of that debate were making an equally serious point. Some ideas are genuinely difficult. New words — even strange, borrowed, unfamiliar ones — are sometimes necessary because the concepts they carry are new. To name a thing is to make it available for thought. Precision in language isn't the enemy of inclusion; vagueness can be its own form of dishonesty.
Wittgenstein put the underlying insight plainly: the limits of your language are the limits of your world. Which means that the work of finding the right words with a community or organisation is not peripheral to strategy — it is strategy. Words shape thinking. Thinking shapes what we notice and value. What we notice and value shapes what we build.
That's what we mean by connecting, consulting, and co-creating. The work isn't to arrive with a finished vocabulary and impose it, nor to strip everything back to the lowest common denominator. It's to build shared language with the people we work alongside, language precise enough to think with and open enough to belong to everyone in the room.
Inkhorn Projects takes its name from that unresolved debate. The inkhorn was the scholar's tool. The question we carry into every engagement is how you use it to draw a circle around yourself or to draw other people in.
Inkhorn Projects is a boutique cultural policy and strategy consultancy based in the foothills of kunanyi in Hobart, lutruwita (Tasmania). We work with government agencies, arts organisations, and cultural institutions to develop strategy, build evidence, and solve complex problems across the cultural and creative sectors.
Our work spans cultural infrastructure and venue strategy, organisational design, economic analysis, grants program design, and policy development. We bring analytical rigour to every engagement — alongside genuine curiosity, deep sector knowledge, and a long-term view of sustainability over sentiment.
We operate primarily across Tasmania but increasingly on a national basis, with recent engagements in South Australia alongside ongoing work with state and local government across the island.
About Inkhorn projects
Principal Consultatnt
Tony Bonney is a senior cultural sector consultant and executive with more than 35 years of leadership experience across arts, events, tourism, and education in both government and not-for-profit contexts. Through Inkhorn Projects, he provides strategic advisory, research, program design, and governance services to state and local government agencies, arts organisations, and event bodies across Tasmania and nationally.
His consulting practice spans economic and policy analysis, cultural strategy, grants program design, business case development, and feasibility assessment.
Alongside consulting, Tony has held senior executive and leadership roles across a range of significant cultural organisations — including as CEO of Festival of Voices, General Manager of Perth Theatre Company and Fremantle Arts Centre, and Manager of Strategic Programs and Experience at the University of Tasmania — bringing direct operational and governance experience to every engagement.
contact
Inkhorn Projects - Tasmania
please use the form below and I will respond as soon as possible - alternatively email