Next Wave challenges our understanding of what art can be.

Through our development programs and biennial Festival, Next Wave assists emerging artists to realise extraordinary new work that invites us to see the world and ourselves in unexpected ways.

Our programs support young artists to take creative risks, establish critically-engaged professional practices and launch their work into a wider artistic and public domain.

Next Wave commissions and presents genre-busting projects both within and outside conventional artistic spaces. Our projects transform familiar sites, and activate new audiences.

Next Wave ignites debate about art and its role in contemporary society.

Next Wave’s Mission

To create mind-blowing development and presentation opportunities that empower emerging artists to challenge our understanding of what art can be.

DOWNLOAD our latest About Next Wave document. (March 2011, pdf, 1.3mb)

This Is Next Wave from Next Wave on Vimeo.

Next Wave is an innovative organisation that stands alone in its dedication to supporting young artists.

Next Wave is Australia’s leading festival for young emerging artists and arts workers. Established in 1984, Next Wave has remained at the forefront of presenting a broad range of contemporary art practices to a national audience.

Next Wave is a biennial festival and artist development organisation, presenting genre-busting new work by the next wave of Australian artists.

With a consistently changing audience and artist make-up, the Next Wave Festival remains responsive to critical issues in contemporary culture. It is one of the few organisations in Australia that gives young people the opportunity to critique their culture, giving their ideas a public face and audible voice.

Next Wave’s vision is of a world where all young people are empowered to express themselves and engage with creative activities. Our plan is to empower young artists aged 18 to 30, art-workers and audiences to develop ideas and create works that engage, change and shape the culture around them through a development and festival cycle.

Next Wave Online

Next Wave exists in multiple places online. Please read more, follow us, befriend us, etc, via these sites:

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Next Wave Staff

Emily Sexton, Artistic Director

emily (at) nextwave.org.au

Emily Sexton is the Artistic Director of Next Wave, Australia’s leading contemporary arts organisation for young and emerging artists. Next Wave is a development organisation presenting a biennial arts festival of genre-busting new ideas, visions and stories.

Emily seeks art that is ambitious, curious and brave. With a background in performance, dance and Festivals, from 2008 – 2010 Emily was Melbourne Fringe’s Creative Producer. In this role Emily undertook a targeted exploration of art in the public realm, culminating in the 2010 Melbourne Fringe Festival’s keynote project Visible City, a cross-artform collaboration featuring 12 artists from across Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia creating new art every day of the Festival. Over her years working in the arts Emily has maintained an active interest in development and artistic process, managing mentoring programs, intensives, workshops and forums as well as developing new models of collaborative learning. In 2010 she co-founded the New Leaders Network with Josh Wright (AusDance Vic), a peer-to-peer learning environment for leaders of small-medium Melbourne cultural organisations. Prior to her time with Melbourne Fringe, Emily worked as an independent producer, in cultural development with City of Frankston, and produced major events and festivals for Sydney University.

Emily is currently a board member with Theatre Network Victoria and hosts “Time to Talk” for the Malthouse Theatre. Emily regularly acts in a curatorial advisory capacity for festivals, public and private funding bodies across Australia. In 2011 she is a participant in the Australia Council’s inaugural Emerging Leaders Development Program.

Paul Gurney, Executive Director

paul.gurney (at) nextwave.org.au

Paul Gurney joined Next Wave early in 2009 as Operations Manager and helped manage the accounts and finance, assisted in program management and risk management, and overall administration in the lead up to the 2010 Festival.

Paul relocated from Perth to Melbourne in 2004 to undertake an internship at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of his degree in Arts Management (BA) from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. After graduating, Paul became part of the Exhibition Management Team at the NGV and was employed full-time at the Gallery up until January 2009. During his time at the Gallery Paul worked on many large and small scale exhibitions including the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series.

In addition to the NGV, Paul volunteered as a board member for Seventh Gallery Inc, Fitzroy from 2005 to 2007. During this time Paul also contributed to the Making Space publication and was also responsible for the Gallery’s Media and Communications strategies. Prior to arriving in Melbourne Paul worked at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art as an administrator, Front of House and installation team member.

Serena Bentley, Artistic Program Manager

serena (at) nextwave.org.au

Serena Bentley has extensive experience in the visual arts sector, particularly in arts administration and project management.

An Art History Graduate from the University of Auckland, she has worked for commercial galleries in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne and in a curatorial capacity at Auckland Art Gallery. While completing her Masters degree, she was a university and ESOL tutor as well as the New Zealand Patrons’ Guide at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Serena is also a freelance art writer and curator and writes regularly for a number of Australasian publications, including The Art Market Report, White Fungus, New Planes and Eyecontact. This year she was a participant in the 2011 Gertrude Contemporary and Art and Australia Emerging Writers’ Program.

In 2009 Serena presented From the depths of suburbia – photo-media from Auckland, a touring exhibition in association with Brisbane’s Griffith University and Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland. Her forthcoming freelance project is an exhibition of new and recent work by New Zealand artist Yvonne Todd that opens at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, in February 2012.

Lucy McNamara, Administration Coordinator

lucy (at) nextwave.org.au

While completing her degree in Fine Art (Sculpture and Spatial Practice) at the Victorian College of the Arts, Lucy McNamara contributed widely to the arts in Australia. Lucy has volunteered for various arts organisations, produced arts publications, assisted in the production of events, performances and fundraisers, coordinated exhibitions and collaborated with other artists on various projects.

Lucy has extensive experience in arts administration and finance from the retail, corporate and not-for-profit sectors and over the last few years Lucy has held responsibilities as varied as assisting in the installation of balloon decorations at the MCG on AFL Grand Final day, to working as the Building Coordinator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

Lucy is particularly excited to be involved in multiple dialogues surrounding the notions of space implied by the next Next Wave Festival theme, but she sincerely hopes the May 2012 Festival opening doesn’t involve any balloons.

Kristy Ayre, Associate Producer

Kristy Ayre has been a contributor to the Melbourne contemporary dance community for over a decade through her contributions as a performer, collaborator, choreographer, rehearsal director, teacher, curator and program manager. She has performed with Chunky Move for more than nine years appearing in many major Arts Festivals and venues both within Australia and throughout the world.

Kristy has also worked for Lucy Guerin Inc, Shelley Lasica, Dario Vacirca, Prue Lang, Itoh Kim (Japan), Eddie Perfect and Token Productions, Frances D’ath, Natalie Cursio and is a regular collaborator with Independent dance maker, Luke George. Kristy was a participating artist in the 2009 Splendid Arts Lab affirming her passion for the support of emerging cross artform and multi-disciplinary work.

Ashley Dyer, Associate Producer

Ashley Dyer is sometimes a performance maker, sometimes a workshop facilitator and other times a producer.

Ashley is passionate about finding better ways for artists to sustain themselves artistically and financially. At the moment, when thinking about art, he is often curious about multi-outcome art making processes, active vs. passive participation, accumulation, intimate spectacle and the relationship between documentation and mythology. He believes that conceptual approaches to art making can be important but often the best works are those that defy definition.

Over the past five years Ashley has worked in a number of formal and informal roles with the artist run initiative Quarterbred and PACT – Centre for Emerging Artists. In those roles, he was one of the co-creators of Tiny Stadiums festival and was the festival’s program manager for its first two highly successful years.

For the majority of 2010 he has been travelling, developing and presenting work overseas in Rennes, Paris, Belgium and the UK. Ashley presented a work at 2010 Next Wave Festival (And them something fell on my head) and looks forward to offering his experiences to the new artists that will be involved in this one. After living in Sydney for some time, he is keen to be Melbourne, where he can see Port Adelaide play football live more often.

Briony Galligan, Associate Producer

Briony Galligan is an independent producer and artist, who has worked across interdisciplinary arts practices, festivals, design and heritage projects. Briony is interested in projects and possibilities that sit between genres, and those that transform public spaces and institutions. Briony has worked with Next Wave as an artist in the 2008 Festival and as a production intern in 2010 for the keynote project Great Heights 2, Floating above shadows, moored beneath clouds.

As Festival Assistant in 2008 and Fringe Furniture Producer for Melbourne Fringe in 2010, Briony worked closely with artists; Briony coordinated studio residencies, produced exhibitions, and administered mentorship programs.

At Museum Victoria recently, Briony was a Curator and Exhibitions Manager and helped develop and facilitate temporary exhibitions with a range of community groups. Prior to this, Briony assisted on arts projects and the Mudfest10 festival with the University of Melbourne and VCA.

Next Wave Board

Janenne Willis (Chair) – Member since December 2007

Janenne is currently Founder and Managing Director of Undercurrent, a boutique company specialising in strategy, change and communications. She has an impressive corporate track record in both industrial and consumer environments based on strategic marketing and an ability to successfully drive change in teams facing uncertain conditions.

Janenne is an avid learner with a bank of formal qualifications including an MBA and awards in International Marketing and Business Planning. She is also a fellow of the exclusive Leadership Victoria’s Williamson Community Leadership Program, an intense course in community leadership that explores the issues facing Victoria in the next ten years.

Kath Papas (Deputy Chair) – Member since 2007

Kath Papas is a freelance creative producer and consultant specialising in dance, but also working across and outside the arts. Kath was Director of Ausdance Victoria – the Victorian state office of Australia’s dance support and advocacy network – from 2003 to June 2009, having previously been Administrator. Kath has strong skills in strategy and organisational management, and an understanding of issues and practices across the Victorian dance sector including dance in education and accredited training contexts. During her directorship Kath led the move of the Australian Dance Awards to Melbourne for 2008-10 from their first home in Sydney and was executive producer of the 2008 and 2009 events. She pioneered, produced and curated major projects and programs in the areas of youth dance, Indigenous dance, cultural diversity, and regional dance, areas in which she maintains a special interest. Kath has a movement improvisation practice and collaborates as a deviser/performer of original physical work.

Chetan Arjun (Treasurer) – Member since February 2010

Chetan currently works within the Assurance division at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The division takes an active interest in the provision of services such as financial audit, due-diligence and a range of assurance-based consulting engagements. Chetan has been with PwC for five years and has a range of experience across a wide reaching client portfolio.
Chetan holds two bachelor degrees, one in Commerce and the other in Information Systems and is a qualified Charted Accountant.

Kate Sulan (Secretary/Public Officer) – Member since August 2005

Kate is the founder of Rawcus Theatre Company, which develops new work with actors with disabilities. In 2002 Rawcus was awarded the department of Human Services Inclusion Award for Arts and Culture and has produced several acclaimed works including Flight, and Designer Child.

Rebecca Burdon – Member since November 2009

Rebecca is the Principal Economist at the Australia Communications and Media Authority. Prior to this role, she worked for eight years as a consultant for Frontier Economics where she led the firm’s telecommunications practice in Australia. Before moving to Melbourne, Rebecca worked in London for a number of years advising governments, regulators and multilateral donor agencies on issues associated with regulatory reform of water and sanitation services in the Caribbean and West Africa.

Rebecca has a strong interest in the arts and has assisted visual artists and artist run initiatives with budgeting, project management, and funding models. She is a founding member of Field Theory, a Melbourne based organisation established to support live art. Rebecca has a Masters of Science in Economics.

Justin Hooper – Member since April 2011

Justin Hooper is a Senior Associate at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. He works as a media lawyer and is involved with Corrs’ pro bono program.

James Newman – Member since April 2011

James Newman is currently the Publishing Director for Hardie Grant Magazines, Australia’s biggest independent custom magazine publisher. Previously James worked with Fairfax Media in the role of New Business Director, an executive role surfacing and realising green field opportunities. James has managed projects as diverse as the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games for Fairfax through to the implementation of Earth Hour with WWF in 2008.

James’ first career was with The Australian Ballet retiring as a Leading Soloist after 10 years with the company. James has held many senior management roles in advertising, sales and marketing. He is a member of many leadership groups and has held positions on the SA state economic forum, was a participant in the Governors Leadership Foundation and was awarded ‘The Australian Leadership Award’ in 2008 by the Australia/Davos Connection and he has attended the Future Summit as an awardee for the past three years. James is a the founding director of Intellon Pty Ltd, a consultancy specialising in business improvement, a director of An Hour on Earth and has served on numerous boards and committees.

Malena Roufos – Member since December 2007

Malena Roufos is Director of Human Resources with the Melbourne Business School, one of Australia’s pre-eminent provider’s of business education and management development. Malena brings to Next Wave a solid background in Human Resources having held various senior leadership positions within the corporate arena. Malena provides Next Wave with experience in performance management, change management, strategy development and leadership development and holds a Bachelor of Business majoring in Human Resource Management and Finance.

Design Credits

Graphic design by Chase & Galley..
Site designed and built by The Golden Grouse.

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‘Next Wave’ is a registered trade mark, and is property of Next Wave. For any questions relating to using the term ‘Next Wave’ please send us an email.