Bec Cole is the Creative Industries Lead at City of Monash. Prior to this she was Director Creative Arts at Latrobe City Council, a role which encompassed the direction of Latrobe Regional Gallery and Latrobe Performing Arts Centre. Bec is a champion of creating access to quality contemporary art and has led the establishment of public art programs, creative industry development initiatives and public programming in gallery, major events and activity centre settings. Previously, Bec led the Arts & Culture program at Wyndham City Council. Here she implemented a bold exhibition program at Wyndham Art Gallery, establishing a curatorial model of practice that supports a diversity of perspectives and raised the profile of the gallery to national presence. Bec holds a Master of Commerce with specialities in business, economics and marketing; winning the prestigious RMIT Master of Commerce Prize in 2018. She also holds a Master of Community Cultural Development from the Victorian College of the Arts. Bec regularly writes articles on culture, creativity and community, and has an extensive background in community engagement and policy.

Dr Tammy Wong Hulbert is an artist, curator and academic in the RMIT University School of Art, lecturing in the Master of Arts (Arts Management) program specialising in curating. She is also the International and Art: History + Theory + Cultures Coordinator. Tammy’s research focuses on curating inclusive cities, enacted through collaborations with marginalised urban communities, to care for and represent their perspectives in globalising cities. Tammy’s art practice stems from her interest in expressing the multi-layered and fragmented space between cultures, due to living in a super-diverse, postcolonial society. As a curator, she has worked with a wide range of Asian contemporary artists in Sydney, Melbourne, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Hong Kong, in galleries, museums and public spaces.

Photograph (detail): Shane Hulbert

Michael Fox is the Principal of Michael Fox Arts Accountant & Valuer and the Director of Fox Galleries. He is a qualified accountant, fine art valuer and art collector. He holds a Master of Tax from the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. Michael is a member of the Auctioneers and Valuers Association of Australia and is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Accountants. With offices in Melbourne and Hobart, Michael has worked with artists and creative industry professionals to manage their tax affairs utilising his specialised knowledge in business taxation, GST, cultural gifts, income averaging and more. Some highlights of his career include running the successful Save Super Art campaign in 2010 that prevented the proposed ban on artwork investment by super funds; co-founding Outlaw Gallery along with Barry Tate in Warrnambool, which provides art therapy classes for people living with disability in the community of Western Victoria; and in 2020 he was invited to the position of Art Market Consultant to the Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart.

Photograph (detail): Manon Mikolaitis

Born New Delhi, India

Dr David Sequeira’s studio practice focusses on the use of colour and geometry in the creation of contemplative experiences. Working across media, David explores issues around high and low art, personal and shared histories, banality and profundity, the reverberations of colonization and the persistence of incomplete histories. Curatorship — articulating the intersections between objects, time, place and space — is an important aspect of his art practice. Major solo exhibitions of his work have been shown at the Art Gallery of NSW, John Curtin Gallery, Perth; University of Queensland Art Museum and Nature Morte Gallery New Delhi. David’s residencies and awards include the Australia Council for the Arts studio Paris, the Collex Museum of Contemporary Art acquisitive prize, Artist in residence University of Texas, Dallas and the Wyndham Art Prize. Prior to his current role, David held senior positions in major national cultural institutions including Australian Parliament House, National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, National Film and Sound Archive.

Photograph (detail): Guilia McGauran

Nasalifya Namugala Namwinga is a Zambian, Naarm (Melbourne)-based clinical psychologist. She is passionate about working from an inter-sectional perspective to support clients, with a particular interest in culturally responsive practice. She trained as a clinical psychologist in Aotearoa (New Zealand) before moving to Melbourne and founding Pola Practice.

Photograph (detail): Wani Toa

Nicole is an arts management professional, with over 22 years’ experience in Exhibitions Management. She joined the National Gallery of Victoria in 2000 and has overseen the delivery of hundreds of exhibitions, including the NGV Triennial and Melbourne Winter Masterpiece exhibitions, as well as the annual Architecture Commissions. Nicole manages the exhibitions program at both NGV Australia, NGV International and the NGV touring program. She oversees the Exhibitions Management and Exhibition & Collections Operations departments and is on the NGV Environmental Committee, and the Disability Access Committee. She has previously served as the NGV representative on the Board of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria (2008-2011).

Joshua White is the Gallery Director of Hamilton Gallery. He has more than 13 years’ experience working within the cultural sector as a curator, strategic lead, registrar, and conservator. Recent cultural projects include hosting the National Gallery of Australia’s touring exhibition, Skywhales: Every Heart Sings by Patricia Piccinini and developing Hamilton Gallery’s 60th anniversary publication and exhibition in collaboration with leading industry scholars and curators.

Prior to taking up the role at Hamilton Gallery in 2020, Joshua was an Urban and Public Art Project Leader at Lake Macquarie City Council where he developed and implemented large scale cultural projects and created long term policy and strategy. He was Curator at Gosford Regional Gallery in 2015, where he developed significant national exhibitions and contributed to the extensive expansion of the gallery’s collection. Joshua was also the lead Technical Officer of Newcastle Art Gallery and steward of the $70 million art collection.

Joshua has a Master of Creative Industries from the University of Newcastle and maintains a close connection to the cultural sector on the east coast of New South Wales.

Photograph: Madi Whyte

Rhynah Subrun is an environmental sustainability professional with experience across a range of areas: policy development, program management, governance and reporting, legislative reform, planning and impact assessment, funding and sustainable procurement. She has worked for government, private and international organisations both in Australia and Mauritius.

Rhynah spent her childhood in Zimbabwe and teenage years in Mauritius. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, specialising in environmental law, management and business.

Rhynah is passionate about multiculturalism and promotion of intercultural competency, particularly in the workplace and as part of organisational service delivery.

Isobel Morphy-Walsh is a proud Nirim Baluk Woman from the Taun Wurrung (Taungurung) people. She is a lover of anecdote, an artist, activist, educator, curator, storyteller and weaver.

Isobel’s creative practice is wide ranging and includes: weaving, lino printing, painting, fabric creation, woodwork, cultural objects and adornments, and more recently metals.

Isobel’s curatorial practice extends to education and has a strong and deliberate focus on First Nations narratives. She supports the need to decolonize, particularly through the treatment and interpretation of artworks, objects and images, with a focus on the communities they come from and approaches taken in development. Isobel embeds the values of her culture and ancestors in all that she does.

Photograph (detail): Victoria Morphy

Claire Watson is a passionate contributor to the arts community through her role on boards and advisory committees, as a judge for industry prizes, a writer, and lecturer. Her professional experience includes serving as an advisor on the Touring Panel for Creative Victoria (2014-2016), board member of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria (2017-2019) chairing their Advocacy and Research Committee; and a range of senior roles at arts organisations including BLINDSIDE, Asialink, Gippsland Art Gallery, and Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. Claire has curated over 100 exhibitions including the Artspace Mackay touring exhibition Violent Salt co-curated with Yhonnie Scarce; NETS Victoria/BLINDSIDE touring exhibition Synthetica (2015-2016); and the Asialink/BLINDSIDE touring exhibition Vertigo (2014). She has been a guest speaker at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei; Galerie Soemardja, Indonesia; and the TransCultural Exchange Conference, USA. Claire is an Affiliate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a member of the National Association of Visual Arts, an advocate for inclusive practices and a lover of innovation.

Photograph: Kate Longley

Born New Delhi, India

Dr David Sequeira’s studio practice focusses on the use of colour and geometry in the creation of contemplative experiences. Working across media, David explores issues around high and low art, personal and shared histories, banality and profundity, the reverberations of colonization and the persistence of incomplete histories. Curatorship — articulating the intersections between objects, time, place and space — is an important aspect of his art practice. Major solo exhibitions of his work have been shown at the Art Gallery of NSW, John Curtin Gallery, Perth; University of Queensland Art Museum and Nature Morte Gallery New Delhi. David’s residencies and awards include the Australia Council for the Arts studio Paris, the Collex Museum of Contemporary Art acquisitive prize, Artist in residence University of Texas, Dallas and the Wyndham Art Prize. Prior to his current role, David held senior positions in major national cultural institutions including Australian Parliament House, National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, National Film and Sound Archive.

Photograph (detail): Guilia McGauran

Myles Russell-Cook is the Senior Curator, Australian and First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Victoria. He is jointly responsible for the National Gallery of Victoria’s collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and the Art of Oceania, Pre-hispanic America and Africa. Myles passion is for First Nations contemporary art, and much of his influence and inspiration comes from his own maternal Aboriginal heritage in Western Victoria with connections into Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands. Myles has lectured in Art History, Design Anthropology and Indigenous Studies at Swinburne University, and he is currently editor of the NGV’s annual scholarly publication, The Art Journal.

Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera, South Australia, and belongs to the Kokatha and Nukunu Peoples. A master contemporary glass blower, her practice explores the political nature and aesthetic qualities of glass. Scarce’s work often references the on-going effects of colonisation on Aboriginal people. Family history is central to Scarce’s work, drawing on the strength of her ancestors, she offers herself as a conduit, sharing their significant stories from the past. Scarce was the winner of the prestigious NGV Architecture Commission 2019. In 2018 Scarce was the recipient of the Kate Challis RAKA award, for her contribution to the visual arts in Australia, as well as the Indigenous Ceramic Award from the Shepparton Art Museum. Her involvement in international exhibitions includes the Pavilion of Contemporary Art, Milan; and the Museum of London, Ontario, Canada. Previous international shows include the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India, 2018; 55th Venice Biennale collateral exhibition Personal Structures 2013, Venice; Harvard Art Museum, Massachusetts 2016; and Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, Virginia, USA 2012.

Photograph (detail): Janelle Low

Zoë Bastin is an artist, choreographer, curator, sometimes writer and self-described ‘rat-bag’. As an artist who makes performances, sculptures, videos, photos and runs a radio show, she’s fascinated by the porousness of the body, where it starts and ends and how culture inscribes ideas of gender and sexuality onto our physical form.

Since childhood she’s been interested in gender roles in dance class, particularly who’s allowed to do what and why. Drawing on her background of creative dance, she creates works that explore difficult psychological terrain. From the homophobia in her religious childhood to delving into the gender politics of ballet, Zoë’s works are often hard hitting. But from this deep emotional investigation comes the joy of dancing itself.

Zoë has previously exhibited and performed at Dancehouse, Midsumma Festival, Bus Projects, Felt Space, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Seventh Gallery, Testing Grounds, BLINDSIDE, Bloc Projects, KINGS Artist Run, MADA Gallery at Monash University, Project Space at RMIT University and The Substation. Zoë recently completed her PhD (RMIT University) where she was researching gender by transforming patriarchal hierarchies in bodies and objects.

Isobel Morphy-Walsh is a proud Nirim Baluk Woman from the Taun Wurrung (Taungurung) people. She is a lover of anecdote, an artist, activist, educator, curator, storyteller and weaver.

Isobel’s creative practice is wide ranging and includes: weaving, lino printing, painting, fabric creation, woodwork, cultural objects and adornments, and more recently metals.

Isobel’s curatorial practice extends to education and has a strong and deliberate focus on First Nations narratives. She supports the need to decolonize, particularly through the treatment and interpretation of artworks, objects and images, with a focus on the communities they come from and approaches taken in development. Isobel embeds the values of her culture and ancestors in all that she does.

Photograph (detail): Victoria Morphy

Bec Cole is the Creative Industries Lead at City of Monash. Prior to this she was Director Creative Arts at Latrobe City Council, a role which encompassed the direction of Latrobe Regional Gallery and Latrobe Performing Arts Centre. Bec is a champion of creating access to quality contemporary art and has led the establishment of public art programs, creative industry development initiatives and public programming in gallery, major events and activity centre settings. Previously, Bec led the Arts & Culture program at Wyndham City Council. Here she implemented a bold exhibition program at Wyndham Art Gallery, establishing a curatorial model of practice that supports a diversity of perspectives and raised the profile of the gallery to national presence. Bec holds a Master of Commerce with specialities in business, economics and marketing; winning the prestigious RMIT Master of Commerce Prize in 2018. She also holds a Master of Community Cultural Development from the Victorian College of the Arts. Bec regularly writes articles on culture, creativity and community, and has an extensive background in community engagement and policy.

Michael Fox is the Principal of Michael Fox Arts Accountant & Valuer and the Director of Fox Galleries. He is a qualified accountant, fine art valuer and art collector. He holds a Master of Tax from the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. Michael is a member of the Auctioneers and Valuers Association of Australia and is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Accountants. With offices in Melbourne and Hobart, Michael has worked with artists and creative industry professionals to manage their tax affairs utilising his specialised knowledge in business taxation, GST, cultural gifts, income averaging and more. Some highlights of his career include running the successful Save Super Art campaign in 2010 that prevented the proposed ban on artwork investment by super funds; co-founding Outlaw Gallery along with Barry Tate in Warrnambool, which provides art therapy classes for people living with disability in the community of Western Victoria; and in 2020 he was invited to the position of Art Market Consultant to the Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart.

Photograph (detail): Manon Mikolaitis

Nicole is an arts management professional, with over 22 years’ experience in Exhibitions Management. She joined the National Gallery of Victoria in 2000 and has overseen the delivery of hundreds of exhibitions, including the NGV Triennial and Melbourne Winter Masterpiece exhibitions, as well as the annual Architecture Commissions. Nicole manages the exhibitions program at both NGV Australia, NGV International and the NGV touring program. She oversees the Exhibitions Management and Exhibition & Collections Operations departments and is on the NGV Environmental Committee, and the Disability Access Committee. She has previously served as the NGV representative on the Board of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria (2008-2011).

Hester Lyon is an arts worker, writer and curator. Recent appointments include Gallery & Museum Program Officer at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and GeoCentre, and Board of Directors at SEVENTH Gallery. Hester has previously worked at a number of public and commercial organisations including LON Gallery, VAULT Magazine, Monash University Museum of Art, ARC ONE Gallery and the Ballarat International Foto Biennale. Her writing has appeared in Memo Review, Fine Print Magazine and VAULT Magazine. Hester holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne.

Photograph: Samantha Lynch