Our Team

Our Team

Our team at Southern Arts are passionate about arts & culture as a vehicle for creating personal and collective flourishing.

As a Profit for Purpose organisation we are guided by a skilful committee with experience in governance and strategic development.

Our dedicated and professional paid staff and regular contractors transform our vision into reality through consistent effort and expertise.

We are connected to a diverse membership across many communities.

We cherish the contributions of our many volunteers – whose gifts large and small – help us grow and give.

We work with many partners and supporters (locally, regionally and statewide) who share similar values and vision.

Together we are all stronger.

Southern Forest Arts Staff

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR / GENERAL MANAGER (2004 – current)

 

 

With over twenty years working and living regionally as a public artist, Community Arts and Cultural Development facilitator, gallery manager, presenter and cultural tourism developer, Fiona has extensive networks and experience stretching across the vast and incredibly diverse regional arts community.

Specialising in the coordination of pioneering state-wide initiatives that deliver inter-connectivity, collaboration and vibrancy to regional arts practice, Fiona is a passionate advocate for the depth, dynamism and richness that the regional arts sector contributes to our states creative and cultural narrative overall.

Secretary of Southern Forest Arts since 2005, Fiona is currently Vice-Chair of Regional Arts WA, a board member of the Chamber of Arts & Culture and founding member (and former Secretary) of GalleriesWest.

 

Our Committee

CHAIRPERSON (2004 – current)

Diana is a passionate advocate for the Arts and has worked in the education sector for 41 years in both metropolitan and country schools in WA.   She is currently the Specialist Drama and Visual Arts teacher at Northcliffe District High school.  Her passion for the Arts and her community is demonstrated by her involvement with various arts groups over her years since becoming a full resident of Northcliffe in 1998.

She was a founding member and president of the Northcliffe Film Club and then went onto being President of WA Federation of Film Societies. Diana was also one of the founding members of Northcliffe Arts Association as well as Southern Forest Arts.

In her role as Chairperson she has made connections with various groups such as the Pemberton Arts Group, Denmark Arts and organizations such as Country Arts WA.  Diana has coordinated and managed various aspects of the programming and promotion of arts events and performances for both NAA and SFA. She has specific expertise in presentation of performance-based events.

VICE CHAIRPERSON (2010 – current)

Doug is a former Airforce Officer, Local Government Ranger and Graphic Designer. His skillset is broad to say the least. Doug is a passionate environmentalist, having moved to Northcliffe originally as a forest protestor in the late 90’s. He connected so deeply with the local environment that he vowed to one day return, following retirement. Doug is now a hands-on contributor to the organisation – no job is ever too menial or too challenging, whether it be checking on the gallery when the security alarm has been triggered at 3am, washing the glasses after a concert, or raking the Understory trail. Doug is dependable, gracious and a champion of detail.

TREASURER (2012 as Treasurer)

Kath Granger has spent many years in the education sector, working primarily in rural and remote locations. In both a teaching and administrative capacity, Kath has actively sought to create links between the schools in which she has worked and arts opportunities available in the local communities. The scope includes visual arts and music.  Artist workshops, support for exhibitions of student work and the establishment of an instrumental music programme have been implemented across a range of educational contexts. Kath strongly supports a focus on equity and availability of arts experiences for all children.

Kath is currently the Principal of West Island District High School, Cocos Keeling Islands. She is our (very) remote Treasurer. She oversaw the fiscal management of SFA’s coordination of the RAPP program’s ‘Connect to The Creative Grid’ project.

ARTS STRATEGY SPECIALIST (2016 – current)

Margaret is a former Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of WA, having retired from that position at the end of 2008.

She has extensive experience in Executive roles, having held the position of CEO with the Western Australia Department for the Arts (now the Department of Culture and the Arts) from 1995-7, as well as two executive positions at UWA, and was also Chair of the Australia Council, the Australia Government’s arts funding and advisory board, from 1997-2001.

She has been a member of a wide range of boards and councils, including the Australian Research Council, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the centre for Creative Industries, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Research Infrastructure Council, the Bond University Council. She was also a member of the Federal Education Investment Fund (2010-13) which allocated national infrastructure funds to higher education institutions, including those in the VET sector, and was a member of the Board of Synergy, the WA Electricity Corporation, from 201-1. In 2015 she completed her term as Chair of the Perth International Arts Festival. She is currently on the board of Musica Viva, and is Chair of the Western Australian Salaries and Allowances Tribunal. She has chaired a number of reviews, including National Review of Music Education in 2005, the Future Directions for the Role of the Ste in Higher Education I Education in 2011-2012, and the Independent Review of the Vocational Education and Training Sector in Western Australian in 2013-14. In 2017 she was one of a three-panel term that undertook a major review of the Western Australian public sector.

Emeritus Professor Seares received the Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Western Australian in 2010 and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (WA) Gold Medal for 2013.

INFORMATION & TECHNOLOGY EXPERTISE (2004 – current)

Graham is the current manager of the Northcliffe Community Resource Centre, a role he has held for over a decade. His most significant contribution to Southern Forest Arts is in the area of IT. He has a thorough grasp of the ever-changing world of digital technology. He built our original website and recorded and developed our audio tours. He maintains our podcasts and keeps the organisation cyber-safe.

Graham is also a practicing fibre-artist, film afficionado, avid reader and musician.

PRACTICING ARTIST (2015 – current)

A former nurse, Ann is now a tourism operator at Windy Harbour, dedicating herself to painting the play of light upon the waves of the Southern Ocean. She has just held her first solo exhibition of coastal landscapes in the Painted Tree Gallery. Ann joined the SFA committee because of her love of painting and her desire to support the gallery in providing opportunities for local artists. She is also a consummate singer, songwriter and musician. She’s really a Renaissance girl, creative right to the core.