As we reflect on the past twelve months, we want to say a huge thank you for your time, your trust and your energy. To all the artists, audiences, partners and community of friends, we’re so grateful for your ongoing engagement and support.

It was an ambitious year of transition and transformation for us, yet our commitment to investing in and nurturing artists at the most critical stage of their early career has remained constant. This year we are proud to have supported more than 95 artists, delivered 44 programs and welcomed over 10,000 artists and audiences to Next Wave at Brunswick Mechanics Institute.

2025 highlights

We wrapped our Young Artistic Directors program with Lydia Tesema’s Below The Surface presents — 2025 Vision Board & Networking Event in January.

We held an Industry Discovery Day with presentations by peers from Yirramboi, Arts House, Composite Moving Image, Footscray Community Arts, Platform Arts, West Space, Creative Australia and City of Melbourne.

We also hosted two symposiums: In February we co-presented the ACFA Symposium, with presentations by Lana Nguyen and Eliki Reid, Erica McCalman, Zena Cumpston, Jacina Leong, Kate Sulan, Angharad Wynne-Jones, West Space, Market Forces, Climate Aware Creative Practices, and more. And in October we held Archives are Hot! Artists in the Archive, in partnership with CAST and Saluhan, featuring Jenna Lee, Sofi Basseghi, Dominic White, Amy Spiers, Savannah Smith from City of Melbourne, Nick Devlin from RMIT Culture, Nick Henderson from Australia Queer Archives, Ana Tiquia from State Library of Victoria, Jacina Leong, Alexander Williams, Nataša Čordašić, Fayen d’Evie and An.Other Collective. Supported by City of Melbourne.

We held our inaugural Winter Windows program with local artists: Axel Garay and Liwen Lian, presented in partnership with Blak Dot, Counihan Gallery and Michelle Guglielmo park, featuring artist talks and a night tour of moving image work across all four sites.

Sparks in the Dark by Kat Rae and Mursal Azizi celebrated the strength and creativity of women touched by the ongoing effects of the Afghanistan war. The exhibition was featured on SBS International News and welcomed esteemed guests including The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC; His Excellency Ambassador Wahidullah Waissi and Dr Tim Read, Greens MP for Brunswick.

We wrapped our 2024–25 Kickstart program with a work-in-progress showing in September. An enormous thanks to artists and their mentors: An.Other Collective and Marian Abboud, Ellamay Fitzgerald and Libby Harward, Georgia Lucy and Lucy Bleach, Jayda Wilson and Yusuf Hayat, Jen Datu and Bruno Booth, Rachel Morley and Yuhui Ng-Rodriguez, Rarriwuy Hick and Rosealee Pearson, and Sophie Dumaresq and Sally Golding. As well as Kickstart program facilitator Lana Nguyen!

We were also lucky to establish new and existing partnerships with Composite Moving Image who delivered 30 screenings and public programs across the year; Speak Percussion, co-presenting Percussion, Conversation, Degustation for Brunswick Music Festival, followed by the debut album by Zela Papageorgiou; Voice in My Hands (Liv Satchell and Julian Dibley-Hall) who brought another iteration of THINKING GROUND to Next Wave; We hosted the community premiere of Motherhood in the Colony by Aseel Tayeh, Bukjeh and Genevieve Grieves, Garuwa, in association with Common Ground; UNDERARTS, who brought the next generation of performance makers to our theatre for final semester showings; and so many more.

And finally, we launched our 2026 Arts Advisory members: Zoë Bastin, 陳雋然 Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Axel Garay, Matisse Laida, Varsha Ramesh and Aziz Sohail. In 2026, the Arts Advisory will provide critical feedback on programs, embed local knowledge and cultural perspectives, support artist selection, and contribute to the development of Next Wave’s artistic activities.

Your support means the world to us

We are grateful for our collaborators and supporters who back what we do. Thank you to our 2025 funding partners: Creative Victoria, Merri-bek City Council, City of Melbourne, Creative Australia, Generate GC (City of Gold Coast), City of Wyndham; and donors: Adrian Goldfinch, Bec Cole, Dominic Taranto, Drew Pettifer, Lena Nahlous, Marita Dyson, and annonymous donors.

Marking 25 years of Kickstart, we are relaunching this landmark initiative with an open call for Victoria-based artists, and with a renewed focus on experimentation, peer learning and deep community connection.

We also asking for your support to help us bring this vision to life. Our goal is to pay $100,000 to emerging artists over two years through our Kickstart program— no small feat, but it is a vital investment in the future of creative practice in Victoria.

Your donation will directly support artists and collectives from across the state to develop and present bold new work. Every contribution makes a real difference. If you believe in bold ideas, emerging voices and the future of art in this state, please donate.

Wishing everyone a gentle end to the year. We look forward to welcoming you back in 2026.