Applications for funding under the The Regional Arts Fund for 2012 will be assessed by a panel of eight people, including representatives from diverse target groups and regions, with experience in a range of artforms. They are in alphabetical order:
(* New Panel members)
Arts NSW nominee
Jane Gillespie is currently Project Support Officer at Arts NSW, working across theatre, dance and music. As part of the role, she is responsible for the Rex Cramphorn Theatre Scholarship and the Women and Arts Fellowship, as well as providing grant administrative support for the Arts Funding Program.
Previously Jane worked at the Australia Council for the Arts, initially for the Literature Board where she co-ordinated the international residency program. More recently she was Program Officer at the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, where she initiated a funding program for artist run initiatives through the Australian Government’s Opportunities for Young and Emerging Artists initiative, and managed the organisation’s art collection and internal exhibition program.
Prior to joining the Australia Council, Jane held positions at the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Biennale of Sydney and the Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga. She has studied art history and curatorship at the Australian National University and in 2003 graduated from Deakin University with a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies.
Museums & Galleries NSW nominee
Kent Buchanan has been working in the arts and culture industry for the past 13 years in a variety of roles. He is currently Curator of Western Plains Cultural Centre in Dubbo and is responsible for a range of curatorial projects relating to both the Dubbo Regional Gallery and Dubbo Regional Museum. He has worked with many facets of the community on a variety of different activities, including social history projects, artist workshops, symposia, exhibitions, interviews and talks.
Prior to this role, Kent was Education / Public Programs Officer at Dubbo Regional Gallery for seven years, during this time presenting a range of lectures on many aspects of the visual arts. Kent holds a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) from College of Fine Arts, UNSW and a Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) from Charles Sturt University. His curatorial projects include Telling Stories: the Picture books of Libby Gleeson, A Child’s Eyes: Van Sowerwine, William Lamson, and Adaptation: Louise Hearman & Louise Weaver.
CHAIR and RANSW Board of Directors’ nominee
Bernadette is a graduate of the Ballarat Academy of Performing Arts (BAPA) production course. Upon graduating, she took on the position of Project/Education Officer at Geelong Performing Arts Centre (1997 – 2001) and Technical Production Manager for the Victorian Department of Education State School Spectacular in 2001. She has worked as Production/Stage Manager for festivals and events and for many Melbourne based companies. She has also provided lighting designs for independent producers and provided technical support for touring companies and regional venues across the state.
Bernadette moved to Albury/Wodonga in 2002 to take on the position of Production Manager of HotHouse Theatre and, in 2005, was appointed General Manager. She is currently a board member for Regional Arts NSW and Murray Arts. Bernadette also holds the position of Deputy Chair of the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres Association and is a representative of the Touring Consultative Committee for Regional Arts Victoria.
Bernadette has served two years as Chairperson on the RAF State Assessment Panel.
Australian Theatre for Young People nominee
Suzanne is the Creative Producer of Outback Theatre for Young People working in their head office in Deniliquin. Originally from Adelaide, Suzanne has worked and studied in Townsville, the USA and Sydney. She holds a Bachelor of Theatre from James Cook University, a Bachelor of Science in Theatre from Texas Woman’s University and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre (Acting) from the University of Iowa.
As a playwright Suzanne has had short plays performed at the Victorian Arts Centre, the Seymour Centre, the New Theatre, Newtown Theatre and Star of the Sea Theatre, and her longer one-act play, Fire Safety, was included in the Brand Spanking New Festival at the New Theatre in 2008. In the same year Suzanne’s first full-length play, War Poems, set in the aftermath of the First World War and the Gallipoli campaign, was short-listed for Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwright’s Award.
Suzanne spent four years on the board of Factory Space Theatre and has produced shows for New Mercury Theatre, Newtown Theatre and theatre-in-education company, Muse Productions. In 2008 she worked as Director of the Children’s Program for Newtown Theatre and Short+Sweet. In 2009 she was appointed Creative Producer at Outback Theatre for Young People. As an actor she has been seen on stages all over Sydney as well as in short film and television.
This is Suzanne’s second year on the RAF State Assessment Panel.
Ausdance nominee
Cathy is currently the Director of Ausdance NSW, the peak professional body for dance in NSW, and has led the organisation for the past five years. Cathy has worked within the dance industry internationally and within Australia for the past 20 years as both a professional dancer and Arts Manager. She was Executive Director of the Australian Dance Awards at the Sydney Opera House from 2004 to 2006 and will produce the Australian Youth Dance Festival in 2011. Recent dance development initiatives include the 2009-11 Regional and Indigenous Dance Program for NSW and the Dance Space Residency Program supported by the City of Sydney. Previously she worked within the Marketing and Corporate Communications portfolio at Sydney Opera House for three years, managing the International journalist program and corporate communications campaigns.
Cathy has completed a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) from Queensland University of Technology and a Graduate Certificate in Event Management from the University of Technology Sydney. She is a graduate of the Queensland Dance School of Excellence and the Australian Ballet School’s Advanced Diploma of Teaching for professional dancers.
This is Cathy’s second year on the RAF State Assessment Panel.
NSW Writers representative
Brian is the founder and coordinator of the upcoming Bellingen Writers festival in April 2011. His career has taken him from teaching art in outback NSW, to releasing CDs and performing with alt-rock band Distant Locust in Europe. In the late eighties-early nineties he was Secretary, President and first Public Officer of the Poets Union, helping to establish it as a truly national body. He followed this with five-year stints as Membership Secretary of the Australian Society of Authors and Senior Producer of Audio Books at the Royal Blind Society.
From late 2003 to March 2008, he worked for the Australia Council for the Arts, initially for the Music Board and later as Program Officer for the Literature Board. In 2002 he graduated with a Master of Writing at Sydney’s UTS, concentrating on the novel. Since 2003 he has worked on manuscript assessments for a top agency, and in early 2008 moved and established Renaissance Manuscript Service in Bellingen, on NSW’s mid-north coast. He has had more than fifty poems published in Australia and overseas, edited anthologies such as Poets on Wheels, and is the author of the Australian Society of Author’s paper Writing for the Poetry Market.
Regional Conservatorium representative
Graham Sattler began his musical career as a trombonist, playing with the major orchestras of Sydney and Melbourne, and ensembles ranging in style from early music, through commercial musical theatre, to contemporary and experimental. As a singer, Graham has worked as an ensemble member of the Australian Opera (1990 – 1994), soloist with the Auckland Philharmonia and the Symphony Orchestras of Sydney, Tasmania and West Australia and as a member of Sounds Baroque, touring with Musica Viva-in-Schools from 1997 to 2000.
Graham has been Musical Director of several school band programs, the Manly Warringah Choir and Orchestra, Sydney's Grange Orchestra and Ensemble, as well as various events such as the Sydney Paralympic Games team meet and the opening of Sydney's Fox Studios. From 1997 - 2000 he was Musical Director of several Australian Youth Choir ensembles.
After consolidating his musical activities with a Master of Performance (Conducting) in 2000, he was appointed Music Director of the Orange Regional Conservatorium (Director/CEO since 2005), where he has undertaken to develop the music education resources for that region. Since taking the reins at the Orange Regional Conservatorium, development in programs includes curricular-support in local schools, distance learning via video-conferencing, and partnerships with community and allied organisations such as F.O.O.D, Orange Regional Vigneron's Association, Friends of the Botanic Gardens, Orange Theatre Company, Charles Sturt University and Greater Western Area Health Services (Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Services).
As an Executive member of the Association of NSW Regional Conservatoriums since 2003, Graham has developed a keen awareness of the broad-ranging music education issues affecting isolated students and communities across the state. He has recently commenced postgraduate research in the area of socio-cultural development through ensemble music programs and spent several weeks at the end of 2006 studying programs in the United States and Bolivia.
Recently appointed as adjunct lecturer with Charles Sturt University, Graham is engaged in course design and delivery of the new Associate Degree in Music Education.
Indigenous representative
Lily Shearer is a Muruwaroi (north-west NSW/south-east QLD) woman and has been a custodian of Darug (Sydney basin) lands since 1988. Lily attended primary school in Brewarrina and high school, as a boarder, in Sydney. She obtained a Diploma of Social Welfare at Macarthur University, Milperra Campus and a Bachelor of Arts at University of Western Sydney, Nepean Campus.
Lily is currently the General Manager of Gadigal Information Service in Sydney and has over 30 years experience in Indigenous Australia women’s dance, heritage and culture, youth/welfare work, community cultural development and theatre making.
She was the Artistic Director and founding member of BUNDAHBUNNA MIYUMBA, Indigenous Australian Heritage and Culture Experience, 1997-2003, a small business offering hands-on activities, promoting cultural diversity of Indigenous Nations, encouraging Indigenous youth participants and carrying the spirit of reconciliation to all who participate. Lily has worked as a Cultural Development Officer at the Redfern Community Centre and Cultural Advisor and Creative Producer of Moogahlin Performing Arts in Redfern as well as various roles (Choreographer, Director, Producer, Stage Manager, Cultural Advisor) on numerous community theatre making projects ranging from major festivals such as Sydney Festival and The Dreaming Festival in Queensland to projects initiated by Performance Space, Urban Theatre projects, PACT Youth Theatre and Powerhouse Youth Theatre in Sydney and Western Sydney.
The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative
supporting the arts in regional and remote Australia.
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