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Regional Arts Development Central West NSW
OUR team
Meet our team members

We’re a small team with plenty of experience but our real strength is how well we all work together.

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Kylie Shead
Executive Director
KYLIE SHEAD is arts outwest’s new executive director.

Kylie was previously Creative Producer at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre for over 15 years and during this time she ran festivals for all ages, developed new programs, and supported theatre makers in the region as well as producing new work. Kylie has a long association with Arts OutWest: as a contract project manager prior to working for Bathurst Regional Council and as a past board member.

Kylie grew up in Melbourne, studied and worked in Sydney before moving to the Central West NSW 18 years ago. Kylie is a NIDA graduate in Technical Production. She has worked as a freelance stage manager and production assistant on major musicals and as the administrator for ATYP and Tropfest. She worked on major public events and festivals in Sydney including Sydney’s New Years Eve celebrations.  In 2003 she moved to Bathurst, where she has also taught event management and theatre production at Charles Sturt University.

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Steven Cavanagh
Communications + Arts & Health Projects
STEVEN IS AN ARTIST, CURATOR AND EDUCATOR WHO WORKS ACROSS MULTIPLE ARTS ORGANISATIONS IN NSW, INCLUDING SHARING THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER.

Steven is an artist, curator and educator living in Hill End. He works across multiple arts organisations in NSW. He has travelled extensively while living and working in Perth, London and Sydney. In a desire to broaden his art practice, career and most importantly life, Steven chose to make a move into the Central West in 2018. Steven now works for Arts OutWest as part-time Communications Officer and job shares the position with Maryanne. He brings a strong background in graphic design to the role. Highlights include the thrill of live radio, writing a weekly arts column, supporting regional artists, curating exhibitions, running workshops and creating a network of Media Associates across our region.

Steven has an MFA in Photomedia. He is a lecturer at the National Art School in Sydney. He currently sits on several regional art advisory panels. Steven has written for creative publications, received numerous art residencies, been a finalist in national photographic prizes and exhibits often.

Recent exhibitions include Plant + Human with the Australian Centre for Photography, DARK with Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, The grass below – above the vaulted sky with Orange Regional Gallery and Build That Wall where he installed a 3-day durational performance work for Cementa Festival. He is currently creating the inaugural STAMPER Analogue Photography Festival in Hill End, collaborating with the CORRIDOR project on multiple projects, artist in residence with the DPI in Orange and will be exhibiting with Schmick Contemporary in 2023.

Home is a beautiful property in Hill End where the hum of the bush is ever present and full of surprises.

Photo credit: Georgi Redfern

Maryanne Jaques
Maryanne Jaques
Communications Officer
Maryanne LOVES HEARING, GATHERING AND SHARING GREAT ARTS STORIES FROM OUR REGION.

Maryanne joined Arts OutWest as Communications Officer in 2007 and clearly loves it so much she’s still here. She switched to part-time in 2016 and now job-shares with Steven.

Maryanne has a background in festivals, events and performing arts across admin, production and marketing.

At Arts OutWest there’s been hundreds of hours of radio, millions of words written and truly countless wonderful conversations with locals in the region (which she rates as the best part of the job). Recently Maryanne has been taking charge of our Culture Maps Central NSW web project.

Whilst at Art OutWest Maryanne has had side gigs as a freelance magazine writer, teaching at Charles Sturt University and on production of new theatre works. Maryanne is also a keen playwright and teaches the occasional writing workshop. She’s had short scripts produced regionally and in Sydney. Most recently she was a commissioned writer for Lingua Franca’s ‘Routes’ project. She has two small, noisy children.

Maryanne holds a BA Communication (Theatre/Media – Hons), a Graduate Certificate in Cultural Event Management and a MA Journalism. Maryanne is currently a board member of Mitchell Conservatorium of Music.

Photo credit: Georgi Redfern

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Aleshia Lonsdale
Aboriginal Arts Development Officer
Aleshia sees the arts not only a vehicle for intergenerational cultural transmission but also as a tool which allows the audience to view the world through a First Nations lens.

Aleshia is a proud Wiradjuri woman based Mudgee in Central Western NSW.

As the Aboriginal Arts Development Officer for Arts OutWest she sees the Arts not only a vehicle for intergenerational cultural transmission but also as a tool which allows the audience to view the world through a First Nations lens.

Aleshia is responsible for advocating and supporting Aboriginal Artists and Communities across the region, providing advice and assistance and supporting skill development opportunities. She also curates the Kew-Y-Ahn Gallery at Hartley which is a gallery for contemporary Aboriginal Arts from across the region.

With over 20 years’ experience in the Arts and Culture sector Aleshia is actively engaged in various Aboriginal, Environmental and Arts Organisations across the state. Aleshia has experience in a number of roles including as an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officer and has been employed in her role at Arts OutWest since 2011.

Aleshia’s own art practice has a strong grounding in Culture and Country. Her works are influenced by the past, present and future experiences of First Nations Peoples with a particular focus on social, cultural, political and environmental issues.

Aleshia is an alumnus of the National Gallery of Australia’s Wesfarmers Indigenous Leadership Program and a participant in the Australia Council’s Custodianship Program.​

Photo credit: Alex Wisser

Christine McMillan
Christine McMillan
Arts and Health Coordinator
Christine’s focus is to provide the opportunity to engage in the arts, for residents, staff and carers in health and aged care settings.

Christine McMillan is Arts and Health Coordinator. Christine’s focus is to provide the opportunity to engage in the arts, for residents, staff and carers in health and aged care settings. This engagement benefits wellbeing by keeping people connected, engaged and active.

Christine is a visual artist, she was a director of Cementa for 5 years and has a background in visual arts teaching. She delights in presenting visual arts workshops and organising music and performance programs in residential care settings.

Christine lives in Kandos and spends time with her father in Sydney and with her daughters and grandchildren in Newcastle. For work she travels across the Arts OutWest region. She is travelling less in ‘covid time’, but is spending the travelling time developing programs to be delivered online. She enjoys kayaking and table tennis, loves camping and bush walking especially in Wollemi National Park.

Photo credit: Georgi Redfern

Lauren Carlson
Lauren Carlson
Admin Assistant
Lauren brings her design and organisational skills to the Arts OutWest team.

Lauren is a Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Graduate of Billy Blue College of Design holding a Diploma in Graphic Design.
Before jumping ship into the creative industry full time, she spent many years working in Oral Health for the Queensland and Victorian Governments.
Craving to enter a creative field, she would spend her weekends behind the lens of a camera shooting weddings and portraits for her self run photography studio.
Lauren made the move to Bathurst in 2019 and loves living here.
She works across a number of areas including Arts OutWest part time, as a freelance Graphic Designer plus most importantly is a busy Mum of four kids and two extremely naughty English and French bulldogs.

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Kate Smith
Arts & Health Projects and Research Officer
Kate’s extensive career in the creative industries traverses live and screen performance, academia and writing.

Kate’s extensive career in the creative industries traverses live and screen performance, academia and writing. Based in Bathurst, she is the recipient of CreateNSW Creative Fellowship, (2019-2021) researching live performance and podcasting. The fellowship extends her practice, which over twenty years has included touring her comedic plays to festivals nationally and internationally, cross-sector arts practice, creative mentoring and profile raising for regional arts.

Kate was awarded a PhD scholarship to study theatre and performance at Charles Sturt University, created commissions for Darlinghurst & Merrigong Theatres and Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, she toured with Critical Stages, CDP and Mary Tobin. A member of State of Play – founders Julian Louis and Nick Enright she has performed in several inaugural independent theatre initiatives; including B-Sharp, Belvoir; In The Raw , Darlinghurst, Bite at Seymour.

Kate’s favourite character was born at BMEC when she began MCing/curating the much-loved Cabaret Kite as alter ego Rusty Nails She is member of physical theatre company Lingua Franca, and lectures in scriptwriting/performance.

Kate keeps it real by teaching and practising yoga and living on a small pocket of land in the sticks with her beautiful family.

Kathy Weekes
Kathy Weekes
Finance Officer
Kathy is a Chartered Accountant with more than 30 years of experience.

Kathy is a Chartered Accountant with more than 30 years of experience.

Kathy has a Bachelor of Financial Administration from University of New England, a Graduate Diploma in Taxation Law from Charles Sturt University, has been a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand since 1988.

Kathy also has a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. Kathy specialises in tax advice and tax law interpretation for individuals, partnerships, companies, self-managed superannuation funds and small business income tax as personal financial planning.

Photo credit: Georgi Redfern