At the Annual General Meeting held on 16 May 2024, there were nine nominations received for eight positions on the Executive Committee. After a close election, AICSA is very pleased to welcome Julian Hobba, Tully Barnett, Nick Hays, Pepper Mickan, Caitlin Ellen More and Satu Teppo as a new Executive Committee members and Emma Webb OAM and Jo O’Callaghan returned for a further two year term.
AICSA also said farewell to outgoing committee members Jessica Alice, Becci Love, Eleanor Scicchitano and Dr Sam Whiting, with Sarah Brady resigning at the June Committee meeting. AICSA thanks them for their extraordinary work with AICSA and we wish them well in future endeavours.
AICSA Executive Committee 2024-2025
CO-CHAIRS
- Emma Webb OAM
- Jo O’Callaghan
- Ruth Weldon
- Julian Hobba
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
- Dr Tully Barnett
- Nick Hays
- Pepper Mickan
- Caitlin Ellen Moore
- Satu Teppo
Emma Webb OAM, AICSA Co-Chair
Emma Webb OAM is a curator, creative producer, and activist. She was the Artistic Director at multidisciplinary arts organisation Vitalstatistix, based in Port Adelaide at the Waterside Workers Hall, from 2010 to 2024. Some of her focuses have included curating a five-year climate change program called Climate Century; annual national arts lab, Adhocracy; championing feminist, queer and First Nations artists and their work; and curating a multi-year commissioning project about art, labour, and the future of work, called Bodies of Work. Emma is active in cultural policy advocacy work as a long-term member of the Executive Committee of the Arts Industry Council of South Australia, a collaborator in the Reset Arts and Culture Collective, and currently the South Australia Government’s Artists at work Taskforce. She is actively involved in local social, heritage and environmental politics in her home community, the proud union city of Port Adelaide, Yartapuulti.
Ruth Weldon, AICSA Co-Chair
Ruth Weldon (she/her) is a highly skilled and experienced arts administrator and producer, living and working on Kaurna land. Ruth is Project Manager – Education, Regional & Special Events at State Opera of South Australia. Ruth has almost 20 years' experience in the arts, working primarily on festivals, youth arts and arts education. She has recently completed an MFA (Cultural Leadership) at NIDA and is a freelance audio describer working with Access2Arts. From her beginnings travelling the world working on festivals, she has had a range of experiences across ticketing, administration, marketing, programming, and producing. Ruth is immensely passionate about making arts accessible for all and helping to foster the next generation of arts workers and makers.
Dr Tully Barnett
Dr Tully Barnett is Associate Professor in Creative Industries at Flinders University and Director of Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts. Her research focuses on cultural policy and evaluation in the arts and culture sector. She is a Chief Investigator on the Linkage project Laboratory Adelaide: The Value of Culture, which considers the problem of how value is understood, assessed, and reported in the arts and culture sector. An outcome of that project is the co-authored book What Matters? Talking Value in Australian Culture (2018) with Julian Meyrick and Robert Phiddian. Recently her research has begun to consider the way heterodox economic ideas might serve as useful models for public value in the arts such as doughnut economics and foundational economy approaches. She is a founding member of Reset Arts and Culture group research and advocating for progressive cultural policy outcomes locally, nationally and internationally.
Pepper Mickan
Pepper lives and works in regional South Australia and has a passion for supporting communities through libraries and community development. She has extensive experience in the local government sector, working in the library and community development sectors for 20+ years. Pepper currently holds the representative position of President of Public Libraries of South Australia Association and in 2023 completed the Governor’s Leadership Foundation program. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing/winning at board and card games, reading, and supporting the Port Adelaide Football Club.
Satu Teppo
Satu Teppo is a PhD Candidate at the University of South Australia with research interests in new and emerging cultural policy practices, politics of cultural policy and organisational models within the arts and cultural field. Prior to commencing her doctoral studies, Satu worked in leadership roles in Europe, Asia and Australia across private, not-for-profit and public sectors. She has extensive experience in working in the arts and cultural field and has held senior positions in the arts and screen sectors within the South Australian public sector and worked as a Ministerial Arts Adviser to the South Australian Government. She holds a BA (Hons) in History of Art from the University of Nottingham and an MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management from University College Dublin.
Jo O'Callaghan, AICSA Co-Chair
Starting her career as an independent artist performing, directing or producing productions featuring on the Fringe circuit she soon moved into project and business management in the not-for-profit Arts sector. For 20 years she has positioned herself in festivals and major events and is dedicated to creating inclusive community experiences. Leading operational and creative teams in some of Australia’s biggest arts festivals - including Associate Producer at Melbourne Fringe, Venues Manager at Melbourne International Film Festival, Festival Director Short + Sweet Melbourne, and Operations Manager at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, she brings a wealth of knowledge from a festival and major events environment and is dedicated to creative practices ensuring artists have an independent voice, and a platform to present it.
Julian Hobba, AICSA Treasurer
Julian is currently Executive Director at State Theatre Company South Australia, a position he commenced in May 2020. Previously, Julian has been Executive Director of The Blue Room Theatre in Perth, overseeing a prolific level of independent shows and professional and sector development outcomes with Western Australian theatre makers. Prior to that, Julian was Program Manager: Arts and Culture for the Centenary of Canberra – a year-long city-of-culture style festival under the creative directorship of Robyn Archer AO. There he managed commissions of new works of live performance and visual arts, including Patricia Piccinini's Skywhale, as well as a suite of community arts projects reaching broadly across and beyond the ACT. Julian grew up between Berri and Monash in the Riverland, South Australia and is glad to now be in a position to work and advocate for the success of theatre and the arts in his home state.
Nick Hays
Nick has worked in Australia’s cultural sector for more than 20 years, commencing with Australian Dance Theatre as Executive Director in January 2020. Most recently he was at The Australian Ballet in Melbourne as a senior member of its Philanthropy team, as well as at Arts Centre Melbourne and Heide Museum of Modern Art. Nick is currently on the Boards of Feast Festival, Writers SA and Project Animo, the latter an initiative of The Australian Ballet’s Resident Choreographer Alice Topp and acclaimed designer Jon Buswell, founded to bring together a collective of independent artistic voices and talent from across Australia’s dance landscape. Previous Board appointments include Chair of Melbourne-based independent theatre company, Rawcus, a board member of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria and Deputy Chair of Dancehouse Melbourne, one of the pre-eminent centres for contemporary dance practice and research in Australia. In 2023 Nick completed the Governor’s Leadership Foundation Program, through the SA Leadership Institute, and in 2022 was selected to take part in ACMI’s CEO Digital Mentorship program.
Caitlin Ellen Moore
Caitlin Ellen Moore (she/they) is a writer, creative producer, and general noisemaker on Kaurna Yerta. She has produced a number of theatre and audio works including the award-winning Grief Lightning: A Satire in 78 Slides and YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY. Caitlin is currently the Project Manager of Create4Adelaide with the Adelaide Festival and is studying a Masters in International Relations at Flinders University. She is the Chairperson for Big Picture Club (who are behind the Adelaide chapter of the 8HR Film Project) and has previously served as Vice-President on the board of Radio Adelaide and on the executive team of RUMPUS. She has worked for/with companies such as ActNow Theatre, Vitalstatistix, STCSA, Replay Creative, Feast Festival, Illuminate, Radio Adelaide, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Carclew, JOY.FM, and Company@.