Claire Bushby

Claire Bushby is an artist and curator based in Perth. In 2015, she completed a Master of Arts (Visual Arts) at Edith Cowan University investigating collective production and participatory practice. She works from her studio at Gotham Studios, Northbridge and has performed a wide range of roles in Perth arts organisations including Heathcote Museum & Gallery, Paper Mountain, His Majesty’s Theatre and Spectrum Project Space. In 2014 she completed an Asialink residency at Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan and she received DCA funding for a residency at Listhús in Ólafsfjörður, Northern Iceland. Claire has been included in exhibitions in Shanghai, Taipei, London, Sydney and Perth. From 2015-17 she was a Co-Director of Paper Mountain (Artist Run Initiative) in Northbridge and is currently Coordinator of Spectrum Project Space at Edith Cowan University, Curator for the Uniting Church in the City’s annual Stations of the Cross exhibition and an Artsource WA Board member.

Professor Bill Loader

Bill is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Murdoch University, Extraordinary Professor at North-West University, South Africa, a Minister of the UCA and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. From 1978-2005 he was NT Lecturer at the Perth Theological Hall and for some of that time its Principal, a role to which he returned 2014 – 2016 in an honorary capacity. He is Assistant Secretary of the Society for New Testament Studies responsible International Initiatives coordinating Liaison Committees in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and the Asia Pacific to promote New Testament research. He has written extensively across the field of New Testament studies, including 10 major research books as well books for a wider readership and many articles in journals and book chapters. He also writes lectionary resources for preachers on his website which are widely used in Australia and internationally. Bill is both a scholar of international standing and an enthusiastic communicator of scholarship to the wider public. Bill gave the lecture which set the theme for the Mandorla Art Award for 2018.

Janis Nedela

A Co-Director of Gallery East Art Services since 1993, Jánis served on the curatorial staff of the Art Gallery of WA for 14 years to 1993. He lectured in Art Management and Art History at the Central Metropolitan College of TAFE (Mt Lawley College and WA School of Art, Design and Media) for 7 seven years to 1996, and was Exhibition Programmes Manager for CRAFTWEST, Centre for Contemporary Craft, Perth 1996-1998. Since 2014, he has been on the curatorial team for Kerry Stokes art collection, as an assistant curator.

Jànis is an Authorised Valuer for the Commonwealth Government’s ‘Cultural Gifts Program’ Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme (TIAS established 1981), a preferred Provider for the Acquisition of Art and Craft by the State Government of Western Australia, a member of the Arts Consulting Association of Australia (ACCA incorporated 2006), and a member of The Asian Arts Society of Australia.  From 2012-2014, he served on the Board of Artsource, Western Australian’s leading representative visual arts organisation.

Ric Spencer

Dr Ric Spencer is an artist and writer and since 2011 has been the Curator at Fremantle Arts Centre.

He has been involved in numerous art activities as a curator, writer and artist, has exhibited in Australia, Asia and the UK and had his work published in Australian, UK and American arts journals. From 2004-2010 he wrote art criticism for The West Australian newspaper and from 2000-2010 he lectured at Curtin University where he holds a Doctor of Creative Arts.

Anne Ryan

Curator of Australian Prints, Drawings & Watercolours at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Anne Ryan has organised a number of exhibitions and publications on Australian art on artists including Fred Williams, David Aspden and Lloyd Rees, and Australian printmaking. She studied at the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales, and was the Sarah and William Holmes Scholar in the Departments of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum in 2001-02. She was the curator of the 2014 and 2016 Dobell Australian drawing biennial exhibitions Drawing out and Close to home and curator of the annual Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes in 2015 and 2017.

Jarrod McKenna

Jarrod McKenna is the Teaching Pastor at Cornerstone Church, World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe’s consultant on nonviolent social change, the co-founder of the #LoveMakesAWay movement, the largest faith based civil disobedience movement in Australia’s history, and is the co-founder of First Home Project, where he lives with recently arrived refugees. As well as Jarrod’s theological studies, he initially studied Fine Arts at Curtin University and exhibited with David Bowie in MOMA in 2000. Jarrod occasionally mentions this because it makes it sounds incredibly cool. Did I mention Bowie?