Cath Cantlon

Cath Cantlon received the Australia Council's Ros Bower Award in 2001 for her contribution to the theory and practice of community art. She has worked in the area for 21 years across a range of artforms. Cath designed and managed the state-wide Waterworks project for Country Arts SA which resulted in contemporary public art in remote locations on the theme of water. With writer Catherine Murphy, she also devised and managed the See Saw project in Ceduna. This project was an early exploration of cross cultural relations in a town in which black/ white relations had received widespread negative attention. Cath is currently designing My Life, My Love for The State Theatre Company, a production which has grown from community roots and involves people with a range of disabilities.

Alicia Talbot

Alicia's practice is based in contemporary performance and community cultural development, where she works as a deviser, performer and director. She is currently the Artistic Director of Urban Theatre Projects, which makes contemporary performance works in collaboration with communities in western Sydney. Previously, she was Creative Artsworker at High Street Youth Health Service for five years. Her most recent work at High St, Wild Knights, was devised with Earth Visual and Physical Inc in collaboration with the young men and staff of Cobham Juvenile Justice Centre. In 2000, Alicia directed The Cement Garage, (originally produced by High Street Youth Health Service in 1999) in collaboration with Urban Theatre Projects for a four week Western Sydney tour. The Cement Garage was described by The Sydney Morning Herald as 'Refreshingly honest, unpatronising and bullshit-free... Crackling energy and edgy humour... There is no easy refuge in simple didacticism.'

In 1999 she directed Paul Cordeiro's solo work Gaysia as part of the B-Sharp program at Belvoir St, and co-directed <subtopia> with John Baylis for Urban Theatre Projects. In 1998 Alicia co-directed The Ecstasy of Communication with Deborah Pollard for Salamanca Theatre Company, and in 1996 also co-directed Mapping Indigo, a series of site specific installations in rural Victoria.

As a performer, Alicia recently appeared in The Laramie Project for Company B, Belvoir St directed by Kate Gaul, and the Australian feature film Soft Fruit directed by Christina Andreef. In 2000, she received a residency from Performance Space to devise, write and perform, I Love You, a new solo work directed by John Baylis. She has also devised and performed a number of solo and ensemble works which have featured as part of short works programmes around Sydney at such venues as The Performance Space, Belvoir St, The Stables, Sidetrack and Bondi Pavilion. She is a Member of the Australia Council's New Media Arts Fund.

Jonathan Jones

Currently living in Bronte, Sydney Jonathan held the position of curator at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-optative Ltd in Annandale, between 2000 and 2002. His main area of interest is to break down the stereotypes and preconceived ideas of Aboriginality and to reverse the damage this ignorance is causing within Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, thus celebrating the diversity of Aboriginality. Jonathan now is working independently for various institutions including the Sydney Opera House and Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Paddington Sydney.

Jonathan is a practicing installation artist whose work has been exhibited throughout Australia. Receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales at the College of Fine Art in 1999 Jonathan has gone on to lecture at many of Sydney's Universities and runs collage courses in art. Jonathan is currently working on various exhibitions for 2002, nationally and internationally and is returning to university to futher his studies.

Recently Jonathon has been working with landscape architecture, Pittendrigh Shinkfield and Bruce on the on the Wilson Brothers Site project in Redfern. Jonathan has worked with the youth of the inner-city environment at PACT theatre in Enmore and has been exhibiting at Performance Space, Sydney, RMIT, Story Hall, Melbourne, Art Space, Wolloomloo, Sydney and Artbox Sherman Gallery, Paddington Sydney.

Jonathan was the Co-curator for a cultural exchange program in 2001 between Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-Operative and Urban Shaman Inc. in Winnipeg, Canada. Artists from both institutions visited their host country for a period of three weeks resulting in an exhibition tilted blanketed which discussed the relationship of the two Indigenous cultures. During this exchange Jonathan conducted a number of lectures and panel discussions within Canada.

Greg Mackie

Greg Mackie is a councillor for the City of Adelaide and Director of Imprints Booksellers in Hindley Street. Since 1984 Greg has played a leading role in the creation of the arts quarter in Adelaide's West End, and has worked closely with Council on every stage of the West End Strategy for urban renewal.

Notable amongst many activities is his membership of Adelaide Writers' Week Advisory Committee since 1992 (Chair from 1994-98). Greg is also the founder and Chair of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, has served on the executive of the Arts Industry Council from 1998-2001, is a past Board member of Feast and a past member of the Capital City Forum.

He is also a trustee of the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust and the Helpmann Academy Foundation. Greg is the Deputy Chair of the City Projects Committee of Council. He was recently awarded the Order of Australia Medal for his contribution to the Arts.

Heather Shearer

Heather Shearer is an recognised artist and has been involved in numerous aspects of the Australian Indigenous arts industry for 10 years. Her art is culturally appropriate to being an Arrernte woman, detailing her life experiences and interpretations of her inherent dreaming stories, as taught to her by her family elders.

Heather was awarded the NAIDOC Artist of the Year Award for Alice Springs in 1992 and in 1996 was appointed one of twelve Arts Ambassadors for the State of South Australia. She has been Chairperson of the Indigenous Arts Advisory Committee of Arts SA and has been active as a speaker, lecturer, panel member and advocate for Indigenous arts.

As a member of the National Artists Committee for the 2002 Adelaide Festival and Indigenous Arts Development Officer at Arts SA, Heather assisted in the development of the Maralinga Cultural Residency Project and advised on numerous program development initiaves for the 2002 Festival program.

Heather has strived to actively assist in the strengthening, development and implementation of culturally appropriate art networks and initiatives on a statewide, national and international basis. She is a strong advocate of copyright protection and strives to identify strong economic development opportunities to support the self-management and self-determination of our Cultural Arts Practices, to benefit the future of our People and Culture. She is currently employed as Arts Coordinator of Jukurrpa Artists, Alice Springs.

Vahid Vahed

Vahid Vahed was born in Tehran, Iran in 1959. He attended high school and later university in England during 1975-81. He studied civil engineering and communications, majoring in photography and film studies. He lived and worked as an editor and a photographer in Germany for 3 years before immigrating to Australia in 1984.

Vahid has worked as a journalist, lecturer, producer and video artist since he arrived and completed an Associate Diploma (Television and Sound), Bachelor of Fine Arts COFA (Sound, Performance and Installation) Master of Fine Arts COFA (Time Based Art). Vahid returned to Iran in 1994 after nearly 24 years to produce a documentary about the making of Mohsen Makhmalbaf's controversial feature film entitled 'Salam Cinema'.

Since 1998, he is employed by the NSW Ministry for the Arts as a Multicultural Community Arts Worker and is the Artistic Director and Founder of Auburn International Film and Video Festival for Children and Young Adults and CINEWEST multimedia.

Sam de Silva

Sam de Silva is a media producer who is involved in many social justice and activist projects. He is a member of Melbourne's Space Station media lab and helps out with The Paper. In March 2002 Sam is coordinating a conference "Borderlines ­ telling stories of our complex world," He is currently completing a Master of Art at RMIT, exploring issues of surveillance and technology.

Norm Horton

Norm Horton and Sarah Moynihan together are the coordinators of Feral Arts, a Brisbane based community cultural development group funded by the Australia Council (Community Cultural Development Board) and Arts Queensland. Over the last ten years Feral Arts has grown into one of the country's leading CCD organizations. It is recognised for its long-term approach, investigating obstacles to cultural development for marginal communities in South Brisbane and north west Queensland through visual arts, video and new media, and in the process and developing new models for CCD practice.

Feral Arts projects explore the significance of place and its relationship to cultural identity. They provide opportunities to document histories and compare experiences, investigating tensions between 'mainstream' and marginal cultures, and opening up opportunities for debate and collaboration.

Feral Arts' 2002-2004 program theme Community, Culture and Globalisation explores a number of new questions: What is globalisation? What are the myths and what are the realities? What are the threats and what are the opportunities? How is it impacting culturally? How does it relate to the development of new technologies? What are the impacts on the environment and notions of sustainable culture? How are regions and local communities responding and what roles can and should community cultural development play?

Feral Arts 2002-2004 program will encourage the arts and cultural sector to engage with globalisation and the opportunities and threats it poses. An on-line program will link artists and cultural workers with expertise in related disciplines, building capacities to respond to the impact of global development. Placeworks, a software development initiative, will explore the potential of emerging digital and on-line technologies in building community histories and providing new tools for community cultural development.

Mary Kalantzis

Mary Kalantzis is Dean of the Faculty of Education, Language and Community Services at RMIT University and President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education. She has been a part time Commissioner of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Chair of the Queensland Ethnic Affairs Ministerial Advisory Committee and a member of the Australia Council's Community Cultural Development Board. She is the author or co-author of a number of books, including: A Place in the Sun: Re-Creating the Australian Way of Life, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2000 and Productive Diversity, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1997. She is currently President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education and Vice President of the Community Broadcasting Foundation.

Bong Ramilo

Bong Ramilo is a community cultural development practitioner. He worked with communities as an organiser, songwriter, and theatre worker during the Marcos years in the Philippines. Since coming to Australia in 1986 he has worked in community arts and multicultural arts, particulalry in the area of popular theatre (cultural action). He was a member of the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council in 1992-94.

In May 2000, he commenced an investigation into "collaboration on the Internet and dialogical artmakin" with a grant from the New Media Arts Fund of the Australia Council. In October 2000, he commenced a two-year Fellowship awarded by the Community Cultural Development Fund of the Australia Council to explore "community cultural development in virtual environments, the democratisation of new technologies, and social enterprise as a model for sustainable community cultural development." Bong lives in Darwin.

Tahmeena Faryal

Tahmeena Faryal is a human rights activist who has represented RAWA [the Revolutionary Association of Women from Afghanistan] in many countries, including UK, Italy, Spain, Canada, and Thailand and in October to December of 2001, the United States. Born in Afghanistan in 1978, Ms. Faryal's primary education was obtained in Kabul, and after her parents became political refugees continued until her graduation in 1996 at a RAWA school in Pakistan.

Tahmeena is a member of the RAWA foreign affairs and publications committees. She has played a major role in bringing international attention to the human rights violations which plague her country's women and children, ethnic minorities, and refugees, and in 2001 gave acclaimed addresses to the Congress of the United States, the United Nations General Assembly, and the New York-based collective of Non-Government Organizations working within the UN for the Equal Rights of Women and the larger role for women in peace and reconciliation processes.

Dr Tanya Lyons

Dr Tanya Lyons is a Lecturer in the Globalisation Program and the School of Politics and International Studies at Flinders University, Adelaide. She teaches on the multi-dimensional aspects of globalisation as they encroach on our daily lives, from drinking cappuccinos to wearing brand names. Her recent research has been on the anti-globalisation movements and the significance of September 11th. Her research and work has also taken her to Zimbabwe and South Africa where she has interviewed women ex-combatants on their experiences in national liberation struggles; and to Indonesia where she has worked as a gender and development consultant. Dr. Lyons grew up in Adelaide but lives in the global village.

Yustoni Volunteero and Hestu Ardiyanto (Taring Padi)

Taring Padi is a diverse and multi-skilled group of artists and cultural activists who have lived and worked collectively in Central Java since the fall of Suharto's military regime in 1998. They were instrumental in organising some of the radical cultural protest and performance that animated the student movement of 1998, and continue to push democracy and social justice education amongst urban and rural Javanese. Their projects include since December 98 producing and publishing a monthly interactive magazine Terompet Rakyat (The People's Trumpet), producing, printing and distributing 10,000 woodcut posters March - June 99 as a commentary regarding various ethnic and religious conflicts leading up to the general elections in June 99, produced giant wayang puppets 'Anti-militarisme (Against Militarism) for the closing street parade for the Yogyakarta Festival of Art, July 99 and numerous large scale banner paintings including 'Pengungsi 1' and 'Pengungsi 11' (Refugees 1 and Refugees 2) presented at 'A Night in Solidarity with the Acehnese Refugees', Jakarta, 99. Apart from his work with Taring Padi, Hestu Ardyanto has been exhibiting his graphic art work in Indonesia and internationally since 1992, including group exhibitions such as 'Green Art' at the British Council in Surabaya (1997), '50'th Anniversary of Human Rights Day', at the Benteng Vredeburg Museum in Yogyakarta (1998) and 'Post-card' at NGO-KOKO in Tokyo (1999). Yustoni Volunteero is a visual and performance artist and has been showing his work since 1992 including more recently a number of solo exhibitions and performances notably 'The Peasant Revolution', painting, installation and performance at Cemeti Contemporary Art Gallery, Yogyakarta, 1998 and 'Mencari Orang-Orang yang Hilang' (Looking for Missing Peoples), installation and performance at Makassar Arts Forum, Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi, 1999. (Taring Padi - visual and performing arts collective)

Malcolm McKinnon

Malcolm McKinnon is an artist and filmmaker working mainly in rural communities. Over the past 15 years, his work has encompassed oral history projects, urban planning initiatives, public and community art projects and exhibitions. His current practice is mainly focussed around documentary filmmaking. Recent projects include a film about workers on the Trans-Australian Railway and a film about the Australian South Sea Islander community in Mackay (Qld). Malcolm has recently been awarded an Australia Council Fellowship to undertake a two year program of work with small regional museums in Victoria and South Australia, developing films and multi-media installations.

In 2001, Malcolm was commissioned to produce a multi-media work called "Talking Country" for the 2002 Adelaide Festival. After six months of developmental work involving almost a hundred people this project was unceremoniously dumped from the program due to unforeseen Festival budget strictures.

Sue Nattrass

Sue joined the Adelaide Festival in August 2001 as part time Chief Executive Officer, and began her role as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival 2002 in November 2001. She has been working in the arts for forty years in capacities as varied as stage manager, company manager, lighting designer, director and artistic director. Sue worked at the Victorian Arts Centre from 1983 and appointed General Manager in 1989. In 1996 she was appointed Artistic Director of the groundbreaking 1998 and 1999 Melbourne Festivals.

Katrina Sedgwick

Katrina Sedgwick brings to her role as Artistic Director of Adelaide Fringe 2002 an extensive background as a performer, arts manager, producer and festival director. She was a core member Etcetera Theatre Company (1986-1994) and was a freelance actor performing in theatre, television, opera and film from 1978 - 1995. Since that time Katrina has worked in arts festivals, including co-founding and co-directing the inaugural Sydney Fringe Festival [1995], and was the Associate Producer of Red Square [1996 Adelaide Festival], the Artistic Director for Come Out '99 and the Special Events Producer for the 1998 and 2000 Adelaide Festivals [including the Regional Program, Flamma Flamma, Squeezebox]. She is a board member of the Art Gallery of SA and a member of the Capital City Forum.

Peter Sellars

Peter Sellars was the Artistic Director of the 2002 Adelaide Festival until October 2001. He is a director of opera, theatre and film, is renowned worldwide for his innovative treatments of classical material from western and non-western traditions, and for his commitment to exploring the role of the performing arts in contemporary society. He has served as artistic director of the Los Angeles Festival (1988-1996), the American National Theatre at the Kennedy Center, the Boston Shakespeare Company and the Elitch Theatre for Children in Denver. Sellars has won numerous honours, including a MacArthur Fellowship and an Emmy Award. His past teaching positions include a visiting professorship at the Center for Theatre Arts at UC Berkeley. B.A., Harvard University.

Recent activities have included a production of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande at the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, a production of Shakespeare's racially, religiously, and economically charged The Merchant of Venice, which played to sold-out houses in Chicago (The Goodman Theater), London (at the invitation of the Royal Shakespeare Company), Hamburg, and Paris, and which was the basis for a companion film that he made for the BBC entitled It Is Now Our Time, and a new collaboration with composer John Adams and poet/librettist June Jordan, an "earthquake/romance" entitled I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I saw the Sky.

Waita and Karl Telfer

Waita is Kuarna Narrunga woman from the Adelaide area. Her aim is to embrace and live in her Aboriginal culture in the present time, forming a strong and living link between the generations, and between the old times and the now. At a young age she participated in the Black Women in Focus festival in 1986, helping to develop the landmark production of Tjindarella. Waiata attended the NAISDA school in Sydney, exploring traditional Indigenous dance in the Kimberleys, Mornington Island and T.S.I. In 1992 Waita graduated and joined the Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre, with whom she toured to Germany and Japan. In 1993 she changed direction and began studying Communications and film at the University of Technology in Sydney, before joining SBS in the production department, working on Eat Carpet and ICAM. In 1999 Waiata moved back to Adelaide to concentrate on performing once again, developing her music to include hip hop and rap. Waiata worked on the Hyper project with PYTW (Port Youth Theatre Workshop), helping to develop music for the performance, and she has been involved in a series of workshops with Nunga youth focussing on sexual health and social issues and relating these to performance skills.

Karl is a Kuarna Narrunga man born in Adelaide. He has been involved in traditional Indigenous culture all his life. Karl was mentored by the traditional Bapu Dance group in Canberra in the late 80s, and was inspired by an elder from the Gulf of Carpenteria to continue in his work with Indigenous culture. He has been working for the last 4 years with the Tracking project ­ an international project bringing indigenous knowledge and views about culture, including learning from the natural environment, into a central forum for discussion. Karl is the founder of the Paitya Dance Group in Adelaide, which entwines Kuarna knowledge and culture with present experience, including work with Kuarna language, stories and song. Karl Telfer believes it is important for Nunga people to be strong and stay strong in their culture, and for especially for Aboriginal youth to understand and identify with their culture.

Lynette Wallworth

An Associate Director of the 2002 Adelaide Festival, Lynette has worked in photography, short film, installation and performance. A New Media Arts grant enabled her to develop a partnership to investigate visual technologies including Scanning microscopy at James Cook University, astronomical photography at the Anglo Australian Observatory and underwater macro filming techniques utilising medical imaging technologies. Lynette Wallworth was the head curator and responsible for the project concept of Big New Sites produced by The Performance Space in Sydney. Big New Sites placed visual and sound artists works on cinema screens throughout Australia over a twelve month period. Her short film for SBS Eat Carpet, Still Moving Project , 'Nocturne 1' looked at light pollution and the loss of darkness. Currently Lynette is developing video installation for Cinemedia, Federation Square on catchments of imagery derived from the natural world.

Terry Cutler

Terry Cutler is Chairman of the Australia Council, having previously chaired its New Media Arts Board. He has previously served as a director of Cinemedia, Opera Australia and the Council of the Victorian College of the Arts. Terry Cutler has served on numerous Government Boards and advisory bodies, taking a special interest in Government's role in the new global Information Economy.

Steven Richardson

Steven has a broad experience in the arts spanning twenty years. While completing a Fine Arts degree, majoring in printmaking, he first heard the term conceptual art and became aware of the work of Joseph Beuys. While still at art school he commenced classical and contemporary dance training with Margaret Lasica (contemporary), and former Boravansky principal Martin Rubenstein (classical).

After time at Victorian College of the Arts school of dance Steven worked professionally as a dancer with Dance Works and Dance Exchange in the early 1980s. After seeing a performance of Circus Oz in the mid 1980s and witnessing the audience reaction he was forever changed. The egalitarian nature and collective political structure of the Australian contemporary circus movement beckoned and he began a satisfying foray into acrobatic and circus skills training and an unsatisfactory personal struggle with the trumpet and western music in 1984. He toured locally and internationally with Circus Oz from 1987 to 1991.

Since that time Steven has worked in programming at the Victorian Arts Centre (91-95), as Director of Contemporary Music Events (95-97), worked in the corporate sector, produced local work for most of the major Australian festivals and as Artistic Director of Big West (98-00) a new arts and community cultural venture for the western suburbs of Melbourne.

Steven joined Next Wave Festival late in 2000 as Executive producer and CEO. He is passionate about sharing the transformative power of art to the widest possible audience.