Board & Committees

• About CuriousWorks

Board

Rebecca Sng

• Chair

The CuriousWorks chair is a ‘young’ person, in line with the actions and philosophy of the company on the ground.

Rebecca is Unit Head of the Alternate Care Clinic, the only mental health clinic in NSW for children in Out-Of-Home care.

She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology/Masters of Science from the University of Sydney and is the author of the children’s book, Byron and The Chairs published this year.

In the past, Rebecca Sng has worked as a dancer, actor, writer and filmmaker for CuriousWorks on The Migrant Project.

Anthea Fawcett

• General Member

From 2002 - 2008 Anthea has lived in South Africa and South Korea, enjoying the opportunity to experience two of the world’s most rapidly transforming cultures and economies. In 2006, Anthea curated the ANZA Art Show Southern Hands, initiated numerous trade opportunities and presentations of South African art craft, and presented Contemporary Colours - Modern Art Craft From South Africa in conjunction with Gallery Ju, Samcheong-dong, Seoul.

Anthea returned to Sydney to live in early 2008 and has established the Australian office of Southern Art Exchange, www.southernexchange.com.au. Anthea is pleased to work with some of South Africa’s leading artists and creative sector organisations, including David Krut Projects, KAROSS, Art for Humanity, Paul Weinberg and the Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town, and Ilulwane Craft.

Anthea possesses a Master of Art Administration from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. She has worked extensively in sustainable design and development, and environmental policy and education in Australia and South Africa. This work is interdisciplinary in nature and this is reflected in Southern Exchange’s commitment to the role that creative industries can play in sustainable development and cultural exchange. In such areas, Anthea has consulted to Price Waterhouse, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, The Institution of Engineers, Australia, and the University of Cape Town.

Shakthidharan

• Treasurer & Public Officer

Shakthi is the artistic director and manager of CuriousWorks.

Aimée Falzon

• Secretary

Aimée is administration officer for CuriousWorks.

Creative Steering Committee

Tommy Murphy

Tommy Murphy is an award-winning Australian playwright. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Director’s course).

He was a resident writer at Griffin Theatre Company 2004-06, for which he wrote Strangers in Between and Holding the Man. Both plays are published by Currency Press, in one volume. Strangers in Between won the national 2006 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Best Play, and Holding the Man won the same Award in 2007. Murphy is the youngest recipient of the award, and the only playwright to win in successive years. Saturn’s Return was commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company co-artistic directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett for STC’s Wharf 2 season 2008 and is published by Currency Press.

Murphy sits on the Board of Directors of the Australian Theatre for Young People and World Interplay, and is the recipient of a Centenary of Federation Medal. In 2007, Tommy Murphy had the title of Honorary Associate conferred by the Faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney.

James Winter

James Winter graduated from the Centre for the Performing Arts in 1993 and has worked as an actor, dancer and director on a myriad of projects.

He has been Artistic Director for Brand X Theatre and D Faces of Youth Arts, along with Associate Director for Urban Myth Theatre of Youth, Project Officer for Carclew Youth Arts Centre and Assistant Director for State Theatre of South Australia’s production of “Equus”. James is currently Artistic Director of Ashfield Youth Theatre. James has also worked as an Artistic Director for festivals and events including American University in Cairo (“World Refugee Day”), The Centenary of Federation (“Whyalla 100”), Sydney 2002 Gay Games Sports and Cultural Festival (“Grand Ball” and “Oceania”) and Feast Gay and Lesbian Cultural Festival (“2001 Youth Hub”).

His experience includes working with a variety of marginalised communities on theatre projects including young people with physical and intellectual disabilities, street dependent young people, same-sex attracted young people, incarcerated youth, IV drug dependent young people, sex workers, remote indigenous communities, juvenile justice clients, recent arrival communities and dual diagnosis. James has also worked in Cairo Egypt with African refugees on a 6 month Australia Council program “Out There Everywhere” to establish community cultural development projects for artists in exile.

James has tutored for Australian Theatre for Youth People, Powerhouse Youth Theatre, Bankstown Youth Development Service and Shopfront Theatre. Currently James is the theatre director for Company B’s Education Program with Key College (Youth off the Streets), Marist Youth Care and Youth Space and is an event coordinator for South Sydney Youth Service’s Dual Diagnosis Program.

Khaled Sabsabi

Khaled Sabsabi is a community arts practitioner and artist who specialises in multimedia sound and hip-hop music.

Since 1990 Khaled has worked with communities in Western Sydney to create and develop arts-led programs that explore people and places from a broad social, political and religious spectrum. His work has been screened and performed in Australia at the Casula Powerhouse in Sydney and in Lebanon at the Beirut Theatre. He has also received an AFI nomination for his sound work on the film Color Bars (1997) and has produced sound and music for Writing from the Hip (Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney, 1996), which was awarded Best Play in the 1996 Contemporary Performance Awards.

Khaled was the recipient of an Australia Council fellowship in 2002 and completed an artist residency program in Camden Head, NSW in 2004. He recently took part in the 2007 New Media Fest, SoundLAB and the 3rd Digital Art Festival in Rosario, Argentina. Khaled was also invited to participate at an arts symposium: Society, Politics and the Performative in New Zealand, where he spoke about the role that contemporary arts practice can play as a vehicle for social change.

Khaled has secured exhibitions in Spain for 2008 and is exploring further opportunities to host solo exhibitions.

Technical Steering Committee

Ross Harley

Ross Rudesch Harley [aka stereopresence] is an artist, writer, and educator in the field of new media and popular culture. His work crosses the bounds of cinema, music, art, design, architecture and media art practice. He has written regular columns for Rolling Stone, Cinema Papers, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian and has edited a number of anthologies on electronic media art practice and theory. In 2003 a double DVD anthology of works from 1988-2002 entitled RRH Videoworks was published by Mediacompress in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. He is Head of the School of Media Arts, College of Fine Arts at UNSW.

Marc Chee

Marc Chee graduated from School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW. He is currently a systems engineer at their iCinema research institute. Marc has often collaborated with CuriousWorks as a production manager, lending his event production and technical expertise to its creative projects.

Lawrence Yao

Lawrence graduated with honours from UNSW in software engineering. Since graduating he has worked as a software engineer at Macquarie Bank, although on many occasions he has seriously considered becoming a bus driver. Lawrence lends his specialist skills and knowledge to CuriousWorks as a technical advisor for its online projects. He has been writing software for over 5 years; and his main interest is in software that helps people communicate and share ideas.