The Team.
Australia / UK
Art et al. was conceived and developed by Arts Project Australia, Slominski Projects and Jennifer Lauren Gallery in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts. The project is funded through arts funding from the Australia Council, DFAT through their Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program (ACDGP), British Council AU/UK Season 2021-22, British Council International Collaboration Grants, and the Aesop Foundation.
British Deaf artist Rebecca Vaughan explains about the Art et al. team, funders and advisory group
Founding partners.
Arts Project Australia
Australia
Arts Project Australia, led by director Sue Roff, is an internationally renowned social enterprise that supports artists with intellectual disabilities through its studio and gallery, promoting artists and advocating for their inclusion in contemporary art practice.
Slominski Projects
United Kingdom
Slominski Projects is a leading international curatorial platform and consultancy collaborating with significant private collections, institutions, supported studios, and archives with an interest in neurodiversity and self-taught practices in a contemporary art context.
Jennifer Lauren Gallery
United Kingdom
Jennifer Lauren Gallery is a highly respected UK-based gallery that champions, exhibits and shares voices from international self-taught, disabled and overlooked artists who create works outside the mainstream art world and art history.
Founding curators.
Sim Luttin
Arts Project Australia
Sim is a Melbourne-based curator and has run the gallery and exhibition program at Arts Project Australia (APA) since 2008. As well as fostering innovative curatorial projects, she brokers collaborations between artists, commercial galleries, and arts institutions and has grown APA’s publications, artwork leasing, and image licensing programs. She was a member of the Supported Studio Network in Australia and has travelled worldwide having curated, written, and presented extensively on APA and its artists at international conferences. Sim has a passion for supporting neurodiverse artists to be seen, represented, and connected in contemporary art and culture sectors.
Lisa Slominski
Slominski Projects
Lisa Slominski is an American writer, curator & researcher based in East London. Her work explores activations of access and inclusion in the current contemporary art discourse and examines the historical framework of underrepresented artists with a particular interest in agency. Recent writing and research have been centred around women/non-binary artists and their practices’ relationship to care, healing and spiritualism. In 2022 her book "Nonconformers: A New History of Self-Taught Artists" was published by Yale University Press and has received great accolades. It considers how predetermined personal/cultural conditions (race, poverty, disability, mental illness) often presented challenging positions much more complex than just being self-taught.
Jennifer Gilbert
Jennifer Lauren Gallery
Jennifer is a Manchester-based gallerist, freelance producer, and curator, working with self-taught, disabled, neurodivergent and overlooked artists. In 2017 she launched the Jennifer Lauren Gallery to showcase artists internationally, having previously managed a national arts charity for under-represented artists. Jennifer is passionate about promoting the voices and artworks of these artists to wider audiences, allowing their true artistic language to shine. Through her work, Jennifer hopes to: demystify what is regarded as art, continue to challenge the stigma surrounding this field, and to re-look at how work is displayed and written about within contemporary art.
Project collaborators.
Art et al. work with Australian and UK collaborators, arts professionals and creatives who self-identify in various ways, including neurotypical, neurodivergent, intellectually and learning disabled, as well as people who have not self-identified. Our collaborators provide essential feedback for the intercultural growth of the platform.
Katrina Schwarz
Curatorial advisor, international
Katrina is Curator of the 2022 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, The Photographers’ Gallery, London. Formerly, International Development Consultant, Europe, for the Australia Council for the Arts; Curator, Visual Arts, British Council and Editor of Art & Australia. Professional highlights include serving as Curator of the international touring exhibition ‘David Shrigley: Lose Your Mind’ and as Deputy Curator, ‘Sarah Lucas: I Scream Daddio’, British Pavilion, 2015 Venice Biennale. Katrina has delivered visual arts projects in more than 30 countries, edited publications for Artangel and Whitechapel Gallery, and her writing often focuses on the particularities of being an Australian out of Australia.
Sue Roff
Governance
Sue has had a broad career in arts management. For almost 12 years, she has held the role of Executive Director at Arts Project Australia. During this time, Sue has driven a strong increase in profile for the organisation, its artists and unique studio practice. Prior to this Sue has held roles as National Manager, Cultural Development at the Australia Business Arts Foundation, Community Relations Manager at RACV, Sponsorship Manager at Melbourne Theatre Company, and started her arts management career as National Administrator with the Australian Girls Choir. Sue is a former president of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria.
Liz Cox
Branding & design
Liz has been a practicing designer for over a decade with a depth of industry experience in graphic design and art direction both in Melbourne and internationally. While specialising in designing books and catalogues for exhibiting artists, producing advertising campaigns and marketing collateral within the arts sector, Liz’s expertise also crosses into branding, product design and environmental graphics, working in both the cultural and corporate fields. Alongside her design practice, she has taught graphic design and typography at Monash University. Liz has been the recipient of numerous Museums Australia Design Awards.
Consultancy Group
Art et al. works with three UK creatives to provide consultancy on our projects, processes and access throughout the year. They are Sonia Boué, Billy Mann and Violet Lamnisos.
Sonia Boué is a multiform artist. She is also a writer on autism and art, and a leading consultant for neurodiversity in the arts. She has a significant body of postmemory work and pioneers in neuro-inclusive practice-led research. Billy Mann has been at Submit to Love studios for nine years, following a brain injury that cut short his career as a magazine journalist. Violet Lamnisos attends Artbox London, where she loves creating across different art forms, enjoying the therapeutic benefits of art.
With thanks to Stacey Fish who was a member of the supported studio Artists First, for her support until early 2023. Also our gratitude to the Northcote Penguins, a group of emerging and mid-career artists from Arts Project Australia, who provided additional feedback for our first year of development (2020-2021).
Funding partners.
Supporters.
Mono is a design studio based in Melbourne. They specialise in graphic design, branding, and art direction in Melbourne and internationally. A long-time supporter and designer for Arts Project Australia, mono. partnered with Art et al. to develop its global branding.
Summertime is a nonprofit 501c3 Art Studio and Gallery located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Summertime connects neurodiverse artists with the people and world around them, providing a platform to tell their stories, show their work and make money. Art et al. is working collaboratively with founder Sophia Cosmadopoulos for Art et al.’s artist interviews.