NEW Collective

ACCA is pleased to present NEW Collective, a series of free monthly sessions for emerging artists and curators. NEW Collective provides an opportunity for emerging practitioners to meet informally with other creatives at a similar career stage and to hear from ACCA artists and arts workers. It's a chance to share ideas, pool resources and create connections.

While this program is free, registration is required and spots are limited. Sessions are designed for dropping in, please feel free to join for multiple sessions or just one.

There will be three sessions to align with NEW26:

Session 1: Artist as Arts Worker

Tuesday 29 September, 6-7:30pm

For the first session in this new series, hear from ACCA's Education and Creative Engagement Coordinator, Freya Alexander, as she reflects on the opportunities and challenges involved in being both an artist and arts worker. This first session will also serve as an introduction to ACCA, the NEW Collective series, and NEW26, with a brief exhibition tour.

Freya Alexander

Freya Alexander works in Education and manages Public Programs at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). She is also co-founder of Gems, a collective that produces zines and exhibitions with work by women and non-binary people. Freya graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art) in 2014 and received a Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary) at the University of Melbourne in 2016. She has exhibited work in group and solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas.

Session 2: Expanding Artistic Practice

Tuesday 27 October, 6-7:30pm

In this session, hear directly from ACCA exhibiting artists Caesar Florence-Howard and Diego Ramírez about their creative journeys. 

Caesar Florence-Howard

Caesar Florence-Howard makes paintings and drawings that explore accumulation, transformation, and the instability of images. Florence-Howard has exhibited widely in Naarm/Melbourne. In 2021 he was awarded the NGVWA prize, the Valerie Albiston award in 2021, and the Irene Sutton award in 2022. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), and is co-founder with Grace Anderson of Strawberry, an artist-run gallery in Brunswick.

Diego Ramírez

Diego Ramírez is an artist with dreams, a writer with hopes, and a facilitator with beliefs. Ramírez has shown locally and internationally, and has curated projects at Gertrude Contemporary, Seventh Gallery and Dogmilk Films. Ramírez has completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University and a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree with Honours at Monash University. Between 2018–2023 he was the director of Seventh Gallery, and across his career has been a member of many assessment panels for local, state and federal funding bodies.

Session 3: Curatorial Perspectives

Tuesday 17 November, 6-7:30pm

For the third and final session of the season, hear from ACCA's Senior Curator & Head of Exhibitions, Dr Shelley McSpedden and ACCA Curator Sophie Prince about their pathways and approaches to the curatorial process, including artist selection, themes, artwork placement, exhibition design, collaborative practices and more.

Dr Shelley McSpedden

Shelley McSpedden is Senior Curator and Head of Exhibitions at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Prior to joining ACCA, she was Senior Curator and Acting Artistic Director at Shepparton Art Museum (SAM). Shelley has also held curatorial roles at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) and National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS), as well as academic appointments at Monash University and RMIT. Shelley holds a PhD from the Art History and Theory program at Monash University.  

Sophie Prince

Sophie Prince is Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Sophie is a curator, writer, editor, and arts manager with over ten years experience working across exhibitions, publishing, and arts organisations. She has contributed to major exhibition and publication projects focused on Contemporary, Australian and First Nations art through her work at ACCA, the National Gallery of Victoria, VAULT Magazine and Heide MoMA.