What does it take to build a sustainable career in the arts? And how can the industry better support emerging artists with disability?

Come to Chau Chak Wing Museum or join online as we explore The Emerging Artists Toolkit.

Emerging and established artists will share tips, resources and lived experience on navigating the arts industry, from securing funding and building networks to creating accessible opportunities and imagining what’s next for emerging artists.

Artists Digby Webster and Ava Lacoon will be joined by Creative Producer Kate Matthews for this exciting panel event, MC'd by Michael Dagostino, the Director of Museums and Cultural Engagement at Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Tuesday 5 August

3pm – 4.15pm
1-hour panel conversation, followed by a 15-minute Q&A (in person and online)

4.15pm – 5pm
Networking and light refreshments (in person only)

Join in person

Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney

Join online

Access

This wheelchair accessible event will be Auslan interpreted and captioned.

The in-person event at Chau Chak Wing Museum will be open captioned. The online event will be closed captioned.

The accessible hybrid platform for this event is being managed by Livecrowd.

About the Speakers

Digby Webster – Artist

Digby Webster is a multidisciplinary artist based in Sydney’s Inner West, celebrated for his vibrant visual language, collaborative spirit and commitment to inclusive arts practice. Working across painting, drawing, fashion, ceramics, murals, and performance, his diverse practice explores identity, accessibility, and creative connection.

Known for his bold use of colour and expressive mark-making, Webster has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows across Australia. Highlights include Butterfly Effect at 107 Green Square (2022), Daydream with Neil Tomkins at Studio Gallery Cheltenham, and Make Your Mark with Georgia Norton Lodge at the Museum of Sydney. His work is also visible in public spaces, including murals created through Inner West Council’s Perfect Match program.

A founding artist at Front Up Studios, Webster is an advocate for inclusive creativity, facilitating workshops with institutions such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art. He has also contributed to award-winning short films, including The Interviewer and Heartbreak and Beauty, as both performer and production designer with Bus Stop Films.

Currently, Webster is serving as VJ (Visual Jockey) for A Laugh-Out-Loud Musical Adventure for All Ages — a family-friendly, intergalactic theatre production blending puppetry, original music, and multimedia. Created by Second Echo Ensemble in collaboration with Midnight Feast Theatre Company, the show celebrates diversity, creativity, and self-acceptance, and is presented as part of SEE’s 20th Anniversary Season at the Sydney Opera House.

A two-time finalist in the Archibald Prize, Webster has undertaken residencies at Bundanon and Hill End. His work has toured internationally with the BiG-i Art Project and is held in major collections including Artbank and the Australia Council for the Arts. He continues to push boundaries through projects that fuse visual art with performance, fashion, and storytelling — always with the goal of bringing joy, challenging perceptions, and expanding the visibility of artists with disability

Ava Lacoon – Artist

Ava Lacoon (she/they) is a Queer, Disabled, Crip, Anglo-Asian, (forever) emerging writer, curator and arts worker living on Sovereign Gadigal Land. Her practice is shaped by the expansive methodologies of Anti-colonial, Queer and Crip Studies and focuses on facilitating spaces that enable community connection and chase the horizon of potentiality.

She recently Guest Edited ‘Hyphen’ – Artlink’s Warlati/ Summer Issue. They won the Kudos Emerging Writer Award in 2024 and have been published by Artlink, Memo and the National Gallery of Australia. Ava is a participant in Accessible Arts and Diversity Arts 2025 Ripple: Disability and Culturally Diverse Internship Program.

Kate Matthews – Creative Producer

Kate Matthews is a passionate arts producer with extensive experience across local government, national institutions, and not-for-profit sectors in Sydney and Canberra. She is dedicated to inclusive, dynamic and accessible arts programming that empowers creative communities, activates public space and strengthens the cultural sector. A strong advocate for embedding access at every stage of the process, Kate champions approaches that ensure everyone can engage meaningfully with the arts. As a practicing artist, she speaks both the language of government and that of a creative, approaching producing as an act of translation between these two realms.

Michael Dagostino (MC)

Michael Dagostino commenced as the Director of Museums and Cultural Engagement at Chau Chak Wing Museum in March 2023. With over 25 years' experience in the contemporary arts sector, Michael has had many leadership roles including as inaugural Director of the Parramatta Artists Studios where he developed an innovative hub for emerging artists to extend their professional practices locally and internationally.

In 2011, Michael became the Director of Campbelltown Arts Centre, a flagship cultural venue for contemporary multi-disciplinary art. Under his leadership, the Centre won numerous awards, including 3 Imagine Awards (consecutively and the first art gallery to do so), as well as a prestigious ICOM (International Council of Museums) Award for With Secrecy and Despatch, the first non‐national or state cultural institution to win this award.

Michael’s career includes being the Chair of Artspace, on the boards of Accessible Arts, FBi Radio, and Sydney Writers Festival and leadership positions on the NSW State Government Arts and Cultural Advisory Committee, Western Sydney Arts Alliance and Sydney Cultural Network.

Accessible Arts is proudly supported by Create NSW and this Hybrid Event Series has been made possible with support from the City of Sydney, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Livecrowd.

Image description: Collage of headshots of the panellists and MC (from left to right): Kate Matthews, Digby Webster (photo by Kim Batterham, courtesy of Yarra Bank Films) Ava Lacoon and Michael Dagostino.