Board

Clothilde Bullen is the Lead, Cultural Strategy and Development at Edith Cowan University and is a Wardandi (Nyoongar) and Badimaya (Yamatji) Aboriginal woman. She was previously the Curator and Head of Indigenous Programs at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collections and Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and prior to that, the Curator of Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia for over a decade. Most recently, she co-curated the award-winning John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new, and The National: New Australian Art, and Richard Bell: You Can Go Now for the MCA in 2021. 

Clothilde is on the international selection panel for the British Council’s Intersect program and is a current Board member for the Australian charter of the International Association for Art Critics. She is also a Museums and Histories Board member for Create NSW and is an Alumni member of the British Council Accelerate Scholarship for Indigenous Leadership in the Arts. Clothilde’s advocacy continues with her position as co-Chair of Indigenous Voices, a program supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mentors and emerging writers in collaboration with Art Monthly Australasia and the Power Institute at Sydney University. 

Dr Ryan Presley was born in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, and currently lives and works in Meanjin/Brisbane. His father’s family is Marri Ngarr and originates from the Moyle River region in the Northern Territory. His mother’s family were Scandinavian immigrants to Australia. 

A full-time artist, Ryan’s practice wrestles with themes of power and dominion—in particular, how religion and economic control served colonialism and empire building over time, and the representation of its customs and edifices in our everyday lives.

His recent major solo exhibition, Fresh Hell, was co-commissioned by Adelaide Contemporary Experimental and Gertrude Contemporary in 2022. His work is held in public collections, which include the Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. Ryan is represented by Milani Gallery and completed a PhD through Griffith University in 2016.

Kate Just is an American/Australian artist and academic of Polish, Irish, Scottish, German descent who lives and works on Dja Dja Wurrung country in Victoria. She has spent over twenty years hand knitting sculptural, pictorial and text based works that address significant social issues including feminism and feminist art, LGBTQIA+ rights, gender and sexual violence, racism, healthcare and community care, war and reproductive rights. Through her solo practice, and community engaged public projects Just uses knitting’s soft materiality to evoke associations with women’s work and domestic labour. Her work creates space for viewers to closely reflect on their own relationship to art, feminism, and social justice.

Just was born in Hartford, CT in 1974 and migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1994. Just holds a PhD in Sculpture from Monash University, a Master of Arts from RMIT University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Victorian College of the Arts where she is a Senior Lecturer in the Master of Contemporary Art program.

Jamie Lewis (Vic) is a Singaporean-Australian artist, curator, dramaturg and facilitator. She creates and curates site-responsive performances that engage audiences as participants, and communities as artists; often through autobiographical stories, conversation and food.

She is currently also on the Board of VicHealth and has previously been CEO / Executive Director at Next Wave, Program Manager at Theatre Network Australia (TNA), on the Board of Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV), and was in the 2018 cohort of Creative Australia’s Future Leaders program.

Michelle Vine is an artist, educator, and researcher whose practice explores sensory experience, disability, and wellbeing. Recent career highlights include her solo show ‘Soft Touch’ at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery; curation into 'Drawn Thread: 50 years of Feminism and Fibre' at Artisan Brisbane; Hatched 2020 at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art; and Touch and Tactility in Art, Kemper Art Museum, St Louis, USA.

Michelle graduated from Queensland College of Art (QCA), Brisbane in 2019 with a Bachelor of Fine Art (First Class Honours) and the University Medal for Fine Art. As an academic she has taught across Fine Art, Photography and Design at the QCA. Currently she works for Griffith University’s Indigenous Research Unit as a Research Support Officer.

Living in Meanjin (Brisbane), Michelle has actively practiced as an artist for over a decade; prior to that she held senior management positions in the financial services and technology sectors. She brings to the NAVA board a combination of business and governance skills, now applied to her thriving arts practice, along with lived experience of disability which informs her artworks and her advocacy for disability inclusion.

Sophia Cai 蔡晨昕 is a curator and writer based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. She is the current Artistic Director of Bus Projects, one of Australia’s longest running artist-run organisations, while maintaining an independent curating and writing practice. From 2020 to 2023, she taught as a lecturer at the Victorian College of Arts, University of Melbourne and Monash Art Design & Architecture, Monash University.
Sophia’s research interests include Asian art histories, the intersections between contemporary art and craft, and feminist curatorial methodologies and community-building as forms of political resistance. Since 2020, Sophia has been researching the connection between fandom and curating as dual practices rooted in care.

Janice Falsone is the Director at Canberra Contemporary Art Space and brings to the role a deep passion for contemporary visual art along with extensive experience managing arts organisations. Janice is a values driven and entrepreneurial leader who has served in a range of curatorial and arts management roles in Kamberri/Canberra and Meanjin/Brisbane, including at PhotoAccess (Director, Manuka Arts Centre Manger), ANCA (Gallery Manager), M16 Artspace, and advocacy organisation Queensland Artworkers Alliance. Janice also has experience and best practice understanding of private sector support for the arts, having worked at the Australia Business Arts Foundation (Creative Partnerships Australia), and as National Partnerships Officer at the Australian Institute of Architects. Janice holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from Griffith University Queensland College of Art. Recently, she completed the Australian Institute of Company Director’s Foundations of Directorship course and is currently participating in Creative Australia’s SEC Newgate Mentoring and Stakeholder Engagement leadership program.

Liz Nowell is a curator and cultural leader whose practice is informed by collaboration, relationality, and care ethics. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of Arts Project Australia, an internationally renowned visual arts organisation that supports artists with intellectual disabilities and champions their inclusion in contemporary art practice.

Across her two-decade career, which spans both Australian and international contemporary art, Liz has led preeminent public galleries including the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE), and the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA).

Sophia Nampitjimpa Sambono is a Jingili woman with family connections from Elliot/Newcastle Waters to Darwin, Daly River and the Tiwi Islands. She is the Associate Curator, Indigenous Australia Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) where she is working on a number of exhibitions opening in 2024, including the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial. Prior to QAGOMA Sophia curated exhibitions for kuril dhagun at the State Library of Queensland and as Curator of Indigenous Collections at the National Film and Sound Archive.

Now retired, Brian Tucker CPA dedicated forty years to his career as an arts accountant, specialising in auditing arts organisations and Indigenous art centres across Australia for the last two decades. Leveraging this extensive experience, he has been a staunch advocate for the arts and artists. Currently, Tucker serves as Treasurer for seven organisations and chairs another. He has held similar roles in over twenty organisations, ranging from the Queensland Poets Society to the considerably larger Queensland Performing Arts Trust.