Leadership Lab - Sydney
Description
Leadership Lab - Sydney is a free, one-day, in-person event for Sydney-based artists and arts workers.
A cross between a workshop and a conference, the Leadership Lab helps you better understand the system you’re working in, connect with peers in generative ways, and identify small but powerful actions you can test to create change.
Each event is co-created by Creative Australia and Local Curators to celebrate and platform sector-led leadership. For our Sydney Lab, we are working with Akala Newman, a Wiradjuri/Gadigal multidisciplinary performer, songwriter, educator, and cultural producer, and Paula Abood, cultural worker and educator, writer and creative producer.
At the Lab you’ll hear inspiring perspectives from featured speakers, take part in practical breakout sessions and leave with ideas you can apply in your context, organisation or community. You don’t need to be in a formal leadership role to attend – all you need is an interest in working collaboratively on shared challenges.
Morning tea and lunch is provided. Catering will be vegan and vegetarian friendly.
Registrations close on Thursday 19 November 2026.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of this event you can email us via leadershipprogram@creative.gov.au or call us on +61 2 9215 9058.
Image: Leadership Lab - Adelaide, 2026. Credit: Sia Duff.
Accessibility
This event will have a range of access supports available including:
quiet room
visual story (guide to access features of the venue and event)
adjustable lighting
air conditioning.
If you have other access needs such as captions, notetaking or Auslan interpreting, please let us know when you register. We will work with you to support your access needs.
Parents (or those with caring responsibilities) and their children are welcome at this event. Please get in touch if you have any questions about facilities at the venue or the program.
Financial support
If you experience barriers to attending because you identify as a person with disability or who is d/Deaf, we can provide some financial support for access costs you might have so you can attend this event. For example: costs of Uber/taxi to get to the venue, support workers or childcare. You can apply for this when you register.
If you would prefer to discuss your access needs with us before you register you can email us via leadershipprogram@creative.gov.au or call us on +61 2 9215 9058.
Local Curators
Akala Newman
Akala Newman is a Wiradjuri/Gadigal interdisciplinary artist, curator, and arts worker from South-West Sydney, creating immersive worlds through sound, language, movement and Country. Her practice moves between music, performance, cultural programming and exploring memory, identity, belonging and the spaces between worlds. Akala is First Nations Advisor at Arts & Cultural Exchange, Parramatta and an Artist Educator at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. She founded and leads Gili Gatherings, Dark House and Ripples of Memory, platforms for connection, experimentation and cultural exchange.
Paula Abood
Dr. Paula Abood has worked at the intersections of community, culture and education for over three decades. She has written, directed, produced and published across multiple platforms including performance Songs for Life: A Choral Offering from The Children’s Choir for the Biennale of Sydney (2026), fiction ‘Memory for Hunger’ in Southerly (2025), and chapters in The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry (2025) and Arab Australian Other: Stories on Race and Identity (2019). Paula received a Creative Australia Fellowship (2018) and the Ros Bower Award (2013) for her work with refugee and immigrant communities.
Host
Dr. Ananth Gopal
Dr. Ananth Gopal is a facilitator, coach, geographer, and actor with 12 years of experience helping organisations and communities navigate complexity, change, and diversity. He brings a unique blend of academic insight and creative practice, combining a PhD in Human Geography with a professional background in theatre. His work spans the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, with a focus on adaptive leadership, inclusion, and systems thinking. Trained at Harvard Kennedy School by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Ananth is a committee member of the Australian Adaptive Leadership Institute and founder of Polykala, a leadership and facilitation practice focused on the social and ecological challenges of our time. Ananth has taught at the Universities of Melbourne and Wollongong (in Geography) and designed and facilitated programs for clients including Creative Australia, Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet, Melbourne Theatre Company, City of Melbourne, Australian Museum, UTS and the Australasian College of Paramedicine. As an actor, he has performed across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, and is an Associate Artist with Melbourne Playback Theatre Company. His approach to leadership development is experiential, reflective, and rooted in the arts—enabling organisations to shift culture and strengthen their capacity to lead with nuance, courage, and care.
Presenters
Julie Jones Webb | Welcome to Country
Julie Jones Webb is a cultural consultant working in First Nations sectors across early childhood, Health, Aged Care, Education, Private and Government sectors. She is a proud Dharug woman, Traditional Custodian and Knowledge Keeper from multiple fresh and saltwater clans. She works as an advocate, educator, consultant, artist and mentor. She is currently the Chairperson of Dharug Strategic Management Group (DSMG), and a former Chairperson of the Darug Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation and recently led creation of Dharug Allies for Nura Alliance. She is also a board member of Arts & Cultural Exchange Parramatta and member of ACE's Dharug Knowledge Holders Group and advises on the First Nations programs. Julie is deeply invested in supporting the truth and power Aboriginal art and culture.
Rosanna Barbero | Breakout session facilitator
Rosanna Barbero has worked for decades working on women’s rights, human rights and environmental justice across the Global South. She has worked with international and multilateral agencies and with people’s movements. She founded and directed Womyns Agenda for Change, a regional human rights and poverty elimination organisation. She was also an official advisor to the ASEAN parliamentary bodies AIPO and WAIPO, working with MPs across the region on economic, social and political policy. In Cambodia, Rosanna started a sex workers’ union and led the campaign that ended unethical drug trials on vulnerable women. She has led regional and global studies on food security, microcredit, trafficking, religious fundamentalism and the impact of the global financial crisis on women. Under her leadership, Addi Road was a 2020 Human Rights Heroes finalist. Her experience has taught her one thing above all: it is the strength of communities that brings change.
Euan Black | Breakout session facilitator
At TACSI, Euan combines three of their passions — design, networks and social justice — to unearth better ways of working together that create real change. For him, the best part of the job is connecting the deep wisdom of people with lived experience with other rich evidence, and using the insights that emerge to imagine new possibilities for people and systems. Empathetic yet strategic, Euan naturally thinks in systems and uses that ability to help other people build their own systems awareness and leadership. Euan loves leaning into the discomfort of being a beginner and strives to learn about the world through the eyes of others. A design and pop music enthusiast, Euan is passionate about good typography and perfectly produced Scandinavian pop.
Toby Chapman | Breakout session facilitator
Toby Chapman is an arts leader and curator with extensive experience across Western Sydney’s cultural sector. He has curated exhibitions and programs for major institutions and festivals including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, the Shanghai Biennale and the Jakarta Biennale. As CEO and Artistic Director of Penrith Performing & Visual Arts (PP&VA) and previously Director of Penrith Regional Gallery, Toby leads the organisation’s strategic direction and creative vision, focusing on artist development and community engagement.
Hannah Donnelly | Breakout session facilitator
Hannah Donnelly (She/Her) is Wiradjuri curator and writer living and working on Dharug Country. Hannah joined Utp in 2023 as Co-Artistic Director bringing a unique set of skills to arts leadership, including a background working in policy across human rights and fee-for-service cultural safety training. In 2022, Hannah established the Paul Ramsay Foundation’s First Nations permanent exhibition at Yirranma Place, she was a curatorium member for Rivus the 23rd Biennale of Sydney and she edited Blacklight (Sweatshop), a literary anthology of First Nations storytelling from Western Sydney. Her practice and curatorial research spans Indigenous Futures, south-eastern Aboriginal art and intergenerational/intercultural collaborations.
Shona Erskine | Breakout session facilitator
Shona Erskine is registered Psychologist, coach, facilitator and dancer. Shona is dedicated to understanding the complexity inherent in creativity and innovation, and the challenges of expertise and elite performance. She coaches senior leaders in the skills of creative leadership, and leads workshops on the neuroscience of creative practice, spanning corporate, not-for-profit and creative sectors. Shona delivers psychology for performing and visual artists, as well as production and crew, through professional companies, universities, and in private practice. She has developed curriculum in areas of performance and wellbeing for performing artists, teachers, and directors using best practice models. Shona has a contemporary dance background spanning 20 years as a professional performer.
Angie Goto | Breakout session facilitator
Angie Goto is a Deaf Australian artist whose bright, expressive paintings reflect her visual way of experiencing the world. Inspired by everyday life, nature, film and her experiences as a Deaf person, Angie explores creativity through colour and visual storytelling. She studied art and design in Sydney and Newcastle and gained wider recognition in 2016 when a film about her artistic journey became a Tropfest finalist. Angie works part-time as an Artist Educator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney.
Aysenur Kara | Creative Commission
Emerging Turkish artist Aysenur Kara resides and studies on Dharug land. She is a Sydney College of the Arts Honours student, specialising in print media, photography and installation art. Growing up as a second-gen in Western Sydney, her practice has always been informed by her experiences as an ethnic Muslim woman in the Western context. Her time as an emerging artist has taught her a wide range of skills and enabled her to develop an interdisciplinary practice. This matters to her practice, as she acknowledges the long lineage of creative women in her family that has brought her to this stage. Through them, she has been given the ambition to extend her practice in the exhibition and community space at The Casual Powerhouse, Bankstown Art Centre, The MCA, FBI Radio and Verge Gallery.
Nithya Nagarajan | Keynote speaker
Nithya Nagarajan is a Tamil-Australian artist, curator and writer working across contemporary performance and visual cultures. She is Artistic Associate at Sydney Festival, co-founder of South Asian artist collective H-ME W-RK, and a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow. Previous roles include Curator and Artist Development at Parramatta Artists Studios, co-Artistic Director of Arts House, International Engagement Adviser for South and Southeast Asia at Creative Australia, and Manager of Community and Participation at NIDA. Her work has consistently focused on commissioning ambitious new work, fostering international exchange with a focus on the Global South, and driving structural change across the arts sector. Her mainstage debut, Nayika: A Dancing Girl (Belvoir St Theatre, 2024), marked a significant evolution of her artistic practice following her relocation to Sydney. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies for which she received the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence.
Wasielah Noorsjamsi | Creative Commission
Wasielah Noorsjamsi is an Indonesian Australian multidisciplinary artist based on Dharug Country in Western Sydney. Working across installation, textiles and photography, her practice explores faith, cultural memory, domestic rituals and the experience of living in diaspora. Drawing from Islamic traditions, Indonesian heritage and everyday acts of care, she creates works that invite reflection, gathering and conversation. Alongside her individual practice, Wasielah is the co-founder of An.Other Collective, an artist led collective supporting Muslim women creatives across Sydney and Melbourne.
Katt Osborne | Breakout session facilitator
Katt Osborne is an arts leader, company founder, creative producer and performance director and maker. As well as a currently practicing independent artist Katt has held numerous leadership positions, most recently as the Executive Director of The Blue Room Theatre (Boorloo/Perth). Previously she was the Artistic Director of Riptide Youth Performance Company (Mandjoogoordap/Mandurah) and a co-founding artist and the inaugural General Manager of The Last Great Hunt (Boorloo/Perth). In 2023, Katt was awarded a prestigious ‘40under40’ at the Business News awards – WA’s leading awards program that recognises and celebrates the state's leading entrepreneurs, innovators, and future business leaders.
Anna Powell | Breakout session facilitator
Anna Powell has extensive experience building coalitions and networks within communities, nationally and internationally, to bridge divides, address the root drivers of social cohesion and support a more active democracy. She has been CEO of Collaboration for Impact since 2022. Previously, she held leadership roles in international development and philanthropy, driving systems change across diverse contexts. Her work focuses on mobilising people, institutions and ideas to create lasting social impact.
Adeeb Razzouk | Breakout session facilitator
Adeeb Razzouk is an actor, theatre maker, community art and youth worker, Forum Theatre facilitator and intimacy coordinator based on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. His practice is anchored in the conviction that theatre must connect as much as it provokes. He brings a sharp dramaturgical eye and genuine curiosity to all his work. Adeeb graduated with a Bachelor of Theatrical Acting from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus in 2016. His acting credits span theatre, film, radio, voiceover, and dubbing across Syria, Lebanon, and Australia. His recent stage credits include RUINS / أطلال at the Seymour Centre, and his debut solo performance work Papers from the Citadel at PACT which was funded by Creative Australia.
Tarunna Sebastian | Breakout session facilitator
Tarunna Sebastian is a Senior Lecturer in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. A Pitjantjatjara and Anmatyerre woman, her work spans Indigenous education, teacher education, educational leadership, Indigenous knowledges and food governance. Working in partnership with Aboriginal educators, Elders and communities, her research centres Indigenous voices, knowledges, cultural authority and self-determination. She is committed to strengthening Indigenous perspectives in education and challenging colonial assumptions about knowledge, relationships and whose voices are heard. Tarunna is also the Series Editor of the Indigenous Studies Series at Lived Places Publishing.
Leanne Tobin | Breakout session facilitator
Leanne Tobin is a multi-disciplinary artist with Aboriginal, Irish and English convict heritage. Her Aboriginal connections are through the Buruburong and Wumali clans of the Dharug, the traditional Aboriginal people of the Greater Sydney region. Leanne often works collaboratively, using her art practice to tell local histories and stories with the aim to evoke an environmental conscience and respect towards the land and its original people. Her work seeks to encourage an open and honest dialogue about the past and to nurture, respect and care for Country while also conveying the intrinsic spiritual connection Aboriginal people have with the land; a connection that is often hidden beneath the concrete and tar of the city and suburbs.
Program schedule
- 9:00 am - 9:30 am
Registration desk opens
- 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Creative Commission | An.Other Collective
Join An.Other Collective (Wasielah Noorsjamsi and Aysenur Kara) to reflect on the memories, objects and everyday details that shape how you connect with others. You will use embossing and mark making on foil to turn a personal memory into a tactile form, then add it to a shared collective artwork. Through making together, you will consider how leadership and collaboration are strengthened when different histories, perspectives and ways of knowing are valued.
- 9:30 am - 10:00 am
Welcome to Country | Julie Jones Webb
Julie Jones Webb is a cultural consultant working in First Nations sectors across early childhood, Health, Aged Care, Education, Private and Government sectors. She is a proud Dharug woman, Traditional Custodian and Knowledge Keeper from multiple fresh and saltwater clans.
- 10:00 am - 10:15 am
Setting the scene | Ananth Gopal
Ananth Gopal will provide a short introduction to the day and how participants can shape their experience of the Leadership Lab.
- 10:15 am - 10:45 am
Keynote address | GO BIG or, The High Stakes of Playing It Safe with Nithya Nagarajan
We spend an extraordinary amount of time asking artists to be brave while building cultural institutions increasingly wary of risk. Risk is the lifeblood of artistic practice, yet our appetite for it is rarely distributed equally. In a sector preoccupied with demonstrable returns, we have become better at managing risk than contending with possibility. Drawing on her experience of placing bets on the unfamiliar across cultural institutions and international contexts, artist-curator Nithya Nagarajan takes aim at the contradictions of cultural leadership and the uneven politics of ambition. From who gets to make work at scale to what freedoms we are prepared to defend, she makes a case for redistributing risk, backing audacity and expanding our collective cultural horizon. Because playing it safe has never been a neutral position. And the cost of caution might be far greater than we imagine.
- 10:45 am - 11:15 am
Morning Tea
- 11:15 am - 12:30 pm
Break-out session | How collective models can back more First Nations leadership with Hannah Donnelly
First Nations leadership needs you to rethink. How do you account for colonial load vs cultural responsibility? Do you and your organisation employ collective decision-making – challenge conventional hierarchies and power? What do working agreements that back First Nations thinking in leadership roles look like? Participate in group reflection on First Nations retention, career continuity, and impact. Consider what long term relationships embedded in Country beyond projects and organisations can be.
- 11:15 am - 12:30 pm
Break-out session | Unlearning as a Practice of Freedom with Rosanna Barbero
Systems failure is not something new, but in this moment, the impact of dysfunctional systems on our shared communities requires us to unlearn as an act of refusal and resistance. This session will creatively explore sites for unlearning and sites of unlearning as an everyday practice that builds critical leadership praxis.
- 11:15 am - 12:30 pm
Break-out session | Fuzzy Messy: How to map your system around what you care about with Katt Osborne and Shona Erskine (AFOCAL)
AFOCAL invites you to put on your 'systems thinking' glasses to gain a new perspective on the interconnected system that you’re part of. In this introductory taster to systems thinking, you’ll follow alongside our imaginary arts and community organisation while beginning to create a draft map of your own system. Together, we’ll notice patterns, make connections and develop a greater sense of the complex moving parts that influence your context.
- 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
- 1:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Break-out Session | Read the Room: Body Language & Visual Networking with Angie Goto
Discover how to build meaningful professional connections through visual communication, body language and active observation. This practical workshop explores how to read social cues, recognise when someone is interested in connecting, and understand when a conversation may be coming to an end. Through interactive activities and real-life examples, participants will develop confidence in networking, strengthen communication skills and learn strategies to build authentic relationships across the arts and creative industries.
- 1:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Break-out session | Kulila: Deep Listening, Yarning and Building Meaningful Connections with Tarunna Sebastian
Explore how Kulila (Deep Listening), Yarning and Kinship networks nurture meaningful relationships, belonging and community. Consider how Kinship connections are built and sustained through trust, reciprocity, respect and shared responsibility. Reflect on your own worldviews, values, assumptions and privilege, and how these shape the way you understand, participate in and contribute to relationships and Kinship networks. Challenge yourself to listen deeply, remain open to different knowledges and perspectives, make space for others and recognise your responsibility in building respectful, reciprocal and enduring connections.
- 1:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Break-out session | Hidden Connections: Unlocking New Possibilities Together with Anna Powell
Many of us are already part of rich networks, yet there is often untapped potential within the people around us. This experiential session helps you discover new possibilities for working together on the challenges that matter to you. Through practical activities and guided reflection, participants will explore hidden connections through the lenses of personal, organisational and contextual change, uncover new insights about the systems they are part of, and examine how belonging, influence and collective power emerge through networks. Together, we will identify opportunities to strengthen relationships, bridge perspectives and unlock new pathways for collaborative action.
- 2:45 pm - 3:00 pm
Short break
Take a short break to reset and grab a cuppa.
- 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm
Break-out session | The Speed of Trust with Leanne Tobin and Toby Chapman
The creative landscape of Western Sydney thrives on bold ideas, but bringing them to life requires breaking down the invisible walls between independent artists and cultural institutions. This workshop looks at the art of building trust and truth telling in our own backyards and creating meaningful collaboration as we discuss what happens when curators and artists move past institutional red tape to build trust, mutual respect, and a shared vision. This session focuses on actionable growth that can be developed between artists and curators. Using a recent model, it explores the process that was involved in developing Leanne Tobin's survey exhibition Ngalawan: We Live. We Remain. at Penrith Regional Gallery and the cultivation of genuine connections to establish deep, unshakeable trust between artist and institution.
- 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm
Break-out session | Coming into Presence with Adeeb Razzouk
This session is a performative inquiry into how we interrupt the present to make spaces for our presence, our curiosity; for deep time and deep listening, to draw on our deep well of knowing; to make space to pose questions rather than seek answers, to step into our power.
- 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm
Break-out session | Testing Emerging Ideas: How to Take Practical Action and Move Systems Forward with Euan Black
While other sessions explore systemic “being” and “knowing”, this lab is all about “doing”. Drawing primarily from the knowledge in the room (your voices), together we will identify a systemic opportunity for change and build out a repeatable process for taking systemic action. Testing as we build, you'll be introduced to an alternative to linear process that actually embraces complexity without overwhelming or overburdening.
- 4:15 pm - 4:30 pm
Short break
Take a short break before joining our final session for the day.
- 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Weaving it all together | Ananth Gopal
We'll close the day with an opportunity for participants to reconnect and ask, 'What's coming to the surface?' We'll then do some collective sense-making, wrapping up with different voices from the room sharing some reflections.
- 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Informal drinks
Hosted by Creative Australia
FAQs
- Who is this event for?
This event is for Sydney’s arts and culture community – we need lots of perspectives, networks and ideas in the room to help everyone make progress on the shared challenges. You might be an independent or working in an organisation, an artist or arts worker, in a formal leadership role or doing grass roots work in your community.
- Is there a cost?
No, this event is free! You do need to register to attend. Registration closes 1 week before the event.
- Is there access support available?
If you experience barriers to attending because you identify as a person with disability or who is d/Deaf, we can provide some financial support for access costs you might have so you can attend this event. For example: costs of Uber/taxi to get to the venue, support workers or childcare. You can apply for this via the registration link.
- Are there bursaries for independent artists and arts workers?
Yes, if you are an independent artist or arts worker you can apply for a bursary of $500 to support you to attend the Leadership Lab. There are 10 bursaries available to apply for when you register for the event. We will allocate bursaries on a random basis. You can apply for this via the registration link.
- Is there travel support available?
We are not able to provide travel support for this event. If you are an independent artist or arts worker you can apply for a small bursary to support you to attend the event.
- Will there be other Leadership Lab events?
We will announce our 2027 program in early next year. Stay tuned via our newsletter.
Privacy
We will use the information you provide in the registration form to deliver the Leadership Lab event. By providing this information, you confirm that you have read and consent to the processing of your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We take reasonable steps to ensure all third parties we work with to deliver this event are bound by privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information. For more information on privacy and how we share information you can read our Privacy Policy.
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