Access Ideas and Insights: Co-Design in Practice

Our upcoming Access Ideas and Insights panel examines co-design as a creative process when artists lead the development of new work.

Together, speakers will discuss how ideas are shaped, negotiated and sometimes challenged through collaboration, and how authorship and decision-making are shared across artists, communities and organisations.

From Songsmiths to Milk Crate Theatre, the panel showcases different approaches to co-design, highlighting how collaborative practice can shape creative processes, artistic outcomes and community development through meaningful engagement, connection and shared ownership.

Panelists include Felicity Nicol (Senior Artistic Associate at Milk Crate Theatre), Irene Zhong (Composer and Singer-Songwriter) and Leila Harris (Composer, Songwriter and Musician). This event will be MC’d be Dr Jessica Olivieri (Co-Artistic Director of Utp).

Where and When

Monday 10 August

3pm – 4.15pm (1-hour panel followed by 15-min Q&A)
4.15pm – 5pm (Networking and light refreshments, in-person only)

Join in person

Come to ACO On The Pier and enjoy networking after the event. For details on how to get to the venue, please click here or check out the Visual Story.

Please avoid wearing fragrances in order to enhance inclusion for those with chemical sensitivities.

Join online

Register to join online and a link will be emailed to you upon registration.

Access

This wheelchair accessible event will be Auslan interpreted and captioned. The in-person event at ACO On The Pier will be open captioned. The online event will be closed captioned

About the Panellists

Felicity Nicol – Senior Artistic Associate, Milk Crate Theatre

Felicity Nicol is an award-winning Director, Writer and Performance Maker, and a graduate of the NIDA Directors Course. She has worked extensively across Australia and internationally, regularly collaborating with world renowned socially-engaged performance company Mammalian Diving Reflex, and has presented work at festivals including Dark Mofo, Sydney WorldPride, 10 Nodi, Wiener Festwochen and Ruhrtriennale. A proud queer, neurodivergent and disabled artist, Felicity has spent over a decade creating work with marginalised communities, an experience that has shaped her view of access and ethical community engagement as non-negotiable. Her work uses humour, history, politics and the body to disrupt systems of power. She is currently Senior Artistic Associate at Milk Crate Theatre.

Irene Zhong – Composer and Singer-Songwriter

Irene Zhong is a Hakka-Chinese singer-songwriter, violinist, and composer working on Wurundjeri land. Informed by Hakka-Chinese musical traditions and western classical music, Irene’s work centres on myth, connection, relatedness, and ecology in an ever-changing world. In 2021, Irene participated in Arts Access Victoria’s Music Makers Mentorship program under the guidance of Parvyn. In 2025, Irene composed and performed for Love Love Love Love Love Love, an interactive show by Caroline Bowditch and Laura Hook for children under one years old and their rainbow families.

Leila Harris – Composer, Songwriter and Musician

Leila Harris is a composer, songwriter, musician and music producer. She combines her eclectic training and influences across classical and pop/contemporary music to create innovative works that weave artistic disciplines, bewitching audiences with evocative, ethereal and cinematic soundworlds. Leila is interested in the power of the arts to uplift, empower, move and challenge and seeks to carve out spaces for diverse and experimental voices. She has composed for a broad range of styles, genres, artists, groups and ensembles in Australia and internationally.

About the MC

Dr Jessica Olivieri – Co-Artistic Director, Utp

Dr Jessica Olivieri is a BA graduate of the now defunct, always legendary Western Sydney University Art School, undertaking study at the Piet Zwart and receiving a PhD from Sydney University. This PhD focused on the intersections of visual art, performance, dance and theatre within a community setting and how to do it better. Prior to this, Jessica had a practice as an artist and curator showing at major institutions like Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne and curating for Performance Space, Sydney and Campbelltown Arts Centre. Jessica’s experience of growing up in an intercultural environment, as well as ten years of house-bound chronic illness and dyslexia, have informed her commitment to intersectional access to the arts. She is currently Co-Artistic Director at Utp.

Accessible Arts is proudly supported by Create NSW and this Hybrid Event has been made possible with support from ACO.

ENDS

Image description: Collage of headshots of the panellists and MC. From left to right: Dr Jessica Olivieri, Leila Harris, Irene Zhong (photo by Kate Disher-Quill) and Felicity Nicol.

Contact the host of Access Ideas and Insights: Co-Design in Practice