Curatorial Panel
Bianca Acimovic
For over 15 years, Bianca Acimovic has worked in a range of positions across a number of cultural institutions spanning from regional to state institutions, University institutions to State departments. Holding a variety of positions throughout the east coast of Australia Bianca has been part of cultural institutions including University Art Museum, University of Queensland; Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA); Public Art Agency, Arts Queensland; Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery (BRAG); Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) and currently with the Rockhampton Art Gallery. In these positions, she has developed a record of positively contributing to the development and management of these cultural institutions, expanding engagement and breaking down stigmas, to sit these institutions at the heart of community.
Bianca holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Master of Museum Studies, University of Southern Queensland, and Master of Applied Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Adelaide. Collective through her formal training Bianca has specialised in contemporary art, with a focus on the operation and management of art institutions in an innovative and progressive mode.
Cameron Curd
Cameron Curd is the Manager/Curator (Director) at Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum in Queensland, Australia. Prior to this Cameron held positions in Aotearoa New Zealand including Kaitiaki Pukapuka-a-Rohe (District Archivist & Supervisor) at Aotea Utanganui Museum of South Taranaki in Pātea, and Photographic Preservation Specialist at Puke Ariki Museum. He is currently the Ian McLean Wards Scholar undertaking independent research about the depth and breadth of New Zealand archives due for publication in 2020.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Media Arts majoring in Moving Image from the Waikato Institute of Technology, and previously attended George Eastman Museum in Rochester New York as a film preservation graduate, and is now completing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) through Massey University specialising in leadership, strategic operations, and digital engagement.
Cameron’s curatorial practice has focused on developing the people, projects, and collections of regional cultural institutions to preserve, create, and disseminate cultural experiences to physical and digital communities. His grassroots, community-based engagement & preservation workshops, have been a specialty for consumers of arts, culture, and heritage experiences. He is continually looking for new ways to connect the human experience with the arts by drawing upon leading industry research to create special connections tailored to embrace the needs and desires of communities. He achieves this through collaboration, creativity, innovation & flexibility.
Helen Holden
Helen Holden is a professional educator with qualifications in Visual Arts, English, and Education. For over two decades, she has been teaching at CQUniversity in the School of Education and The Arts, and in the School of Access Education. During the early 2000s Helen spearheaded the Arts Curriculum and Pedagogy Team at the University and worked closely with Education Queensland stakeholders to launch a new Arts Syllabus.
More recently, Helen has taught preparation skills, academic writing skills and research skills to students from non-traditional backgrounds in CQUniversity’s STEPS enabling program. Drawing on her teaching experience in the Visual Arts and English curriculum areas, she uses a range of innovative learning activities to enable students marginalised by previous educational experiences to reconceptualise themselves as learners. Her exceptional creativity and support enable both on-campus and external students to develop the skills they need to be motivated and resilient learners.
Lee McIvor
BA(University of Sydney), Post Grad Diploma in Design (UTS), B Bus Comm (QUT)
Qualified in communications for over 30 years, Lee has been at the forefront of cutting edge work in delivering innovative solutions to complex industrial and community issues. A strategic communication professional with a proven track record in effective stakeholder partnering, government relations and community insight in executing work of quality, substance and distinction, Lee has worked on major projects in Gladstone, Sydney and Cairns.
Some initiatives Lee instigated include producing for the first time a Fun Run in Gladstone which saw a record breaking 4,200 enrolments in its first year, overseeing the creation of cutting edge websites for major infrastructure projects such as the $1.4 billion Western Basin Dredging and Disposal Project and the $40 billion The Bays Precinct in inner Sydney.
Lee is well known to the arts fraternity in the Gladstone and CQ region through her involvement with the Gladstone Arts Council (now the Curtis Coast Arts Alliance) and Creative Gladstone Inc. She has sat on the Gladstone RADF committee. She was the driver for the successful Powersoup contemporary ballet performed at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum in 2011.
She successfully lobbied the state government to provide $40k to fund a business plan for the Pipeline Project in 2017. This project aimed to create a cultural trail running from Roma to Gladstone following the gas pipelines.