ArtKeeper | Developing supporters for your art and practice

Mon 20 May

ArtKeeper | Developing supporters for your art and practice

Art is designed to be experienced, which makes audiences the most crucial partnerships for artists in the pursuit of sustainable creative careers. Join us to unpack how to build supporters for your work at its various stages, discuss the multitudes of audiences you likely really have (beyond just the person who experiences the finished work!), how to build and work with fan bases no matter the stage of you career you’re at, and more things that might not look like ‘marketing your work’, but can be!

Hosted by our Artist Provocateur for the ArtKeeper program, Wesley Enoch AM, with guest panelists, this will be an honest and insightful conversation to help you gain insights, strategies and knowledge on how to support your creative career.

There’ll be plenty of time for questions and discussion, and you’ll also be able to connect with other artists and creatives before the event kicks off.

Light refreshments provided, so please register to attend. Artists from all art forms welcome.

Schedule:

5.30pm - Doors open & light refreshments provided.

6pm - Artist networking

6.30pm - Setting the scene: Wesley Enoch AM

7pm - Guest panelists in conversation with Wesley Enoch AM

7.30pm - Open discussion and questions

8pm - Event ends

This session is part of a free professional development event series we’re offering in conjunction with our award-winning ArtKeeper program that places artists on HOTA’s payroll, providing income security, fair work conditions and organisation-wide support to develop new work and ideas.

Dates

Mon 20 May

Where

Panorama Room

Times

Mon 20 May - 6:00pm

#Panelists

Wesley Enoch AM (Host)

Wesley Enoch has written and directed Indigenous productions THE 7 STAGES OF GRIEVING, BLACK MEDEA and THE STORY OF THE MIRACLES AT COOKIE’S TABLE. He has directed productions of THE SAPPHIRES, I AM EORA, THE MAN FROM MUKINUPIN, YIBIYUNG, and PARRAMATTA GIRLS. He was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Festival from 2017 to 2020. Other residencies include Sydney Theatre Company; Belvoir Street Theatre; the 2002 Australia Council Cite Internationale des Arts Residency and the Artistic Director for the Australian Delegation to the 2008 Festival of Pacific Arts. Wesley is currently serving as the QUT Indigenous Chair of Creative Industries.

Kate Baggerson

Kate is the Executive Director and Co-Artistic Director of Everybody NOW, a Gold Coast based company that create participatory performance experiences that generate joy. Kate has guided Everybody NOW, through a highly successful period of growth since the company was founded in 2015, reaching over 48,000+ people in 200 communities across five states of Australia between the ages of 3-100 years young. Kate is an experienced creator of large-scale, community-engaged performance works and has managed many complex and layered community cultural development projects and multi-art events over the last 15 years. She has worked across Australia for leading arts organisations such as MONA FOMA; Salamanca Arts Centre as Arts and Events Manager, and Festival Manager of their 35th Anniversary Events; the Woodford Folk Festival as Major Projects Producer responsible for all commissioned works and large-scale opening and closing ceremonies; HOTA Home of the Arts and the Gold Coast’s Bleach* Festival as Associate Director.

Samuel Leighton-Dore 

Samuel Leighton-Dore is a multidisciplinary artist and screenwriter based on the Gold Coast, and is currently an artist-in-residence at HOTA as part of HOTA’s ArtKeeper program. Working predominantly across ceramics, illustration and animation, he’s interested in combining traditional mediums with on-screen storytelling, bringing a sense of heart and humour to complex themes of identity, sexuality and mental health. He's released two books, How To Be A Big Strong Man (2019, Simon & Schuster) and Wow It’s All A Lot (2023, HarperCollins), with past works acquired by the Gold Coast City Collection (Cloud Drive, 2020) and featured on the cover of The Journal of Australian Ceramics. His short film Showboy (2014) was a finalist in the Sydney Film Festival Dendy Awards and won Best Short Film at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. He's currently developing a slate of animated projects with Sad Man Studio, a boutique animation studio he runs with his husband.

Michelle Le Plastrier

Michelle Le Plastrier is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on handbuilt ceramics exploring identity, socio-political and environmental issues all in her signature candy coloured style. Michelle teaches introductory ceramics across South-East Queensland. She has completed residencies, produced workshops and exhibited across Australia for businesses, galleries and councils such as Gold Coast Arts and Culture, Level Up Studio + Gallery, Pacific Fair, HOTA, Side Gallery and Honey Bones Gallery. She recently won the Environmental Art Award at the Queensland Regional Art Awards and was a finalist in the 2022 North QLD Ceramic Awards at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery. Her recent body of work Dopamine Days is on exhibit at Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast until April 2024. Michelle graduated from a Bachelor of Visual Media from the Queensland College of Art. Michelle was an artist-in-residence through HOTA’s inaugural ArtKeeper program in 2021-22.