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Firstdraft Board

Claudia Roosen

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Chairperson

Claudia Roosen is an arts worker with a background in advocacy and engagement and a passion for creating holistically inclusive spaces. While completing a Bachelor of Art Theory from UNSW Art & Design, they were the elected Engagement Officer on the Student Council, received an Intern Scholarship with Kudos Gallery and were a part of Brightside Program. They have worked in various roles at organisations such as Kaldor Public Art Projects, Carriageworks, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences and the National Association for the Visual Arts. Currently, they are the Producer, Marketing & Communications at Information + Cultural Exchange, who work to transform and enrich Western Sydney by co-creating authentic, locally-made community art that impacts personally and resonates globally. Outside of their day job, they collaborate on creative and community-based projects.

Firstdraft Board
James Little
Deputy Chair, Board Member
James Little
Deputy Chair, Board Member

James Little is an artist and arts professional who has exhibited around Australia. He was the co-founder of Nicholas Projects, a curated gallery space in Melbourne.

Deputy Chair, Board Member
Michelle Wang
Secretary
Michelle Wang
Secretary

Michelle Wang is an art consultant, curator and writer who is passionate about ways of making the arts inclusive and accessible, through collaboration, experimentation and uplifting the voices of Australia's diaspora communities.

Secretary
Geirthana Nandakumaran
2023–24 Co-Director, 2023 Treasurer
Geirthana Nandakumaran
2023–24 Co-Director, 2023 Treasurer

Geirthana Nandakumaran is an artist and arts worker, whose practice investigates liminal identity, relating her environments through spatial and cultural investigations of selfhood, and Sri Lankan Tamil-Australian cultures.

2023–24 Co-Director, 2023 Treasurer
Monica Rani Rudhar
Board Member
Monica Rani Rudhar
Board Member

Monica Rani Rudhar is an artist whose work spans video, performance and sculpture and speaks to longing and loss as she navigates the cultural disconnection that stems from the complexities of her multiracial ethnicity.

Board Member
Olivia Welch
2023-2024 Co-Chair
Olivia Welch
2023-2024 Co-Chair

Olivia Welch is Exhibitions Manager at Museums & Galleries of NSW, developing touring exhibitions and associated sector development.

2023-2024 Co-Chair
Brian Obiri-Asare
2022 Co-Director
Brian Obiri-Asare
2022 Co-Director

Brian Obiri-Asare is a creative writer of Ghanaian descent, with a particular focus on engaging with the complexities and contradictions of a multiracial society.

2022 Co-Director
Elyse Goldfinch
2022–23 Co-Director, 2022–23 Co-Chairperson
Elyse Goldfinch
2022–23 Co-Director, 2022–23 Co-Chairperson

Elyse Goldfinch is an arts curator and writer with a career focus on advocacy, collaboration, exchange and support for artists across generations.

2022–23 Co-Director, 2022–23 Co-Chairperson
Sambavi Seermaran
Board Member
Sambavi Seermaran
Board Member

Sambavi Seermaran is an Australian Tamil emerging curator, artist and lawyer. She is passionate about amplifying and centring the voices of marginalised and disempowered peoples within Sydney's cultural spaces.

Board Member
Zoe Theodore
2022–23 Treasurer, 2022-23 Co-Chair, 2024 Treasurer
Zoe Theodore
2022–23 Treasurer, 2022-23 Co-Chair, 2024 Treasurer

Zoe Theodore is a Sydney-based curator, producer and writer, with a particular interest in the relationship between performance, choreography and the gallery.

2022–23 Treasurer, 2022-23 Co-Chair, 2024 Treasurer
Laura Couttie
2021–22 Co-Director, 2021–22 Chairperson
Laura Couttie
2021–22 Co-Director, 2021–22 Chairperson

Laura Couttie is an arts manager, writer and curator. Over the past ten years Laura has worked in creative, administrative and management roles in a variety of galleries and arts organisations.

2021–22 Co-Director, 2021–22 Chairperson
PastFirstdraft2019 Co-Director, 2018–19 Chairperson