Tracy Cooper-Lavery is Director, Gallery & Visual Arts at HOTA Home of the Arts Gold Coast; Australia’s largest public gallery outside a capital city. She is an arts museum leader with a career spanning 25 years including Director of Rockhampton Art Gallery where she was responsible for transforming the Gallery’s profile on a local, state and national level; and Senior Curator at Bendigo Art Gallery.

She has curated numerous exhibitions on Australian and international art and is the curator of the forthcoming international exhibition Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York; a world exclusive for the Gold Coast.

Mary Ann Santin is an interdisciplinary artist creating installations of paint and object. She lives and works between Adelaide, South Australia and Hideaway Bay, Whitsundays, Queensland.

Santin has a Bachelor of Visual Art, Adelaide Central School of Art, and a Masters of Visual Art and Studio Practice, University of South Australia. Santin has won prestigious awards with work held in national and international private collections including Art Gallery of South Australia, Iran, Scotland, Netherlands, Hong Kong and a resort in Thailand. The work has featured in public spaces including the Adelaide International Airport, the State Library of South Australia, on Adelaide’s city street verges and included in various Biennials held in the South Australian landscape. The exhibition, Within, is currently on show at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for the 2022 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

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 Studio, 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.