Have we met?

We’ve been riding a current of change since the beginning of 2021. Scrawling hopes and dreams across our whiteboards as we would in our teenage journals fastened with a tiny lock. Most of the contents are almost out of the pocket now, with more to be gently announced over the next few months (patience is a virtue), but some things we are ready to share.

Amidst the noise of 11am press conferences, global news cycles and getting locked down, we’ve been asking who we are as Next Wave and who we can be. We’re reconsidering how we can be together and what it means to connect beyond our home in Brunswick in richer ways.

You’ve seen our newly-elected Brains Trust, and today we unveil our suite of Creative Producers.

These stellar individuals bring varied artistic, curatorial and producing practices to the design and delivery of Next Wave’s programming and are engaged within and across multiple communities as practitioners. They bring a sensibility borne out of their diversity of lived and cultural experience. And they are thoughtful and generous collaborators.

As a team they will catapult our visions into real life, centering support for artists and their practices, devising new programs that facilitate artist-led learning and public programs that beckon discourse and exchange from our homes to yours.

Senior Creative Producer, Naomi Velaphi is born on Whadjuk Noongar country, residing in Naarm (Melbourne). She strives to nurture artists’ work and practices exploring alternative narratives, radical thought and deep connection. She has held producing roles for a number of arts institutions including APAM, Arts Centre Melbourne, Arts House, the Abbotsford Convent. Through her independent practice she aims to unearth honest and generous collaborations between artists, producers, curators and presenters and create pathways for new work creation.

Creative Producer, Haneen Martin is a writer, artist and consultant based in Darwin. She is also a Co-Manager of the National Young Writers’ Festival and undertaking her MFA (Cultural Leadership) at NIDA. In 2021, Haneen was awarded a Regional Arts Australia Fellowship to work on her first book. View website

Creative Producer, Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor, and arts worker based in Naarm. Their practice uses little stories to ask and answer big questions. Hasib is Director of Marketing and Communications at Road to Refuge, and leads their own independent writing and editing practice. Hasib is a 2020 recipient of the Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter Scheme and is currently working on a book of experimental poetry. You can find their work in Meanjin, Overland, Australian Poetry, Cordite and Going Down Swinging, among others. View website

Creative Producer, **Stacy Jewell ** is an independent curator and arts administrator. Stacy’s interests lie in digital culture, moving image and feminist theory. A staunch facilitator of Melbourne Artist-Run spaces, Stacy previously managed KINGS Artist-Run; Chapter House Lane; and No Vacancy Gallery. She is currently on the Board of Trocadero Art Space. Stacy completed her Masters in Arts Management in 2015.

Supporting the Creative Producers is Production Coordinator, Andrew Goddard, a Naarm-based lighting designer and event production technician. Having worked freelance for a number of AV organisations and festivals, they bring a wealth of knowledge to their role at Next Wave. Their art practice is currently expressed through their collaborative lighting design studio Dual Flow.

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Naomi Velaphi, Haneen Martin, Hasib Hourani, Stacy Jewell and Andrew Goddard join CEO/Executive Director Jamie Lewis, General Manager, Jacqueline Hanlin and Communications & Development Manager, Brigitte Trobbiani.

Above:
  1. A collage of colour portraits of staff Naomi Velaphi, Haneen Martin, Lujayn Hourani, Stacy Jewell and Andrew Goddard. The images are broken up with pink, aqua, orange and yellow squares and white borders.