Create Exchange: Find a mentor

How connecting to creative knowledge, wisdom and experience can benefit your practice

With Martin del Amo & Marcus Whale, Rosie Dennis & Nathan Stoneham and Vicki Van Hout and Thomas E.S. Kelly 

Webinar Overview:

Have you ever thought about asking someone for professional guidance or support along your career pathway? Or are you at a point in your career where you think you might have something to offer an emerging creative practitioner? If the answer is yes, this webinar is for you. 

Create NSW has invited three pairs of mentors and mentees in the NSW arts community to talk about their relationships. How did they come about? What happened as a result, and was there reciprocity in the arrangement? 

This session will be recorded and shared online here.

About our panel

Marcus Whale

Marcus Whale (b. 1990, Sydney) makes music, performance and writing about the ecstasy and horror of desire, the void and the divine. His shows, often taking place in the round or amongst audiences, range from sets of live music to song-length club moments, from gallery performances to full-length stage shows in the theatre. He is a current member of the band Perfect Actress, a former member of Collarbones and BV and is a 6-time nominee for the Australian Music Prize. With Gus McGrath, he presents the show Sleepless in Sydney on FBi Radio.

Martin del Amo

Martin del Amo is a choreographer and dancer with 30 years of professional experience. He is best known for his solos fusing idiosyncratic movement and intimate storytelling, and has received acclaim more recently as a creator of group works and solos for others. Programmed by many major festivals and venues across the country, his work has toured nationally and internationally. Martin’s contribution to the Australian arts sector as a teacher, dramaturg, dance writer and mentor to emerging artists has been recognised with the prestigious Creative Australia Award for Dance (2024), the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance (2018) and a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship (2015).

Rosie Denis

Rosie Dennis is a well-respected arts leader whose work has contributed to a national conversation about contemporary place-based practice and the role arts and culture plays in building community and shaping liveable cities. Rosie is currently the Director of BAMM - Bank Art Museum Moree). Prior to this role she was Executive Director of Bleach* and Big City Lights Festivals on the Gold Coast, Co-Artistic Director of Performance Space and Creative Director of Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery's Hobart Current. From 2012-2019 Rosie was the CEO/Artistic Director of Urban Theatre Projects (UTP). Rosie’s earlier career saw her work presented at over 25 festivals across Central Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Nathan Stoneham

Nathan Stoneham is a community and cultural development artist with over fifteen years of experience creating contemporary, socially engaged arts projects and performances across the Asia-Pacific. A recipient of a Creative Australia Fellowship, Nathan is committed to collaborative processes and creativity in everyday life.

Holding a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Drama and Music), a Bachelor of Education, and a Master’s in Social Work, Nathan’s work spans independent projects, festivals, governments, and NGOs. His practice experiments with transcultural and queer approaches to storytelling and shared experiences to generate ideas, connections, and friendships.

Vicki Van Hout 

Vicki Van Hout is an established Indigenous performance maker and teacher who works in both her Indigenous community and within the contemporary dance, theatre and visual arts sectors. Vicki was the first Indigenous artist awarded Create NSW's Mid-Career Dance Fellowship (2014). A graduate of NAISDA Dance College and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York, she went on to perform with major Indigenous dance companies, Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, before joining forces with Marilyn Miller as a founding member of Fresh Dancers. With Marilyn, Vicki performed Dear Carrie for One extra Dance and Quinkin for the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Her show Briwyant was the first ever show by an independent Indigenous choreographer to tour nationally and was nominated for an Australian Dance Award for Best Achievement in Independent Dance. She has also completed various residencies in Australia and overseas, including in Austria and Singapore. Recipient of The Australia Council Dance Award in 2019 and one of fifty arts workers chosen to contribute to a book celebrating the Sydney Opera House' 50th Anniversary (2023).

Thomas E.S. Kelly 

Thomas E.S. Kelly is a proud Minjungbal, Wiradjuri and Ni-Vanuatu man. He studied at NAISDA Dance College and graduated in 2012. Thomas is an artist, a storyteller that works many roles with multiple art forms which include, but not limited to, choreography, dance, theatre, directing and sound design. In 2017 Thomas co-founded and became Artistic Director of Karul Projects. A multi-award winning dancer and choreographer, Thomas was the 2018 recipient of The Dreaming Awards at the National Indigenous Arts Awards.

Image: Martin del Amo and Marcus White, Photo credit Frankie Clarke