This was a personal and professional development opportunity for mid-career to established arts leaders with over ten years’ experience in the sector. 

The program was delivered over 12-months and involved three interconnected residentials that took place in-person and digitally, with online learning components in between. Participants in the program joined a cohort of mid-career and established arts leaders working within organisations, independently or in their communities. 

Through facilitated discussion, knowledge exchanges, workshops and on Country learning with First Nations Elders, participants collectively explored the current challenges and opportunities presented within the creative industry. 

The Future Leaders Program was a personal and professional development opportunity for emerging arts leaders within the first ten years of their career. 

The program was delivered over 12-months, offering participants ways to connect with and learn from peers who were working within organisations or independently, through in-person and online workshops. Through facilitated discussion, knowledge exchanges, workshops and on Country learning with First Nations Elders, Future Leaders looked at new models of leadership and current themes in the creative industries. 

2020 participants 

Ayebatonye Abrakasa (NSW) Irregular Fit 

Nikki Brogan (NSW) FBi Radio 

Luke Campbell (TAS) Second Echo Ensemble 

Penny Camens (SA) Patch Theatre 

Joel Carnegie (VIC) The Space Company 

Bastian Fox Phelan (NSW) Independent Writer 

Zoya Godoroja-Prieckaerts (NT) Independent Artist 

Emma Hicks (NSW) Museum of Contemporary Arts & University of Sydney 

Tasnim Hossain (NSW) Independent Theatremaker 

Rebecca Kais (WA) Art Gallery of Western Australia 

William Le (NSW) International Casting & Creative Management (ICACM) 

Sigrid Macdonald (NSW) Second Nature Strategies 

Daisy Montalvo (NSW) FUNPARK 

Lana Nguyen (VIC) Independent Creative Producer 

Katina Olsen (QLD) Independent Choreographer and Performer 

Raina Peterson (VIC) Karma Dance 

Adelaide Rief (ACT) Independent Creative Producer 

Jenna Robertson (QLD) Independent Artist and Creative Producer 

Lani Auvita Scott (QLD) Arts Society Papua New Guinea 

Amelia Wallin (VIC) West Space 

The SEC Newgate Mentoring and Stakeholder Engagement program for leadership program alumni is an opportunity that supports participants to gain skills in representing and building support for their work, organisation, community of practice and policy ambitions.

It is suited to senior and executive leaders, particularly those in CEO or senior leadership roles of medium organisation.

Past participants

2023

• Jessica Alice
• Tarragh Cunningham
• Joshua Lowe
• Kylie McRae
• Shay Vigona-Goudge
• Joshua Hoare

2022

• Emily Collins
• Fiona Maxwell
• Ros Abercrombie
• Joanne Kee
• Edwina Johnson
• Rosie Shepherdson-Cullen
• Jamie Lewis
• Kate Eltham

Creative Climate Leadership (CCL) was hosted in 2023 to empower artists and cultural professionals to take action on the climate and ecological crisis with impact, creativity, and resilience. It was designed to mobilise and connect a creative climate movement and was delivered and facilitated by Julie’s Bicycle (UK) with co- facilitation from Ruth Langford.  

This program was supported by the British Council. 

CCL offered: 

• An inspiring 5 day program of learning and peer-to-peer exchange for 24 talented and motivated participants living and working in Australia.
• A powerful opportunity to collaborate and develop creative ideas in a serene environment.
• A space to develop and/or scale up cultural leadership on climate action and justice.
• A supportive network of national and international CCL alumni. 

2023 participants 

Aimee Smith 
Anna Weekes 
Antonia Seymour 
Ari Fuller 
Astrid Edwards 
Beatrice Jeavons 
Bryony Anderson 
Catherine Polcz 
Charlie Mgee 
Eliki Reade 
Fiona Lee 
Grace Nye-Butler 
Guy Ritani 
Jen Rae 
Juundaal Strang-Yettica 
Kate Scardifield 
Keg de Souza 
Na'ima Fine 
Noemie Huttner-Koros 
Pippa Bailey 
Sēini Taumoepeau 
Tanja Beer 
Vika Mana 

Unearthing First Nations leadership by developing different ways of knowing, being and doing.  

The Custodianship program (2020) was designed by First Nations leaders for First Nations leaders to transform sustainability in culture, practice, community and the arts. 

Cultural practitioners, artists and arts workers from across art forms and career levels explored what custodianship and leadership meant in diverse contexts. They learned from self, from others and with peers 

Future Form was an opportunity for small to medium arts organisations to transform and innovate their core business model. 

It provided time and space for participants to reimagine and respond to the future. Participants used a range of design techniques to interrogate the value proposition of their organisation; and identify practical solutions and next steps through online learning sessions, a group workshop, individual coaching sessions and peer support. 

2021 Participants

• Alyson Evans, (NSW, Albury Area) Independent producer
• Scott Howie (NSW, Wagga Wagga) Independent producer
• Christopher Orchard, (NSW, Coolarmon Shire, Bland Shire, Junee Shire) Charles Sturt University
• Ashlee Laing, (NSW/VIC, Albury/Wodonga) Independent producer
• Roxanne Smith, (NSW, Wagga Wagga, Junee) Wagga Wagga Civic Centre
• Sarah Parsons, (NSW, Deniliquin) Outback Theatre
• Sivonne Binks, (NSW, south-west) Independent producer
• Claire Harris, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Create Hub Riverina and Eastern Riverina Arts
• Lauren Reynolds, (NSW Coolamon, Wagga Wagga) Wagga Wagga City Council
• Susan Reid, (NSW, Albury) Murray Arts
• Brittany Hefren, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Independent producer
• Erin Davis-Hartwig, (NSW Beechworth/Albury) Independent photographer & Old Stone Hall Co-Work and Art Space
• Phoebe Pinnock, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Regional Music, MusicNSW
• Greg Pritchard, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Independent producer
• Kerryn Beatty, (NSW Albury) Idependent producer
• James Farley, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Independent producer
• Elizabeth Robinson, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Independent designer
• Drew Halyday, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Wagga Wagga Art Gallery
• Samantha Taylor, (NSW Snowy Valleys) Taylor Made Artist Services and Tumut’s Falling Leaf Festival
• Genevieve Mott, (NSW Wagga Wagga and Albury) Museum of the Riverina
• Jhi Rayner, (NSW Wagga Wagga) Independent and Freeroam Theatre inc. 

2015 Participants

• Aaron Beach – Contemporary Dance Company of Western Australia
• Adi Diner – White Night Melbourne
• Alexandra Cameron-Fraser – Australian Chamber Orchestra
• Annette Vieusseux – Lucy Guerin Inc
• Antonia Seymore – Urban Theatre Projects
• Beverly Growden – Canberra Glassworks
• Carolyn Murphy – Art Gallery of NSW
• Katrina Douglas – PACT Centre for Emerging Artists
• Emma Calverley – Creative Partnerships Australia
• Philp Watkins – Desart Inc
• Georgie Davill – Carclew Youth Arts
• Jack Lloyd – Belconnen Arts Centre
• Jane Tonkin – Corrugated Iron Youth Arts
• John Kachoyan – MKA: Theatre of New Writing
• Kate Feilding – Independent
• Louisa Bezzina – Bleach Festival
• Jayne Lovelock – Melbourne Fringe
• Martina Murray – Melbourne Theatre Company
• Narelle Lewis – Performing Lines
• Penny Miles – Independent
• Simone Schinkel – KAGE
• Tim Stitz – Chamber Made Opera
• Zoe Graham – QAGOMA
• Felicity Bolt – Ausdance Tasmania

2014 Participants

• Amanda Foote – N/A
• Carli Leimbach – Independent
• Chris Kohn – N/A
• Cheryl Pickering – Various People Inc; Chamber Music Adelaide
• Caroline Downer – New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM)
• Hillary Coyne – Chunky Move
• Jaclyn Booton – The Wheelchair Centre
• Jade Lillie – Footscray Community Arts Centre
• Joe Toohey – Regional Arts Victoria
• Kerry O’Sullivan – The Blue Room Theatre
• Casey Lee – Arena Theatre Company
• Libby Hill – Victorian Opera
• Michelle O’Brien – Independent Arts & Festival Manager
• Narelle Jarry – Beyond Empathy
• Pip Wittenoom – The Australia Council for the Arts
• Bec Allen – N/A
• Rhys Holden – La Boite Theatre Company
• Rod Ainsworth – Creative Regions
• Tamara Harrison – Polyglot Theatre
• Timothy Jones – Seymour Centre
• Viv Rosman – Polyglot Theatre

2013 Participants

• Antonietta Morgillo – N/A
• Bronwyn Lobb – Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
• Damien Boyle – Monash University Academy of Performing Arts
• Danielle Harvey – Sydney Opera House
• Brad Spolding – The Substation
• Edwina Lunn – Darwin Festival Association Inc
• Georgia Rivers – Opera Australia
• Hillary Coyne – Chunky Move
• Kate Eltham – State Library of QLD
• Kathryn Hunyor – Object: Australian Design Centre
• Kane Forbes – Regional Arts Victoria
• Katherine Hoepper – Queensland Theatre Company
• Michael Dagostino – Campbelltown Arts Centre
• Michelle Broun – Indigenous Community Stories – FTI
• Nathalie Vallejo – Bangarra Dance Theatre
• Pippa Bainbridge – La Mama
• Sarah Neal – Malthouse Theatre
• Simeon Moran – Ilbijerri
• Sarah Greentree – The Wheeler Centre
• Jason Barry-Smith – N/A
• Tim Long Willoughby City Council
• Jon Cope – City of Armidale
• Joseph Mitchell – OzAsia
• Jen Mizuik – Banff Centre for the Arts

2012 Participants

• Naomi Lane – N/A
• Adrian Burnett – The Australia Council for the Arts
• Anthony Peluso – Country Arts South Australia
• Bernie Hearld – Gondwana Choirs
• Brendan Ross – N/A
• Ben Fox – Independent
• Daniel Randall – N/A
• Kate Larsen – Writers Victoria
• Paul Kooperman – N/A
• Esther Anatolitis – Regional Arts Victoria
• Fiona Menzies – Creative Partnerships Australia
• Olivia Ansell – Hayes Theatre
• Paul Osuch – Anywhere Festival
• Phip Murray – N/A
• Sandra Willis – Opera Australia
• Sean Radcliffe – Sydney Dance Company
• Simon Abrahams – Melbourne Fringe Festival
• Tamara Jungwirth – Gasworks

2011 Participants

• Alison Beare – Ngeringa Arts Centre
• Callum Moncrieff – N/A
• David Ryding – Melbourne City of Literature
• Anna Cerneaz – Artology / WotOpera
• David Williams – David Williams Projects
• Lisa Dempster – Melbourne Writers Festival
• Dion Hastie – Kurruru Youth Performing Arts
• Kath Melbourne – Legs on the Wall
• Fiona Carter – Corrugated Iron Youth Arts
• Emily Sexton – Wheeler Centre (ex next Wave)
• Kevin du Preez – The Australia Council for the Arts
• Kim McConville – Beyond Empathy Ltd

2010 Participants

• Kristy Rebbeck – Rebbak
• Lenine Bourke – Independent
• Magdalena Moreno – IFACCA
• Louise Oppenheim – Circus Oz
• Melanie Knight – N/A
• Michael Williams – The Wheeler Centre
• Josh Write – Malthouse Theatre
• Nicholas Skibinski – N/A
• Tehmi Sukhla – The Australia Museum
• Ann McLean – N/A
• Venessa Rowsthorn – Melbourne Theatre Company
• Guy Ross – Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Creative Australia, formerly the Arts Council, supported two participants to take part in the Creative Community Fellows Program with National Arts Strategies in the United States. The program invited practitioners working in socially-engaged practice to come together, collaborate and develop project ideas in October 2019 and February 2020. 

Creative Community Fellows 

Hannah Grant  

Debby Maziarz   

2020 participants 

Vi Do (VIETNAM) San Art 

Radhika Ganesh (INDIA) Ek Potlee Ret Ki 

Razcel Jan Salvarita (PHILIPPINES) Creative Community Activist 

Nguyen Minh Chau (VIETNAM) Independent Storyteller 

Ika Yuliana (INDONESIA) Jatiwangi Art Factory 

ISPA Australia Council Fellowships engaged with ideas, thinkers and leaders from the world’s most significant performing arts organisations over a three-year program. 

2020 ISPA Australia Council Fellows 

Merindah Donnelly, BlakDance 

Tristan Meecham, All The Queens Men 

Erin Milne, Independent Executive Producer  

Louisa Norman, Country Arts South Australia 

2020 ISPA Mentors and 2017-19 ISPA Australia Council Fellows 

Simon Abrahams, Melbourne Fringe 

Ben Graetz, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company 

Fiona MacDonald, Imaginary Theatre 

Viv Rosman, Polyglot Theatre 

Deanna Smart, Dancenorth 

The Sync Leadership Program was delivered in 2014 and 2015 by the Australia Council in partnership with Arts Access Australia, and focused on the interplay between leadership and disability.

2015 Participants

• Emma Barrance
• Sofya Gollan
• Julia Hales
• Kate Hood
• Sarah Houbolt
• Julian Jaensch
• Kirsty Martinsen
• Martin Sawtell
• Eva Sifis
• Lee Witczak

2014 Participants

• Morwenna Collett
• Janelle Colquhoun
• John Flanagan Willanski
• Janice Florence
• Emma J Hawkins
• Belinda Locke
• Liz Martin
• Gaelle Mellis
• Racheal Missingham
• Michelle Ryan
• Sophie Sherriff
• Gaele Sobott
• Emma Bennison

This opportunity brings together Sync Leadership alumni from Australia and Canada, to participate in an online Action Learning Project (a form of group coaching).

Designed as an exchange between Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse Sync alumni, the program will facilitate workshops and discussions about what leadership means and should look like for participants.

Applications for this opportunity have closed.

The Australian Progress Fellowship is a five-month intensive leadership course for advocates, campaigners, activists and changemakers in Australia to create lasting systemic change.

The program offers a suite of tools, tactics, strategies, frameworks and case studies in best practice community organising and senior campaigning to take your skills to the next level and amplify your impact. Participants join four virtual retreats and 12 weekly online seminars delivered with expert speakers sharing winning case studies and national best practice.

Applications for this opportunity have closed.

Past participants

2023

• Carl Scibberas
• Liz Nowell
• William Le

2022

• Anna Weekes
• Tasnim Hossain
• Joshua Lowe
• Sara Strachan
• Bethany Falzon

ASSITEJ International unites theatres, organisations, and individuals throughout the world who make Theatre & Performing Arts for Children & Young People. The following delegation attended the 2017 World Congress of ASSITEJ International in Cape Town (South Africa) 

The following Australian CEOs participated in the National Arts Strategies (NAS) Chief Executive Program in the US.  

Caroline Bowditch, Arts Access Victoria  
Alice Nash, Back to Back Theatre  
Philip Watkins, Desart  
Brian Parkes, JamFactory (Brian’s scholarship is in partnership with Arts South Australia). 

The Australia Council welcomes the next two First Nations arts leaders participating in the Milparanga Australia Council Scholarship, in partnership with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. 

• Sinsa Mansell, pakana kanaplila
  Iarapuna
• Zane Saunders, independent artist
  Butchilla people 

2018

• Marlene Chisholm 
   

2019 

• Elverina Johnson, independent artist, Gurugulu and Indinji Gimuy

2017 

• Kathy Burns
• Alysha Herrman 

This fund supported alumni from the Arts Leaders, Future Leaders and International Leaders program. Recipients collaborated on projects that contributed to the development of arts leadership in Australia. Activities included artistic, cultural, advocacy or capacity building.

Past participants

2022 alumni

• Cultural Leadership Research project: Matriarchal Leadership in the Digital Space – Annette Vieusseux, Fiona Maxwell (Arts Leaders 2019 alumni) and Kartika Jahja (Future Leaders 2018 alumni)
• Increasing access and inclusion across the NSW music industry – Morwenna Collett and Emily Collins (Arts Leaders 2016 alumni)
• Pace, Place and the Body: Reflecting and Reshaping Leadership – Rani Pramesti (Future Leaders 2017 alumni) and Alana Hunt (Future Leaders 2017 alumni)

2021 alumni

• COUNTER – NARRATIVE – Sally Richardson (Arts Leaders 2019) and Reena Dewan (Arts Leaders 2019 alumni)
• The Aesthetics of Aging – Vikram Iyengar and Sally Blackwood (Arts Leaders 2017 alumni)
• Leadership in Socially-Engaged Practice – Debby Maziarz and Hannah Grant (Creative Community Fellows 2019 alumni)

2019 alumni

• PLAYLIST: Cultural Exchange between PYT Fairfield and Bersama Project – Karen Therese (Arts Leaders 2019 alumni) and Kartika Jahja (Future Leaders 2018 alumni)
• Live Art Curatorial Exchange – Julia Mendel and Rhine Bernadino (Future Leaders 2018 alumni)
• Melbourne and Manila Queer Exchange – Nathan Stoneham and Andrei Nikolia Pamintuan (Future Leaders 2018 alumni)
• Cultural diversity in contemporary Australia on the international stage podcast – Tandi Williams, Simon Abrahams, Morwenna Collett, Kate Eltham, Jade Lillie and Amy Maiden (Arts Leaders 2016 alumni)

2018 alumni

• Cultural diversity in contemporary Australia on the international stage in-person presentation – Tandi Williams, Simon Abrahams, Morwenna Collett, Kate Eltham, Jade Lillie and Amy Maiden (Arts Leaders 2016 alumni)
• Reimagining the arts for young people – Helen Hristofski, Ruchira Das and Mia Maria (Arts Leaders Program 2018 alumni)
• Older than language – Emma Porteus, Nina Miall and Jiva Parthipan (Arts Leaders Program 2018 alumni)
• Darwin and Philippines Collaboration – Anna Weekes and Rhine Bernardino (Future Leaders 2018 alumni)
• Women Leadership Retreat – Anna Reece (Arts Leaders 2016 alumni)
• Stateless – Louise Bezzina, Sally Blackwood (Arts Leaders 2017 alumni), Vanessa Tomlinson and Lawrence English
• Exchanging Soft Power across the Asia Region – Effe Soropos, Melissa Robertson, Ruchira Das, Vikram Iyengar, Menaka Rodriguez (Arts Leaders 2017 alumni)
• Overcoming the geographical obstacles of genuine co-creation and
  co-productions – Helen Hristofski, Joanne Kee (Arts Leaders 2017 alumni) and Jay Emmanuel (Future Leaders 2019 alumni)
• Survival kit for women arts leaders within the white colonial patriarchy – Alana Hunt, Rani Pramesti, Hannah Kothe, Courtney Tuttle and Natasha Phillips (Future Leaders 2017 alumni)

The Leadership Program Alumni committee (2020 – 2022) provided a platform for representatives from our alumni network to develop and lead targeted, strategic initiatives and activities in support of the cultural and creative industries.    

The Committee played a key role in representing and convening the alumni network to help establish stronger connections across cohort years, and with the wider creative industry nationally and internationally.