David Cross

David Cross is a Melbourne-based artist, curator and writer. His practice extends across performance, installation, sculpture, public art and video. Known for his examination of risk, pleasure and participation, David often utilises inflatable structures to negotiate inter-personal exchange.

In 2007 he founded Litmus Research initiative at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand. Focused on the commissioning and scholarship of public art, Litmus produced a number of ground-breaking public art projects including One Day Sculpture, a series of temporary public artworks across five cities in New Zealand in 2008/9, developed with Claire Doherty from Situations, UK. He was the CAST 2011 international curator in residence in Hobart where he developed Iteration:Again - 13 Public Artworks Across Tasmania. He was Deputy Chair of the City of Melbourne Public Art Advisory Board in 2015/6 and a former arts-sector advisor for Creative New Zealand.

Since 2014 he has been Professor of Art and Performance at Deakin University where he developed Treatment, an iterative public art project staged at the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee, Victoria. He has published extensively on public and contemporary art.

Cameron Bishop

Cameron Bishop (PhD) is an artist, writer and curator lecturing in Art and Performance at Deakin University. As a curator he has helped initiate a number of public art projects including Treatment (2015/17) at the Western Treatment Plant; Sounding Histories at the Mission to Seafarers Melbourne with Annie Wilson; and the ongoing VACANTGeelong project with architectural and creative arts researchers, and leading Australian artists to explore and activate spaces left behind by de-industrialisation. As the recipient of a number of grants, awards and commissions he has been acknowledged for his community-focused approach to public art.

All of his work explores the shifting nature of the term public, ideas around place-making, and the body’s appearance and experience as a political, private, and social entity. To this end he has published writing in book chapters, journals and exhibition catalogues while addressing these issues in the artwork he makes, often in collaboration with the artist and engineer, Simon Reis. With David Cross, he has worked on consultancy projects including the Metro Tunnel Creative Strategy, which saw them team with Claire Doherty from the UK-based Public Art Commissioning agency, Situations.

Katya Johanson

Katya Johanson is a Professor in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University and co-founder of Public Art Commission. Katya has co-led (with Hilary Glow) the development of Cultural Impact Projects, which responded to a need for rigorous, comprehensive and critical evaluations in the Victorian arts and cultural sector. CIP projects include an evaluation of Vic Health’s Arts about Us strategy to build public appreciation of cultural diversity (2013-2015), a study of the impact of the Culture Counts measurement tool on Victorian arts organisations for Creative Victoria (2016), a three-part review of the inaugural Asia TOPA festival (2017), and an assessment of the impact of the Venice Biennale on Australia’s participating artists and the profile of the national arts sector (current). She has also worked with local councils to identify the impact of gentrification on the metropolitan arts economy, barriers to arts participation and the artistic impact of socially engaged arts on artists’ practice.

Katya works in the Art and Performance group in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, and is currently Associate Dean, Partnerships and International in the Faculty of Arts and Education.

Hilary Glow

Hilary Glow is a Professor at Deakin University, Director of the Arts and Cultural Management Program and co-founder (with Dr Katya Johanson) of Cultural Impact Projects.

Her research is in the areas of arts and cultural impact, audience engagement, evaluation processes for arts organisations, the impact of arts programs on people’s views of cultural diversity, barriers to arts attendance, and audience measures of artistic quality. She has conducted research in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Creative Victoria, VicHealth, the Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival, and various local governments.

From 2012-2014, she was Founder and Director of the Arts Participation Incubator (API). With seed funding from Deakin University, the API incubated projects – including peer-to-peer skills development, research forums, and open conferences for artists, managers and innovators in the arts and cultural sector - to enhance knowledge and skills around arts participation, and to explore the fruitful ground between the arts sector and social innovation. Hilary Glow is currently President of the Green Room Awards, Melbourne’s premier peer-presented, performing arts industry awards recognising outstanding achievements in productions from cabaret, contemporary and experimental performance, dance, theatre, music theatre, and opera.

Ilana Russell

Ilana Russell is a Geelong-based curator, producer and researcher. Her practice explores site specificity and response through the model of labs, residencies and cross-disciplinary collaborations. She is a researcher with Deakin University’s Public Art Commission, a producer for City of Melbourne’s Test Sites program and Executive Director at Platform Arts in Geelong.

Ilana has produced works for the 58th International Venice Biennale, Melbourne Festival, White Night, Melbourne Fringe, New Zealand Festival (Wellington) and Public Art Melbourne; and with organisations including National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Arts Centre Melbourne, Arts House, Arts Access Victoria, ILBIJERRI Theatre, Black Arm Band and RMIT University.

Ilana sits on the board of Creative Geelong, and is a committee member of the G21 Arts, Heritage and Culture Pillar. She has a Master of Arts (Art in Public Space) at RMIT.

Sarah Jones

Sarah Jones (PhD) is a Geelong-based artist, writer and curator. Her research-based practice proposes publishing-as-process. She is interested in publishing as an event that generates novelty in its search for self-realisation, which is both intrinsically valuable and constitutive of a specific public.

Sarah is a researcher with Deakin University’s Public Art Commission and lectures in the School of Communication and Creative Arts. She is the curator of Third Space Gallery + Digital, an initiative of Creative Geelong.

Rachel Morley

Rachel is a Geelong-based artist and arts worker. Her practice explores collective memory, nostalgia and the metaphorical ghosts bound to place. She is a Research Assistant with Deakin University’s Public Art Commission and Media & Communications Coordinator at Platform Arts, Geelong.

From 2019-2021, Rachel was the was the Marketing Manager and part of the General Committee for Trocadero Art Space, Footscray. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne.