Next Wave is welcoming a bright new cohort of experimental early-career artists to Kickstart, our flagship development program.

For forty years, Next Wave has supported early-career artists to develop their practice and create ambitious new work through programs such as Kickstart.

Kickstart is a long-form residential program that prioritises time and relationships, and that supports artists to dream and make where they are, in place, within their context and communities. We celebrate the spaces that artists feel connected to and protected within.

“More than ever, we recognise the strength in nurturing long-form relationships between artists and the emphasis on giving them the time and space needed to experiment, play, fail, test, try-again – in order to make that ‘ambitious new work’,” said Next Wave Lead Program Producer Frances Robinson.

“By investing in early-career artist development, and taking the pressure off presenting polished, final outcomes – we equip our artists with the skills, networks and resources needed to imagine a more sustainable career.

“We’re thrilled to announce the 2024 Kickstart cohort, a brilliant group of individual artists and collectives whose practice is embedded in – and shaped – by community, experimentation and non-conventional knowledges.”

They are:

• An.Other collective (NSW/VIC)
• Ellamay Fitzgerald (QLD)
• Georgia Lucy (TAS)
• Jayda Wilson (SA)
• Jen Datu (WA)
• Rachel Morley (VIC)
• Rarriwuy Hick (NT)
• Sophie Dumaresq (ACT)

Read more about our Kickstart 2024–25 artists.

How the program works in 2024–25

Kickstart artists will be guided, mentored and supported by the Artistic Director in their state or territory, and encouraged to develop, experiment and share their practice with local and national audiences. They will also be supported by Next Wave’s producers and learn from each other through a series of facilitated workshops and exchanges.

Across the 18-month program, there will be multiple ways for Kickstart artists to explore their experimental practice – both individually and collectively with the rest of their cohort – through development and work-in-progress showings.

“Our focus is on developing artists and the relationships between them, prioritising experimental process over outcome”, Frances said.

For the first time, Next Wave has invited a Kickstart Facilitator for the 2024–25 program: Lana Nguyen. Lana is an independent creative producer, curator and collaborator interested in experimental, site-specific and context-driven work. Often focusing on the collaborative, she most recently worked with West Space, Bus Projects and Liquid Architecture on an inter-organisational project called disorganising – focused on crisis, collective solidarity and reform.

Alongside Next Wave, Lana will co-design and deliver an interrelated series of workshops in response to the Kickstart artists individual and collective needs.

All of our Kickstart artists and Artistic Directors will be gathering in Narrm (Melbourne) for our All School LAB: a program of artist-led talks, performances and activities running over 24 and 25 May.

A nod to Next Wave past, present and future, All School LAB will also bring in artists from our festival era and culminate a special re-birthday party curated by our Young Artistic Directorate.

Tickets and the full program for All School LAB will be released in April. Follow us on social media and sign up to our newsletter to stay in the loop.

Support for a Gold Coast-based artist to participate in Kickstart by Next Wave has been made possible through the City of Gold Coast Arts and Culture Unit and Generate GC. Generate GC is a City of Gold Coast initiative produced by Situate Art in Festivals.

Support for a local artist to participate in Kickstart has been made possible through the Wyndham City.