artists working with the Pinnaroo Project
And Then
Photography
Hannah Robinson and Melanie Muddle are the founders of And Then, a social-arts agency. They engage in photography as a social-practice, inviting participation and connection with communities to help them tell their own stories.
In short, Hannah and Melanie collaborate and create with a community rather than for an audience. This shifts power dynamics, making space for open dialogue and for new forms of a collective voice to emerge. They choose to take this approach in order to foster community and enable social change.
Hannah and Melanie are experienced photographic practitioners, project developers and facilitators. They employ socially-engaged practice to connect with diverse communities and together they explore ways to question and challenge existing narratives through participant-led photo-storytelling.
Sarah Penicka-Smith
Conductor
Versatile, perceptive, and a passionate advocate for music as a force for change, Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith is a unique and innovative voice in Australian music. Currently, Sarah holds the positions of Artistic Director & Principal Conductor of River City Voices, Head of Creative Arts at St Andrew’s College, Principal Conductor with the Macquarie Singers & Macquarie Chamber Orchestra, and Artistic Director of Pacific Pride Choir. She founded the Lifehouse Volunteer Orchestra, bringing music to patients and their families at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. As an alumna of the Hart Institute for Women Conductors at the Dallas Opera, Sarah made her international debut in Dallas in 2018. Sarah’s current projects include libretto development for The Klein-Arkinstall Project, a new one-woman opera about living with OCD, Festival Choir Director for the Blackheath Choral Festival, and a recording/performance project with Club Weld and River City Voices.
Karenza Ebejer
Filmmaker
Karenza is a socially engaged documentary filmmaker, producer, educator and community storyteller based in the Northern Rivers of NSW. She collaborates with a range of creatives in producing content for Indigenous, arts, youth and disability communities. Her work explores themes of art practice, community, connection to place and social justice.
In 2017 and 2018 she produced and directed two short films profiling artists for the Createability series on ABC iView. These both had international festival screenings, won awards and led to further opportunities for the participants. Other film work has been shown on various platforms including television, social media, film festivals and galleries. Her creative practice uses the moving image in as a means of expression to explore the intersection of spirituality, creativity, nature and humanity.
Tom Isaacs
Textile artist
Tom Isaacs is a Sydney-based contemporary artist working primarily in the fields of textiles and performance art. His practice engages with ideas of mental health, suffering, and the human condition, and explores the potential efficacy of art. He draws inspiration from philosophy, psychoanalysis, religious writings and practices, and art history and theory. Tom recently completed a PhD at the University of Sydney researching the relationship between ritual, psychoanalysis and body art, and how these different streams of thought address the problem of alienation.
Vic McEwan
Artistic Director CAD
Vic McEwan is an interdisciplinary artist working with sound, video, installation and performance with a particular interest in site-specific work. He is interested in creating new dynamics by working with diverse partners and exploring difficult themes within lived experience. Vic aims to use his work to contribute to and enrich broader conversations about the role that the arts sector can play within our communities.
Sarah McEwan
Artist, musician and artist-curator
Sarah McEwan is an artist, musician and artist-curator who lives and works on Wiradjuri country in Birrego and on the Eora Nation in Sydney.
She is passionate about ‘onto-ethics’; how to make the present world different from the past.