About
CEOS
HANNAH FOX
Co-Artistic Director
Hannah is an artist, curator and festival director with a focus on sound art, large-scale public art, contemporary music and live art. Prior to her role as RISING Co-Artistic Director, Hannah worked as Artistic Associate at Melbourne Festival; and as the Associate Creative Director of Dark Mofo.
Her broad spectrum of work has included performance interventions for the Tate Modern, a Janes Addiction stage show, and choreographing cranes and forklifts for a large-scale car stunt show. She’s a founding member of the creative partnership Supple Fox, which currently collaborates with artist Byron J Scullin on work including the large-scale, outdoor sonic artwork Siren Song, which continues to be remounted in cities around the world.
GIDEON OBARZANEK
Co-Artistic Director
Gideon is a director, choreographer, performing arts curator and founder of dance company Chunky Move, where he was CEO and Artistic Director until 2012. His diverse works for the company included stage productions, installations, site-specific works, participatory events and film; and have been performed in festivals and theatres around the world including Edinburgh International, Southbank London and all major Australian performing arts festivals.
More recently Gideon was Artistic Associate with the Melbourne Festival, co-curator for XO State at Asia TOPA, Strategic Cultural Engagement Manager at the University of Melbourne and Chair of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TIM ORTON
Chair
Tim is the Managing Director and founder of Nous Group. Previously Tim was Chair of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre board, an executive board member of the Committee for Melbourne and a board member of the Australia Council for the Arts. He’s currently the Chair of Rhodes Scholarships in Australia.
SUE HUNT
Deputy Chair and Treasurer
Sue is the CEO of The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Chair of Auspicious Arts Projects. Sue was CarriageWorks Sydney’s founding CEO, Sydney Opera House’s Director of Performing Arts, General Manager of the Queensland Theatre Company, General Manager of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre and Technical Director of Victoria State Opera.
DR LOU BENNETT AM
Yorta Yorta Dja Dja Wurrung, Lou is a prolific artist, musician, designer and educator; and was the co-founder, Artistic Director and Co-CEO of the Black Arm Band. Lou researches ethical issues related to retrieving and transmitting Aboriginal languages at University of Melbourne, where she is a Westpac Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences. She is a member of the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll and the General Division of the Order of Australia.
SALLY BRUCE
Sally is the COO and CFO of Culture Amp—an experience platform, with over 3000 active business customers in 47 countries. Sally is the former CEO of AMP Bank and CFO Business and Personal Banking at National Australia Bank. She has held senior leadership roles at Macquarie Group and is Director of Chief Executive Women.
NICOLE DURLING
Nicole is Executive Director of Craft Victoria. She was part of the foundation team of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), playing a prominent role in the institution’s programming and development as Director of Collections and Exhibitions. Nicole was the first Australia-based Contemporary Art Specialist at Sotheby’s International. Her training is as an artist and she has exhibited across Australia.
AMRITA HEPI
Amrita, of Bundjulung / Ngapuhi territories, is an artist working with dance, choreography, video, performance, installation and objects. Her work considers the body’s relationship to personal histories and the archive. From 2019 to 2020 she was a RISING artistic advisor, is a Gertrude Contemporary artist in residence and is currently working with Kaldor projects/Serpentine UK as a participating do it artist. In 2018 she was named in Forbes Asia’s 30 under 30 list.
BRENT SCRIMSHAW
Brent is the CEO of Enero Group Ltd, an ASX-listed marketing services business with offices in 16 cities around the world. Prior to this Brent had an 18-year career at Nike Inc where he held senior leadership roles in Europe, the USA and Australia including Vice President / Chief Executive Western Europe and CMO of EMEA. Brent is a Director of Kathmandu Holdings & Rip Curl.
CRAIG TILEY
Craig is Tournament Director of the Australian Open and CEO of Tennis Australia. Under his leadership the Australian Open now boasts annual attendances of over 790,000 people, a global audience of 1 billion and an annual economic impact of $300 million. As a Male Champion of Change, Craig works to shift mindsets around gender equality and diversity on the tennis court and in the workplace.
DAVID VODICKA
David is the founder of Media Arts Lawyers where he represents high-profile musicians, celebrities and entertainment companies. He chairs the board of Australian Independent Record Labels Association, is a board member of Australian Recording Industry Association and the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia. He was previously a board member of the Melbourne International Film Festival.