Join us for a chat with Creative Australia’s International Engagement Team at BREC
Kaya South West artists and arts organisations,
You are cordially invited to BREC [Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre] to join Zainab Syed and Karen Le Roy from Creative Australia’s International Engagement team for a relaxed and informal discussion about their current grant programs and activities. This is your chance to ask them any questions and share about your own practice and international aspirations.
Artists of all disciplines and levels of experience welcome – literature, visual arts, music, theatre, dance, interdisciplinary, etc. It will also be a nice opportunity to meet or catch up with local peers and perhaps meet new creative comrades!
Just so we have enough chairs and snacks ready, we would be very grateful if you can fill out the very brief registration form. If you have access needs, please let us know via the form.
Date: Monday 29 April
Time: 4-6pm
Address: Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre
2 Blair St, Bunbury.
Enter via main Box Office doors.
Venue will be advised on arrival (and once we have an idea on numbers because you have all registered…).
On a monday night you should have no trouble parking at BREC.
Register Here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CreativeAustraliaInfoSession
About Creative Australia
Creative Australia is the Australian Government’s principal arts investment and advisory body. It was founded as the Australia Council for the Arts in 1968, and in 2023 became Creative Australia; a bigger, bolder champion and investor in arts and creativity. With artists at the heart of what they do, they invest in creative talent and stimulate the market for Australian stories to be told on a national and international scale, sharing our rich culture with the world. They do this because art and creativity define us, recording what we have been and what we might yet become. As a nation, creativity connects us and benefits us all. https://creative.gov.au/
About Zainab Syed
Zainab Syed is the Director of International at Creative Australia, leading the organization’s international engagement strategy for the arts. Some of you will remember her from the BREC Artist Retreat in 2021!
Originally from Pakistan, Zainab has lived, studied and worked across Romania, Yemen, England, Wales, US and Australia. Her practice sits at the intersection of social justice and live performance. After graduating from Brown University, USA, she toured across the world as a performance poet working with incarcerated women, trauma victims and refugees in prisons and detention centres. From 2014-2017 Zainab worked as a researcher with the Centre for Muslim States and Societies in Perth, WA and New York University, USA. Between 2017-2023 Zainab worked at Performing Lines WA in Perth and Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney as a Senior Producer spearheading ambitious works of scale with artists across dance and theatre. Her work has focused on facilitating intercultural collaborations, developing inclusive frameworks for creating new work and pathways for culturally diverse artists; as well touring Australian works regionally, nationally and internationally alongside advocacy work enabling systemic change within small to medium and mainstage institutions in Australia.
Zainab has served on the board of the Blue Room Theatre board and Theatre Network Australia board. She is also a founder of Pakistan Poetry Slam, co-founder of HME-WRK: a diverse arts collective, a Humanitarian Observer with the Australian Red Cross Immigration Detention Program and a 2020 Churchill Fellow.
About Karen Le Roy
Karen Le Roy is the International Engagement Adviser for North America at Creative Australia, working to create connections for Australian artists and organisations with their international peers in Canada, Mexico and the US, and to foster international collaboration and exchange.
Programs she manages at Creative Australia include international residencies, outbound market delegations, inbound visitor programs, in-market platforms, strategic partnerships and exchanges. She has worked as an arts administrator and producer for 25 years, and has lived, studied and worked in Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, London, Spain and Mexico. She specialises in strategy and evaluation, public and industry events, grants and engagement programs, and strategic initiatives across art forms.
About BREC
BREC [Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre] is the much loved and multi-award-winning performing arts centre and conference venue serving Bunbury and Australia’s South West since 1990. BREC brings people together to share exceptional experiences and is committed to playing our part in supporting capacity building for artists and artsworkers across the region. A cornerstone of our contribution to growing professional practice opportunities locally is the BREC Artist Retreat held every two years at Donnelly River Village. A number of projects have emerged from these Retreats including ‘The Smallest Stage’ by Manjimup artist Kim Crotty, which was was produced by BREC, co-comissioned by Perth Festival and premiereed in the Cube, before tranferring to the State Theatre Centre of WA for the 2022 Festival