Board

Rebecca Ray is a Meriam woman descended from the Torres Strait Islands and is an experienced curator, writer, and cultural heritage researcher with deep experience across regional, national, and institutional arts contexts. Based on Gadigal Country, she currently serves as Curator, First Nations Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (MCA), where she leads curatorial and research practices that prioritise re-Indigenisation, rematriation, and the reclamation of autonomous and sovereign cultural spaces. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (History and Sociology) from Griffith University, with a research background grounded in decolonisation, identity politics, and intersectionality developed through her early academic work with the Indigenous Higher Research Unit and the Kombumerri Archives Project. Rebecca brings a wealth of curatorial and policy experience having held Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-identified positions at major institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, Australia, Home of the Arts (HOTA), and Griffith University, Queensland.

In addition to her curatorial practice, Rebecca’s critical arts writing and public discourse further reflect her role as a leading thinker in contemporary First Nations art and cultural advocacy. She has served as guest judge for the 2024 Koori Mail Indigenous Art Award and is a forthcoming guest judge for the 2025 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF). She also brings governance and policy experience through her former role on the M16 Artspace Board in Canberra and as an Arts Assessor for Regional Arts Development Funding bodies. Rebecca is also an alumna of the Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership Program, a nationally respected initiative in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia that supports First Nations cultural leaders.

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.

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.

Sophia Cai 蔡晨昕 is a curator and writer based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. She was the Artistic Director of Bus Projects in 2024, 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 Gallery Director at the South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA), and brings to the role a deep passion for contemporary visual art along with extensive experience managing galleries and 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 most recently as Director at Canberra Contemporary, Kamberri/Canberra’s leading contemporary visual arts organisation, as well as PhotoAccess (Director), Australian National Capital Artists (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, 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 the Creative Australia SEC Newgate Mentoring and Stakeholder Engagement leadership program.

Imogen Beynon is currently Senior National Industrial Officer at the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and a PhD candidate at RMIT University. Her professional experience includes senior leadership positions in government and member-based organisations, with key responsibilities across industrial law, strategic leadership, regulation and policy.

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 has worked on a number of exhibitions that opened 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 eleven organisations and a Chair of one. He has held similar roles in over twenty organisations, ranging from the Queensland Poets Society to the considerably larger Queensland Performing Arts Trust.