Cause & Effect: Arts & Social Cause Forum

Grace is a versatile artist whose work involves researching, creating and facilitating across the fields of theatre, music and the arts. She has a passion for working at the intersection of performing arts and social justice so is working to forge a career in the Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD)/Applied Theatre field, fusing community engagement and contemporary art practice. She has studied in the US, London & Sydney, and both taught and performed with ATYP, Milk Crate Theatre, Shopfront Youth Arts and PYT Fairfield. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Antidote - an online / exhibition network that champions social justice based art, and is currently the State leader of the Amnesty ARTillery Action group – dedicated to artistic excellence and human rights.

Jiva is a director, creative producer and arts/cultural worker based in Sydney, Australia and working internationally with theatre, dance, performance, film and interdisciplinary art. His work has been seen in the UK at Tate Modern, ICA — Institute of Contemporary Arts, Saddlers Wells, National Review of Live Arts, IETM — Paris and Dublin, Bone Festival, Claendestino Festival Sweden, and various festivals in Norway, Netherlands and South Africa. Jiva currently works as an arts and cultural worker at STARTTS in Sydney, initiating, developing and presenting arts and cultural activities with refugees in their own community settings, in partnership with Australian cultural institutions.

Lena is Executive Director of Diversity Arts Australia with 20 years of experience in arts/cultural organisations. She has managed screen and digital initiatives that have engaged thousands of women, refugees, migrants and youth across Parramatta and Western Sydney. Formerly ED of Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE), she worked for over a decade establishing projects like Switch Digital Arts Centre and the Arab Film Festival.

Awarded Asialink Arts Fellowship, NSW Government Arts Advisory Committee participant (2002-2008), Australia 2020 Summit finalist, CEO of the Year Awards and Sydney's 100 Creative Catalysts at inaugural Vivid. From 2015 to 2016, she was the Social History and Exhibitions curator, Fairfield City Museum and Gallery.

Mia is the Regional Coordinator (Sydney Region) with the Participation and Inclusion Directorate of the Department of Family & Community Services (FACS). She is a community development and community engagement specialist working with a diverse range of community, government and business stakeholders across metropolitan Sydney. Mia is the co-chair of the Western Sydney Collective, an innovative network that connects people & projects for the purpose of social good and an active supporter of Good Pitch Australia, a social impact documentary initiative. Mia has worked in the public sector for almost 20 years, including more than a decade with the Department of Justice and Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Miriam established MLC Powerhouse Design Studio in 1993 and launched MLC Gallery in 2004. Her art and artistic practice are emblematic of cross-cultural understanding and respect for human rights. Cabello’s oil paintings emerge from these themes and are exquisitely realised in her iconic bodies of work: White Rope, The Pugilist Passion and The first 911-The Chilean Military Coup. Recently, Miriam won the EOI to launch her new studio/gallery at 5 Eliza, Newtown. The inaugural exhibition, ‘Layering Black’ examines the #BlackLivesMatter protests in the USA and will coincide with ‘Cause & Effect’, part of Vivid Ideas. Cabello has been acknowledged nationally and internationally with over 25 awards for her contribution to art, education, and cross-cultural engagement. 

www.mlcdesign.com.au

Paula is a CACD practitioner, writer and educator. She has worked with diverse communities in capacity building projects for 28 years. She teaches community and cultural development at Ultimo TAFE. Her work includes Writer/Director of The Cartographer’s Curse (2016), Parenting Stories (2010), Hurriya and her Sisters (2009), The Book of African Australian Stories (2006), Poetry on Rooftops (2006), The Book of the Living (2006) and Bread and Other Stories (2002). Paula was the 2013 recipient of the Australia Council’s Ros Bower Award for lifetime achievement in community cultural development practice. Paula was also a directorate for National Theatre of Parramatta from 2015 to 2016. Paula works on creative projects with small and emerging community groups and community organisations.

Priscilla is the founder and Managing Director of All Together Now, Australia’s racial equity organisation. All Together Now produces creative projects that educate people about racism and compel people to take action. While working as a campaigner for an Indigenous rights organisation, Priscilla realised that although there were occasional anti-racism campaigns in Australia, nobody appeared to be doing this work consistently. She felt particularly dismayed about the way asylum seekers and Aboriginal people have been treated in Australia, and wanted to help improve the situation by applying evidence-based best practice.  Priscilla was awarded a Churchill Fellowship that enabled her to visit, investigate and learn from antiracism NGOs in Europe and North America during 2014. Priscilla has over a decade of experience managing social marketing and social change projects.

Sunil is a writer, performer and broadcaster. He has an MA (Distinction) in Creative and Life Writing (Goldsmiths, University of London) and a Doctorate of Creative Arts (UTS). He has written for publications including the Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend, The Australian, The Monthly, Australian Literary Review, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Island and Meanjin. He has appeared on stage at the Sydney and Melbourne Writers Festivals and the Belvoir Street and Griffin Theatres. He presented the national ABC Local radio show Sunday Takeaway, and continues to appear regularly on ABC Local, Double J, Radio National and Fairfax Radio. He is currently re-writing his first novel.