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HOT LINKS

Forthcoming events: Networking the Diaspora and Homelessness and Cultural Democracy
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Making the Case for Culture: Creative City Network of Canada
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Poems about Community Spaces
& other papers from Connecting Schools & Communities conferences, June 2008
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Meet, Meld, Merge Art Bringing a Community Together:
the Toil Art Project, in Yea, N.E. Victoria
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Home Lands: Internet TV program which connects young refugees to their home lands
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The Agenda 21 for Culture is the first document with worldwide mission that advocates establishing the groundwork of an undertaking by cities and local governments for cultural development.
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Who we are

Our membership is very diverse; it includes local government councillors, workers and managers from arts and culture, community and social planning areas, State government employees, artists and artsworkers, arts managers, students, researchers, and workers and managers from community, health, welfare, education and church agencies. Our members can be found in every area of cultural action. They mostly live in Victoria and are based all over the state; in the city, metropolitan, regional and rural areas. The fact that you’re looking at our website might mean that you are interested in our work and that we’d welcome you as a member.

Board Members

Sue Beal, Chair (appointed May 2000) is the Manager of Cultural Venues with the City of Melbourne and is responsible for the Arts House program, North Melbourne Town Hall and the newly developed Meat Market. Sue has a long and distinguished record in the arts and local government sectors. She has been a national organiser for Actors Equity; member of the Australia Council’s Theatre Board; Australian representative for Cirque Du Soleil and General Manager of Sidetrack Theatre. She has Chaired our Board (originally an informal Committee) since its inception.
Contact Sue

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Paul Holton, Treasurer, (appointed May 2000)
Paul is Manager, Arts and Leisure for Latrobe City Council. His role encompasses overall management of Latrobe City’s cultural facilities and programs. He has worked in arts administration and cultural development for fifteen years and was part of the team that initiated the highly successful Wangaratta Festival of Jazz. Paul is a former member of the Australia Council’s Community Cultural Development Board. Contact Paul

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Angela Bailey, Deputy Chair, (appointed May 2006)
Angela is a photographic artist with diverse experience in community-based work, including projects with housing estate tenants, textile workers, older adults, young people, asylum seekers and women prisoners. Her current and recent activities include Artist in Residency at Carlton Public Housing Estate, City of Melbourne, Photographic Coordinator Feltex Workers Exhibition - Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, Curator of Legends, Places and Faces exhibition at the Incinerator Arts Complex, Moonee Ponds to coincide with the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Angela has lectured and tutored in Photography at Monash University, Gippsland and Melbourne University, and has work in collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery and State Library of Victoria. Her qualifications include Post-Grad Dip Fine Art-Photography, VCA, Assoc Dip Photography, Queensland College of Art, Bach Communication, QUT, Creative Arts Programming and Events Management,Arts Access. In 2005, Angela received an Australia Council CCD Skills and Professional Development award for to travel to the United Kingdom. In addition to her role on the CDN Board, Angela is also a Life Member of Midsumma Festival Board and Brisbane Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival.
Contact Angela

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Helen Baker, Secretary (appointed May 2007)
Helen has worked in local government for nearly ten years in a variety of roles within arts and cultural services. These have included logistical support for festivals and events, managing arts grants programs, art and heritage collection management, public art development and the facilitation of community arts projects. A stint in London included work in a research centre at the Royal College of Art and the award winning social history museum, Hackney Museum in the east end. Helen is passionate about facilitating art in every day places and about encouraging cross-organisational approaches to cultural development. She is currently Manager of Cultural and Library Services at the City of Yarra and the branch includes Arts and Cultural Services, Yarra Libraries and Civic Facilities.
Contact Helen

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Hanut Singh Dodd, (appointed May 2006)
Hanut is a highly experienced cultural, heritage and tourism manager with skills in specialised areas such as museum management, cultural and environmental tourism, event management, exhibition development, public program management, architectural conservation, moveable cultural heritage and collection management. Hanut has more than ten years experience working as a freelance curator and architectural conservator and has also worked for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service as Area Manager at the Hill End Historic Site, a number of Local Government authorities and as the Director of the National Wool Museum. Hanut is currently working at the City of Port Phillip as the Coordinator, Arts and Festivals.
Contact Hanut

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Dr Nicholas Hill (appointed December 2007)
Nick Hill is Lecturer, Arts Management and Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne. His qualifications include BA (Hons); PG DipM and MA. He has recently completed his PhD at South Bank University, England, on - "The Folk and the People: Patronage and Promotion in the Tamasha of Maharashtra". Previously he worked at South Bank University as Senior Lecturer in Arts Marketing and Course Director (Services Management programme). His research interests include Arts & Patronage, South Asian Performing Arts (Folk - Popular - Traditional), Performing Arts Hybrids, Arts Marketing and Communications, Instrumental and Intrinsic Arts Benefits, Arts Ethnography, The lived experience and prism methodology.
Contact Nicholas

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Fiona Strahan (appointed February 2008)

Disability activist, researcher, speaker and author Fiona Strahan joined the CDN board in February 2008. Fiona’s personal experience of disablement, frequent consulting for disability advocacy and women's projects,and over 20 years’ involvement in disability rights in Australia and overseas, combined with extensive speaking and publication credits, makes her a valuable addition to the board.

Fiona trained in Welfare Work and Community Development with an emphasis on sociology and politics, currently works at Hepburn Health Centre, and is project manger for the highly successful ‘Snakes and Ladder- a game of inclusion and exclusion’ community art project. Fionas work on violence against women with disabilities for WWDA won the National Violence Prevention Award 1999 and was nominated for the UN Millennium Peace Prize for Women 2000. This work contributed to WWDA winning the  National Human Rights Award December 2001and being nominated for the French Republic's Human Rights Prize 2003.
Fiona’s publications include;
Doing It For Ourselves – a guide to women’s health and wellbeing services (1997)
Woorarra Women’s Refuge DDA Action Plan (1997)
More Than Just a Ramp – A Guide for Women’s Refuges to Develop Disability Discrimination Act Action Plans (1997) Encounters with the Media: Seeking a New Aesthetic in Australia (2001)
Narratives, Disability and Community Building (2004)
Transforming Disability: Community Inclusion, Employment and Innovative Reform (2006)
Young People, Disability and Identity (2007)

Fiona is also a published non-fiction writer, and her fiction work has been performed at Words in Winter festivals in Daylesford.
Contact Fiona

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CDN Board 2007 with staff John Smithies and Kim Dunphy

Staff

John Smithies, Director, (appointed December 2005)

John has studied and worked extensively in the field of cinema programming, new media arts exhibitions, and screen education. He studied at the Tasmanian School of Art, the South Australian School of Art, Monash University and the Academy of Fine Art Karlsruhe, Germany. From 1992, John was Director of the State Film Centre of Victoria until its merger with Film Victoria in 1997 to form Cinemedia. At Cinemedia, John was Deputy Director, with prime responsibility for developing the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). John was Chief Executive Officer of Cinemedia in 2000, and became the first CEO for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in March 2002. He was responsible for opening the new public facilities at Federation Square in Melbourne in October 2002. John resigned from ACMI in April 2004, taking on shorter term management and consulting roles. In addition to his role as Director of CDN, John still works on new and innovative technology based projects, writes a regular column in ‘Arts Hub’ and is returning to development of his own arts practice. Contact John

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Kim Dunphy, Manager
Kim joined the Cultural Development Network as Manager in late 2004, bringing experience in cultural development in local government with the Cities of Hobsons Bay and Melbourne. Kim's long standing interest in the contribution of arts to community life has been played out in diverse roles including those of community artist and educator in primary, secondary, tertiary and community sectors. Kim's Masters thesis investigated the role of community cultural groups for Maori migrants in Melbourne and her work in the area of movement and dance for people with intellectual disabilities was distilled into the book Freedom to Move (McLennan and Petty, 2003). Kim has been a dance critic for The Age and managed community centres in Hampton and Altona North. She is Past-President of Ausdance Victoria, a Board member of the Arts Management Advisory Group and Vice-President of the Dance Therapy Association of Australia and was recently a panel member for Arts Victoria's 'Arts Creation' category. She is also Director of Kita Performing Arts Company where she works with Asian artists to share their cultural traditions with Australian audiences. Contact Kim

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Andrea Harper joined the Cultural Development Network in November 2007 originally as a fieldwork placement for her Masters in Arts Management studies, moving to an administrator role in April 2008. Andrea has a back ground in Art History, and is interested in cultural policy, the creative industries, and community cultural development. She has previously worked as the Organisation Subscriptions Manager for Arts Hub, and has volunteered for numerous arts and cultural organisations in Melbourne, Queensland and New Zealand.
Contact Andrea

CDN Support Team

CDN Staff and our support team -
Lu Sexton (e-bulletin), Kitka Hiltula, (website) and Kim Dunphy (Manager),
John Smithies (Director), Alan Reddick (IT) and Meredith Windust (finances).