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Monday 27 March 2023
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Our People


Staff & Volunteers


Kate O'Hara

Director
(she / her / hers)

Kate is a driven and hardworking arts professional with over 15 years industry experience in institutional, not-for-profit, commercial and independent arts environments. She takes an innovative and thoughtful approach to her work and enjoys the rewards of challenging and multifaceted work places. She has a proven track record in growing arts organisations in the not-for-profit sector as well as improving returns to artists and growing recognition for artistic movements.

Prior to working at Umbrella, Kate managed Maningrida Art & Culture, a large and prestigious Indigenous art centre in Arnhem land. Previous to this Kate worked with a number of arts organisations in South East Asia, including Romeet Contemporary Art Space in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as their inaugural Curator and Manager. She particularly enjoys working with diverse contemporary art communities and assisting with developing innovative programs to grow artist platforms and community engagement.

Alan Marlowe

Business and Partnerships Manager
(he / him / his)

Alan is an arts-business professional with ten years of experience in the not-for-profit sector. He has faciliated systems changes and created more efficient operating environments, and overseen the growth of Umbrella from a $400k average turnover, to over $1m turnover. His role has required preparing large organisation and project budgets, including re-allocation to fit specific financial accounts models specified by government and funding partners. He holds a Bachelor of New Media Arts from James Cook University, and Certificate IV in Business Administration.

Prior to working with Umbrella, Alan was a 2IC service manager in retail, and also worked with Perc Tucker Regional gallery on their bienniel public outdoor sculpture festival: Strand Ephemera. Alan enjoys the meaning derived from a career in the community sector, and is particularly passionate about the visual arts.

Daniel Qualischefski

Gallery Manager and Curator
(he / him / his)

Daniel is an arts professional who has worked in regional and contemporary galleries in south-east Queensland, Melbourne and most recently North Queensland. His roles have encompassed managing and coordinating exhibitions, marketing, public programs and collection management. Daniel holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne, a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Creative Arts), Honours from the University of Southern Queensland. He is passionate about contemporary (particularly Australian) art, making art accessible and engaging audiences with innovative exhibition designs, curation and programs. Daniel's curatorial interests lie in recontextualising collections and forging and showcasing collaborations. 

Daniel also creates multi-disciplinary artwork under the pseudonym of Danish Quapoor. He works primarily in a distinctive illustrative and flat-colour style in which organic, geometric and stylised forms float amidst sparse compositions. His practice includes ceramics, textiles, painting and drawing. The artist finds that making art informs his work in galleries (and vice versa).

Jasmin Günther

Arts Program Manager
(she / her / hers)

Jasmin Günther (Guenther) relocated from Germany to Townsville in 2016 to study at James Cook University and has since made North Queensland her home. In 2021, she finalised her PhD (Society and Culture) at JCU and Aarhus University, Denmark, with a thesis focused on the Polynesian artefacts recovered from the wreck of HMS Pandora held at the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Previously, she studied Anthropology at Göttingen University (Master of Arts 2013) and worked as an Assistant Curator at the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart. 

Jasmin's role encompasses growing Umbrella's arts program and The Studio. She is passionate about (cross-cultural) communication, collaborative work and bringing art, artists and audiences together. She considers the exhibition Making Connections (2019) to be one of the most rewarding experiences of her PhD, as it was conceptualised in collaboration with artists from French Polynesia and the MTQ. In her role at Umbrella, Jasmin is helping to create a space that is diverse and inclusive and enables people to gather, teach, learn, and make.

Amanda Galea

Administration and Marketing Officer
(she / her / hers)

Amanda Galea works across a range of areas to support Umbrella's operations, including coordinating the team of volunteers. She previously held positions as Umbrella's Arts Administrator (2022), Festival Administrator for Pop Up North Queensland (PUNQ) (2021) and Business Trainee (2020). Amanda holds a Diploma of Visual Art from TAFE NSW Albury and a Diploma of Business from Southern Cross University.

Prior to working at Umbrella, Amanda volunteered at a range of not-for-profit organisations assisting in administration duties and worked in various customer service positions. 

Erin Ricardo

Public Programs & Retail Assistant
(role share)
(she / her / hers)

Erin Ricardo coordinates Umbrella's shop consignments and helps to facilitate the weekend public programs. Erin previously working in a casual position for Umbrella in 2021. She is a printmaker and visual artist who has run workshops and worked with other artists for projects and exhibitions of diverse scales. She holds a Master of Teaching (Visual Arts) from the University of Melbourne (2010) and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from La Trobe University, Bendigo (2006). 

All staff photos courtesy Amber Haines.

Margaret Robertson

Public Programs & Retail Assistant
(role share)
Volunteer Studio Facilitator
(she / her / hers)

Margaret Robertson is an active artist, longstanding Umbrella member and a leader in the Umbrella Studio Access Group (USAG). Margaret and Lynn Scott-Cumming have been appointed by Umbrella to supervise The Studio downstairs (in conjunction with the Arts Program Manager), particularly with regards to the printmaking presses and processes.


Lynn Scott-Cumming

Volunteer Studio Facilitator
(she / her / hers)

Lynn Scott-Cumming is an active artist, longstanding Umbrella member and volunteer, and a leader in the Umbrella Studio Access Group (USAG). Lynn and Margaret Robertson have been appointed by Umbrella to supervise The Studio downstairs (in conjunction with the Arts Program Manager), particularly with regards to the printmaking presses and processes.

Volunteers

Reception Assistants, Gallery Assistants, Exhibition Install Assistants and Interns

Umbrella acknowledges the support of our amazing volunteers, particularly given our relocation and larger footprint (requiring more reception assistance). During 2021 we have been assisted by 27 volunteers for regular shifts. Alison Nicholas, Althea Harding, Belen Diaz, Chantal Oxenham, Evie Hanlon, Gail Pearson, Jan Hynes, Jasmine Blackman, Jemima Krzyzanski, Jonathan Stigter, Kaz Hauser, Karen Williams, Kate Osborne, Lynette Marlowe, Lynn Scott-Cumming, Margaret Robertson, Marion Gaemers, Matilda Davies, Michelle McGuinn, Nichola Borellini, Nicola Inskip, Poppy Schembri, Sascha Millard, Sandi Hook, Sharron Condren, Wren Moore, Yvonne Dutton and 15 other volunteers.

We also occasionally facilitate internships and work experience for those interested in the gallery world to gain valuable skills and insights. During 2021 we have had support from the following work experience students: Lacey Watson from Ryan Catholic College and Nykee Kynuna from Burdekin Catholic High School. 

If you are interested in volunteering or completing an internship with Umbrella Studio, see here: Volunteer


Management COMMITTEE


Alan Carpenter

Chairperson
(he / him / his)

Alan’s career has been characterised by leading complex projects transforming corporate vision to reality. After an early career as an engineering surveyor, Alan moved into project management in increasingly complex tasks culminating in leading development of a town in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.  This required management of a complex array of disciplines, including, finance and administration, engineering, sociology, town and regional planning and economics and commerce. 

More recently, at James Cook University (JCU), Alan led capital planning and development towards reconceiving and reshaping of the Townsville Campus from an isolated and institutional campus into an integrated university town with a thriving knowledge community.  Alan led the project known as Discovery Rise from the germ of an idea to its current conception as a blended community of interests encompassing practitioners, researchers, learners and commercial interests.  More recently he was employed by JCU as a strategist assisting JCU in enlarging the concept by partnering with Townsville University Hospital in creating a unified and seamless health and knowledge precinct, now called TropiQ. Alan also initiated and directed an energy and water conservation project at JCU which has as its flagship project a large district cooling initiative which ranked as the largest in Australia in terms of thermal energy storage and load shifting. The project has won several national awards. 

Alan is now a freelance strategist, Treasurer for Townsville Multicultural Support Group and is nurturing a late career as a 3D artist practitioner.

Sarah Sullivan

Deputy Chairperson
(she / her / hers)

Sarah Sullivan is the General Manager for Community Engagement at Townsville City Council, heading up the council's marketing, communications, media, stakeholder and digital operations teams. Sarah has worked in executive roles for Communication, Engagement, Strategic Projects and Marketing for nearly 20 years across North Queensland. Responsible for leading large and diverse teams in communications, strategic planning, consumer experience, engagement, marketing and branding, she has worked on many high profile campaigns and projects including leading the campaign to secure funding for Townsville’s new stadium.

Sarah has worked in both the government and commercial sectors and spent 5 years prior to joining Council operating her own professional Communications, Marketing and Strategic Planning business throughout Northern Australia. Passionate about engagement, strategic planning, design thinking, customer experience, communications and marketing for businesses, Sarah’s focus is connecting and engaging people to make a difference. Sarah predominantly works with brands focused on providing genuine value in the lives of those they touch.

Professor Stephen Naylor

Secretary
(he / him / his)

Currently the Chair of the Academic Board at James Cook University, Professor Stephen Naylor has had more than 35 years working in the visual arts and higher education. He has an understanding of contemporary art practice from a practitioners perspective (as an artist with 20 years of practice), an arts educator (having taught art history and sculpture in Universities for more than 25 years) and as an international arts reviewer for national arts journals (over the past 20 years).

Brian Tucker CPA

Treasurer
(he / him / his)

Brian is a CPA accountant, recently retired after forty years practice as Brian Tucker Accounting, a firm specialising in the provision of accounting, taxation and auditing services to the arts community. That community included individual practitioners, small arts companies, both commercial and not-for-profit, and Indigenous Art Centres from Mornington Island to the Mornington Peninsula, many in very remote communities – such as Tjuntjuntjara in the Great Victoria Desert, a 1270km drive from Alice Springs – in the Central and Western Deserts, the Kimberley, Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands. He also has wide experience as a board or committee member of over forty organisations such as Umbrella, from the large (Queensland Performing Arts Centre) to the tiny (Queensland Poets Society), usually, of course, as the Treasurer. He also has a large collection of art.

Susan Peters Nampitjin

Board Member
(she / her / hers)

Susan Peters Nampitjin is a contemporary artist of the Walmajarri people (Tanami desert of South East Kimberleys, Western Australia), who has been based in Townsville for many years. She was born on Argyle station in 1963 near the banks of the Behn River, and lived there with her family, who worked as jackaroos, stockmen, camp cooks, yard builders, and fencers. In her youth she moved to Queensland. She comes from a family of painters. Her Indigenous culture is often reflected in contemporaneous pictorials of bush plants, foods, medicine and native ecology. Through her wider art practice she experiments with a range of art media and traditions ranging from painting to printmaking. The artist's work is held in notable Australian collections including Artbank, National Gallery of Australia, Townsville Hospital and Perc Tucker Regional Gallery. In 2021 she won the Innovation Award at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. 

Lydia Rigano

Board Member
(she / her / hers)

Lydia is a clinical psychologist and small business owner who has called Townsville home for around 20-years. She contributes strong skills in governance and communication to the board, having previously been on non-profit boards.

Ineke Dane

Board Member
(she / her / hers)

Ineke Dane is an award-winning curator from lutruwita Tasmania based in Meanjin Brisbane. She has a background in contemporary art theory, climate change law and Indigenous justice; each of these disciplines informing a thought-provoking and conceptually rigorous practice. In her daily role as Senior Curator with Urban Art Projects (UAP), Ineke works with artists and a large team of designers, project managers, and skilled makers to create site-specific public art for urban spaces. Ineke maintains a parallel independent curatorial practice and thrives on the challenge of nimbly working with new communities, architectural contexts and gallery ecologies. Often her curated projects involve a bridge between the gallery interior and its exterior space and surrounds, where select works or activations temporarily occupy the public realm. Ineke has featured on numerous panel conversations, and regularly contributes editorial pieces to magazines and online journals.

In 2021 Ineke was awarded major Australia Council and Arts Queensland funding for her project Conversations on Shadow Architecture (C o S A) which toured between Metro Arts Brisbane (2021) and Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney (2022), the latter for its annual Curator Award. C o S A included 10 new commissions from Australian and international artists, complimented by existing works and a 70-page catalogue. Past exhibitions include Remnant Landscapes, Brisbane Botanic Gardens (2019); Barka, The Forgotten River, Broken Hill Regional Gallery (2018); Know Your Neighbour, The Lock-Up Newcastle (2017); Watching Clouds Pass the Moon, MAC Lake Macquarie (2016); and Enduring Parallels, The Lock-Up Newcastle (2014); each with an accompanying catalogue and public programs.

COVID Safe Visits

Umbrella asks that visitors adhere to social distancing, visitor logs, and other COVID Safe directives and procedures as directed.

More COVID Information

Open Hours

Tues - Fri: 9am-5pm

Sat - Sun: 9am-1pm

Gallery closed Mondays, public holidays and during exhibition install weeks.

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Contact

(07) 4772 7109

408 Flinders Street,
Townsville, Qld, 4810 Australia

PO Box 2394,
Townsville, Qld, 4810 Australia

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Acknowledgement of Country

Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region; Bindal, Gugu Badhan, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.

Acknowlegements

Umbrella is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments.