Amy Barrett-Lennard has been Director of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) since April 2006. As a dynamic leader, she has brought vision and vitality to a range of arts organisations across Australia and internationally. She has previously held positions as: Director of the Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Curator of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria; Curator of the Goldfields Arts Centre Gallery, Kalgoorlie- Boulder, Western Australia; and Manager of the British Pavilion at the 1995 Venice Biennale. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Art History Major) from the University of Western Australia and a Graduate Diploma in Post-war and Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute, London.

A regular contributor to the broader national arts and cultural communities, Amy has sat on numerous boards and panels including those for the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, NETS Victoria, Museums Australia, the Victorian College of the Arts, Art on the Move and the federal government’s Visions of Australia program. She has been President of the Contemporary Arts Organisations Australia (CAOS) network since 2009 and is also a member of: the Murdoch University Art Collection Board; Edith Cowan University’s CREATEC (Centre of Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology, Education and Communications) Board; and the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA Board.

Jeremy Smith is returning to Perth after four years at the Australia Council for the Arts as Arts Practice Director – Community, Emerging and Experimental Arts. He previously held a range of senior positions in the corporate, not for profit and government sectors in Western Australia, including as Manager – Community Investment with Rio Tinto Iron Ore, and Manager – Regional Arts and Strategic Development at DADAA.  Jeremy brings a wealth of leadership experience as well as strong local, national and international networks amongst artists, arts organisations and arts supporters. As a disabled man, Jeremy is a fierce advocate of celebrating differences and transforming othering attitudes.  He also promotes actions to ensure these values are central to our arts, cultural and creative industries.

Jeremy will commence his role at PICA in mid April, with Georgia Malone as Acting General Manager prior to his arrival.

Sarah Wall, PhD, is a curator who has worked with art organisations in Australia and New Zealand. Sarah comes to Perth from Shepparton, where she held the role of Curator at the Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) and worked on the artistic program for the new SAM building, due to open to the public in 2021. Prior to this, Sarah was Curator – Contemporary (2018-19) and Len Lye Assistant Curator (2014-17) at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre, New Plymouth, New Zealand Aotearoa, where her curatorial projects included ‘Yuichiro Tamura: Milky Mountain’, ‘Fiona Clark: Raw Material’, ‘Nicolas Paris: what connects us’, ‘Mikala Dwyer: Earthcraft’ (all 2019), and the group exhibitions ‘Sensory Agents’ (2018) and ‘Set in Motion’ (2015), amongst others.

Rebecca Kais is an arts manager who approaches her work through a social impact lens. She has diverse experience across a decade-long career but has increasingly specialised in philanthropy, believing it is a powerful tool for achieving positive social outcomes through the arts. In 2020, Rebecca was one of 25 emerging arts leaders selected from around Australia and the Indo-Pacific to participate in the Australia Council for the Arts’ Future Leaders Program.

For the past three years, Rebecca has worked at the Art Gallery of Western Australia as Foundation Manager. Previously she worked at Perth Festival, including as Development Manager for the 2015 Festival encompassing The Giants. Rebecca has also worked at West Australian Opera in a variety of roles over a collective six years, including in artistic administration, marketing, sponsorship and education. She was a Board Member of Propel Youth Arts WA from 2010 to 2014 and is currently a voluntary coordinator of the WA Cultural Development Collective.

In 2014, Rebecca was awarded a Centre for Social Impact Scholarship to complete the Graduate Certificate in Social Impact at UWA. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts Management from WAAPA and a Certificate in Museum Studies from ECU.

Jenn is a visual artist with ten years’ experience in applied psychological research of environmental policy and sustainability. She is interested in interdisciplinary practice and the role of cultural values in influencing the ways people interact with and perceive the world around them.

Jenn has degrees from Curtin University of Technology in Psychology (BSc- Hons, First class) and Fine Art (BA), and is close to completing a PhD at the University Of Western Australia. Her art practice incorporates sculpture, installation, painting and printmaking to explore how the ‘myth of progress’ and methods of science and industry have shaped landscapes and the course of history.

She has been a co-director and gallery manager of the Paper Mountain artist run initiative, and curated a number of exhibitions including Dark Skies Ahead (2018) for Unhallowed Arts events organised by SymbioticA.

Jenn has worked for PICA since 2017, taking leave in 2019 during which time she exhibited work in the Fremantle Biennale and completed an artist residency at Fremantle Arts Centre.

Kate joined the PICA team in 2019 after spending 12 years in Melbourne where she worked in a number of performing arts venues as Front of House Manager, as well as roles in arts administration and ticketing, while also pursuing a career as an actor.

Since her return to Perth Kate has worked in administrative, ticketing and assistant producer roles in arts venues across Perth and Fremantle. Kate is a graduate of WAAPA Performing Arts – Acting, and more recently completed a degree in Anthropology and Australian Indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne, and has a particular interest in Indigenous arts, performance, and film.

Tim is a visual artist and creative programmer interested in interdisciplinary practice, artform development and experimental approaches to audience experience.

Tim completed post-graduate studies in Art at Curtin University in 2007, receiving First Class Honours and his practice incorporates video, installation and drawing to interrogate the moving image and its viewing parameters.

Tim has worked at PICA for several years, and is currently the Producer of the performance program. He has also held the roles of Front of House Manager (2009-2010), Special Projects Curator, in which he coordinated PICA’s public programs and donor events and managed the Hatched: National Graduate Show and PICA Salon exhibitions (2011-2013), which he both curated in 2013. He also held the role of Business Manager/Producer, a dual management/programming role from 2015-2017.

Tim has worked in other positions in arts administration and education and was the selected WA representative by the Australia Council for the Arts as a Team Leader of the Australian Pavillion at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

Brittany has a background in Arts Administration and Education, in addition to her own practice as a musician, singer, and songwriter.

Brittany completed a Bachelor of Arts with a Double Major in Music and Film at UNSW in 2014. Since completing her University studies Brittany focused on her practice as a musician under the alias of Willowy, that saw the release of Debut EP ‘The White Dress’ and two East Coast tours of Australia.

Whilst recording and touring, Brittany began Volunteering for the performance program at Campbelltown Arts Centre in 2016, which lead to a position as an Arts Educator and Facilitator. After a few years working in Arts Education, Brittany joined the performance program team acting as Assistant Curator of Performance.

Brittany recently relocated from Sydney to Perth for her position as Assistant Producer of PICA’s performance program.

Brittany has been drawn to the medium of the performing arts because of its power to move and induce strong emotional responses in both the artist and audience. Brittany enjoys engaging impactful and daring performances to the community, and now through her work at PICA, the people of Perth and its surrounding communities.

Ashley Yihsin Chang is a Perth based Taiwanese art curator.  She has over twenty years work experience as an art curator, arts manager and coordinator in museums, government and diplomatic institutions, community arts centres, and art consultant agencies.

Ashley was the Cultural Program Manager at the American Institute in Taiwan, the Deputy Director of the Taipei Artist Village, Public Art & Arts Festival Coordinator at L’Orangerie International Arts Consultant Company, and a curator at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Ashley has also worked on several cross culture exchange projects in Perth. These include Turner Galleries’ participation in Art Taipei 2016, the Perth-Taipei Curatorial Residency Exchange Program, A Portrait of Taiwan in Perth, and Antipodean Encounters: Western Australian Artists and Taiwanese Culture.  In 2019, she was the co-curator for  Unfolding Acts: New Art from Taipei and Perth at PICA and facilitated the curatorial partnership with Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

These diverse professional experiences have broadened her view of working in the arts and culture and the importance of engaging multilevel audiences, communities and stakeholders.

Ashley holds a postgraduate certificate in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex in England.  She is also a member of the Community Arts Network’s Diversity Working Group, which focuses on leadership, access, inclusion and representation of people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds in the arts sector in WA.

Kira has a strong background in destination marketing, specialising in the digital realm. She grew up in Perth just a stone’s throw from the beach and has since lived in Japan (Himeji and Nagoya) and Paris, France. As well as speaking Japanese and French, she holds a Bachelors Degree (honours) from Edith Cowan University specialising in Advertising, Public Relations and Japanese Language Studies.

In 2005 Kira represented Australia as a Pavilion Attendant in the Australian Pavilion at the Aichi World Expo in Japan. She has since held positions at Tourism WA, RAC WA, City of Perth and FORM. She has also worked as a freelance writer for Urban Walkabout Perth, a tour guide for Two Feet and a Heartbeat, and served on a number of committees including FuturePerth, TEDxPerth, and Beaufort Street Network. Kira’s volunteer experience includes positions with the Art Gallery of WA as an Art Gallery Guide, Open House Perth as a Building Manager, and the Centre for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees (CARAD).

Kira is currently engaged as Communications Manager at PICA.

Tim Meakins is a designer/illustrator and visual artist. Since graduating from Curtin University with a bachelor of Arts (Humanities) majoring in Graphic Design, Tim has worked with some of Perth’s top design studios and organisations. Meakins recently co-founded the design studio TERMSOFSERVICE in 2019 with fellow designer Simran Singh. Tim’s multidisciplinary art practice revolves around human perception and connection.

Suzanne is our Finance Officer at PICA. She enjoys travelling with an edge, mastering treks in various locations around the world including the Camino de Santiago walk in Spain, to the Bibbulmun track in Western Australia. Suzanne has a strong interest in Indigenous art and is known to purchase artworks on her journeys.