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Firstdraft Board

Julia Mendel

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Chairperson

Julia Mendel is a creative producer whose work is focused on socially engaged practices and community led projects. She is currently Public Programs Producer at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Previously she held the position of Community Engagement Producer at Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE), Parramatta, where she initiated the All Girl Electronic program for Western Sydney female, transgender and non-binary youth, offering training and mentorship in electronic music production. From 2015-2017 she co-directed the Critical Animals Creative Research Symposium as part of This is Not Art, Newcastle. In 2012 Julia graduated from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship (Honours).

Past Firstdraft Directors
Amanda Dobbie
Board Member
Amanda Dobbie
Board Member

Amanda is a seasoned corporate executive with experience spanning the finance, technology, legal and not for profit sectors. She is passionate about assisting underrepresented groups to establish their careers.

Board Member
Bill Dunbar
Board Member
Bill Dunbar
Board Member

Bill Dunbar is an infrastructure and property professional, creative writer and cultural advisor with 25-years’ experience in the public and private sectors across Australia and globally.

Board Member
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
Augusta Supple
Augusta Supple

Augusta Supple is an award-winning writer, creative producer, and arts and cultural strategist living and working in Western Sydney.

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
PastFirstdraft2019–20 Co-Director, 2019–20 Chairperson