About Guildhouse
Guildhouse is South Australia’s peak body for visual art, craft and design.
We have over 1000 members across diverse areas of contemporary visual arts practice at all career stages, as well as arts organisations, businesses and guilds.
With a clear focus on creating opportunities for artists and leading sector development, Guildhouse engages and supports artists with creative and career development programs such as residencies, mentorships, one-on-one advice, tailored business skill development, network development and opportunities to create new work.
Guildhouse has developed a diversified business model, with a growing network of philanthropic supporters and a burgeoning social enterprise that is creating new forms of revenue for the creative industries.
Guildhouse is comprised of a dynamic team, supporting a growing membership base and presents a thriving annual program of events and initiatives in partnership with South Australia’s leading cultural and corporate partners.
Explore our Folio platform to see a portfolio of a selection of our members.
Vision
Connecting art, artists and community, Guildhouse leads a bold and diverse visual art, craft and design sector that positions artists at its core.
Purpose
We create opportunities for artists at all stages of their careers to be sustainable and build the connectivity, capacity and profile of the arts community.
Values
We are artist-led: We listen to and are led by the artists, craft people and designers we represent, and provide meaningful services that respond to the needs of our community.
We nurture diversity: We are committed to building awareness of the increasing diversity in the sector and making our organisation and program inclusive and accessible.
We are connected: We build collaborative, cross-sector partnerships with clear professional outcomes to maximise our impact and reach.
Board
Katie Sarah (Chair)
Director/Owner, Sarah Mountain Journeys Pty Ltd
Katie Sarah currently owns and manages Sarah Mountain Journeys Pty Ltd.
Her experience and education have developed skills in a variety of industries and roles. She has worked in roles ranging from a national organisation to family business, in technical, sales, and managerial roles.
Her business experience combined with field experience in extreme conditions and environments has led to the acquisition of skills in project management, working with third world business partners, logistics, and risk management in high pressure situations. Working both as a member of a team, and in leadership and managerial roles has given her a wide range of experience and expertise.
Katie’s first climbing experience at altitude was a successful summit of a 6542m peak in Bolivia in 2006. Katie was the first Australian woman to summit Mt Himlung, Nepal (7126m) in 2009, and participated in an expedition that pioneered a new route on Mt Vinson in Antarctica in 2008.
In 2010, Katie summited Mt Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8848m, becoming the first South Australian (and sixth Australian) woman to do so.
As of June 2013, she was one of the few Australian women to have completed the 7 Summits – the highest peak on each of the seven continents.
As of January 2018, she is the only woman in the world – one of approximately 9 people – to have completed both the 7 Summits and the 7 Volcanic Summits. Having successfully skied the Last Degree to the South Pole, with a similar expedition to the North Pole to be undertaken in April 2019, she will add the Explorers’ Grand Slam to these achievements, becoming not only the first woman in the world to complete the Explorers’ Grand Slam plus 7 Volcanic Summits, but one of only approximately 4 people in the world to have ever successfully completed this goal.
On a professional level over recent years Katie has also taken ownership and control of Sarah Mountain Journeys, to turn it into a successful niche business operating in extreme and adventure travel.
Katie is married with three adult sons. She counts herself fortunate enough to be able to combine work with a passion for the outdoors, spending as much time as can be spared from home and family pursuing outdoor hobbies such as rock climbing, mountaineering and training for Ironman triathlons as well as maintaining an active interest in several not for profit organisations. Katie is Chairperson for Holiday Explorers, Board Member of Guide Dogs SA/NT and Patron of Nature Play SA, as well as an active volunteer for the Leukaemia Foundation and Meals on Wheels. She is also associated with brilliant SA organisations such as Catherine House, SAHMRI and Sight For All.
Dameeli Coates (Deputy Chair)
She has an Honours degree in Textile Design from Central Saint Martin’s College, London. Her curatorial and arts practice has been influenced by examining the effects of dispossession, displacement and settler colonial borders on Indigenous identities and collective sense of belonging.
Dameeli is deeply interested in how textiles can be both cultural critique and beautiful objects; she loves their constructed and sculptural abilities and produces three dimensional, scaled-up objects as well as everyday, interactive products like fabric and surface materials.
Talia Begley
Director, JL Lawyers
Talia is a corporate and tax lawyer with close to 20 years’ experience, including the last 5 years as an owner and director of boutique law firm, JL Lawyers.
An honours graduate of the University of Melbourne, Talia initially honed her legal skills at a top ten national law firm in Melbourne before returning to her much loved home state of South Australia.
Talia has prior experience in the not for profit sector in both professional advisory and governance roles.
She is also an Associate member of the Tax Institute and currently holds a position on the Risk and Finance Committee of Sensei Product Solutions, which advises to the Board of this national IT company.
Talia has a keen and broad interest in the Arts and in supporting the growth of the sector in South Australia (albeit little artistic credentials herself…).
Christian Hall
Christian Hall is a studio-based contemporary artist working in the field of object art and design. Initially trained in jewellery and metal techniques, his practice has evolved across the production of jewellery, everyday objects, sculpture and installation. The foundation of his practice has been an ongoing curiosity and experimentation with object making via a research-led, solo exhibition practice. He also works across production and commissioned works, teaching, mentoring and other areas of professional engagement.
Hall has exhibited and been engaged in projects nationally and internationally, held teaching positions in TAFE and universities and worked as the Creative Director for JamFactory’s Jewellery and Metal Studio. He is a mid-career artist currently engaged in practice-based PhD research. His belief in the visual arts as a form of research has pushed his practice to continually develop into new areas, technically, conceptually and across a topology of object-based practice. This contribution has been recognised via regular funding support from state, federal and overseas agencies since 2003.
Hall has a particular focus on skills-based and material-led practice and has predominantly practiced in the area of metals. He gained introduction to the field by training at Sydney College of the Arts with preeminent visual artists, the late Margaret West, and silver smith Helge Larsenfrom 1994-1998. He achieved Masters under the supervision of Dr Marl Edgoose and Dr Karin Findeis in 2003. From these antecedents he has gained both a technical and critical perspective upon practice. Hall believes in the artists role as one that challenges the normative conventions of their area of practice and the broader social context. He seeks to nurture this criticality in ever aspect of his work in the visual arts.
Tsering Hannaford
Tsering Hannaford is a portrait artist based between South Australia and New South Wales.
She pursued a career in the arts after completing a BA in Psychology and graduate studies in Art History at the University of Adelaide. Experience in paintings conservation at Artlab led to a deeper appreciation of techniques, materials, and the practice of painting itself. Atelier based training in New York and France followed and have informed Tsering’s practice, with a focus on traditional methods of working from life.
Her work is held in public and private collections across Australia and abroad, including the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and Sydney Modern. She is regularly included in national portrait prizes, including nine times in the Archibald Prize (highly commended in 2020).
Tsering has held positions as an education facilitator at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Vice President of the Royal South Society of Arts (where she is also a Fellow) and sponsors a youth award for portraiture.
Kirsteen Mackay
Highly respected South Australian Government Architect Kirsteen Mackay is Director of the Office for Design and Architecture SA and the Deputy Presiding Member of the Adelaide Park Lands Authority, a member of the Architectural Practice Board of South Australia and a Royal Society of Arts Fellow.
Kirsteen studied architecture at the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art. She was also an inaugural Research Associate at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, a centre that is a global leader in Inclusive Design, Design Thinking and Creative Leadership that works with government, business, academia and the third sector.
Stuart Symons
Stuart is a corporate communications and strategic planning leader with a lifelong interest in South Australia’s cultural life.
As Head of Public Affairs, Communications & Planning for Australia’s largest credit union, People’s Choice, Stuart has 25 years of corporate experience, including 13 years with ASX-listed entities, in Australia, the UK and Papua New Guinea.
Stuart has more than a decade of board experience, with previous roles including Chair of Brink Productions (one of Australia’s leading performing arts companies), Chair of the Australian Institute of Company Directors Tomorrow’s Director Committee and Councillor with the Financial Services Institute of Australia.
Through Modernist Adelaide, Stuart’s mid-century architecture tours, exhibitions, presentations, publications and social media increase public appreciation and preservation of the city’s design heritage and contribute to economic growth through heritage tourism – acknowledged with the City of Adelaide Prize Commendation 2021 and South Australian Emerging Historian of the Year 2019.
Stuart is a graduate of AICD’s Company Directors Course and holds MBA, BA (Hons) and journalism and management qualifications.
Staff
Merinda Edwards
Interim CEO
Originally from Victoria (Djilang, Taungurung and Naarm Country) Merinda’s passion for the arts grew as she established herself in Adelaide.
Working in a diversity of roles, from completing a PhD at the University of South Australia with extensive teaching and academic experience, Merinda has taken on a variety of roles such as directing her own festivals, marketing management in the arts, private sectors and state government to running live music venues, galleries and leading large scale arts activations.
Merinda is passionate about communicating with the public, drawing people in with stories, and creative and engaging communications practices. From her academic experience of community development, partnerships, and placemaking, Merinda’s passion is to connect people to achieve goals with vibrancy!
In her free time, you can find her chasing events, festivals and gigs writing reviews for local publications or an adventure in the bush; on a quiet day, you will find her in her garden, or kitchen cooking up a storm.
Tracy Le Cornu
Manager, Professional Services
Tracy has worked in the visual arts for twenty five years. Based largely between London, Sydney and Adelaide, she has honed a diverse skill set in auction administration, gallery management, client and stakeholder-focussed services, fine art research, collection advisory services, secondary art market valuing, public art advisory and business development.
In 1999 she was awarded a degree in the Theory of Art and Design from Winchester School of Art, UK. Her career began in the auction world at Sotheby’s in London, moving into gallery management and fine art research. Since 2010 her primary focus has been on contemporary Australian visual art.
Working collaboratively with artists, government, architects, interior designers and public art professionals, Tracy thrives on helping artists build sustainable careers by creating meaningful opportunities outside of the typical gallery space.
When not doing all things art you may well find her doing all things nature, with gardening and plant nurturing being a particular passion.
Laura Geraghty
Operations Manager
Born and raised on Kaurna land, Laura Geraghty is the Art Coordinator at The Wheatsheaf Hotel and a graduate from the University of Adelaide where she specialised in Art History/Visual Culture and Gender studies. Currently at the beginning of her own artistic journey, Laura is undertaking various classes at AC Arts and has embarked on a term of self-driven development around arts practice.
Motivated by and passionate about decolonisation, cross cultural investigations, solidarity, inclusivity, and accessibility, Laura ultimately aims contribute meaningfully to the world around her be it personally, academically or professionally. She’s always up for a chat and some activism.
Samantha Faehrmann
Artistic Programs Manager
Originally from a remote community on Gayiri land, Central Queensland, Samantha relocated to Kaurna country where she runs her practice ‘Butter and Gravy’ studio. From her studio she runs a mixed medium practice, including the functional series of ‘I AM SAM’ ceramics.
Samantha holds a Masters of Architecture from the University of South Australia, where she began working with the ‘Student Design Construct Program’ (SDCP). The connection to communities, design, construction, logistics, fabrication and material for over 12 years in many capacities across multiple projects instilled a passion for process and industrious practice. Her portfolio expanded to include contemporary art in pursuit of material language and experimentation. Through this Sam has continued to explore the intersections between people, spaces, places, bodies and objects that form the phenomena of our experience and our collective contributions.
She is a passionate artist and facilitator who has developed and delivered creative programs across multiple sectors in local, metropolitan, regional and international communities. She is dedicated to co-created outcomes, inclusive practices, capacity building and ever seeking opportunities to encourage and amplify the expansion, sustainability and resolve of creative practices and people.
Lana Adams
Communications and Design Coordinator
Lana Adams is an artist and arts worker working on Kaurna land, Adelaide.
Lana graduated from a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Honours, in 2014 from The University of South Australia and received the Atkins Award for Outstanding Photographic Work. Her undergraduate work was selected for the 2012 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition. Since studying visual arts, she has reconciled her love and interest in the personal memories, meanings and histories held in objects by beginning postgraduate study in the realm of Museum Studies.
Prior to joining the Guildhouse team, Lana honed her communications & marketing skills working in the fast-paced auction environment at Scammell Auctions, where she overhauled their online and social media presence, managed in-house photography and marketing, and worked in a small team managing their specialist Collections auctions.
Sian Watson
Producer, Professional Services
Sian grew up on Ngunnawal Land and received her Bachelor of Visual Arts (sculpture) from the ANU in 2015. Sian runs an active studio-based sculpture practice, working primarily with steel, concrete and bronze to explore themes of climate change and processes of time. Sian has completed multiple public art commissions, has exhibited work in Australia, Canada and the USA and was the recent recipient of the 2020 Sculpture By the Sea Clitheroe Emerging Artist Mentor Award.
Sian recently relocated to Kaurna country, bringing her passion for supporting artists and the arts to Guildhouse. Sian enjoys making, hiking and gardening, and is always on the hunt for the best breakfast burrito in town.
Nicola Sutcliffe
Program Producer
Isabel Margot
Membership Coordinator
Isabel Margot is an artist, writer and arts worker based on unceded Kaurna land. Having volunteered and worked at a variety of organisations, including FELTspace, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE), MOD. and Samstag Museum of Art, she brings to Guildhouse a deep passion for the local arts sector. Isabel completed a Bachelor of Contemporary Art at UniSA, has performed at SASA Gallery (2021) and exhibited at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) as part of Hatched: National Graduate Show (2022) and FELTspace (2022). Between 2022 and 2023, Isabel undertook a Curatorial Internship at ACE to support the development of the annual Artistic Program and event delivery.
isabel.margot@guildhouse.org.au
Photography by Thomas McCammon, featuring work by Loren Orsillo
Clare Suridge
Finance Officer
Artist Advisory Group
Guildhouse established an Artist Advisory Group in 2017 to ensure the relevance of our programs to artists, craftspeople and designers across South Australia. The following artists currently comprise the Artist Advisory Group:
Stavroula Adameitis
Stavroula Adameitis is an Australian artist and designer known for her bright and bold textiles, neon artworks and installations working under the alias FRIDA LAS VEGAS.
After cutting her aesthetic chops interning with celebrated Sex And The City stylist Patricia Field in New York City, Stavroula became inspired by digital printing techniques and has since gone on to build a cross-disciplinary career centered around digital illustration, graphic and textile design.
Stavroula lives to time-travel through her work by remixing nostalgia with a graphic sensibility gleaned from her memories growing up in the 1980s, celebrating icons of Australian popular culture, kitsch, memory and place.
Collaborative partners include cultural institutions (Sydney Opera House, Powerhouse Museum, JamFactory), global brands (Adobe, Meta, Disney, Microsoft and Peter Alexander) and internationally renowned performers (Katy Perry and Kate Miller-Heidke).
Stavroula completed a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Media at the University of Adelaide where she was co-editor of the student newspaper On Dit. She currently works in Adelaide/Tartanya from her eponymous Gallery Shop on Rundle Mall and sits on the Guildhouse Artist Advisory Group.
Roy Ananda
Roy Ananda is a visual artist, writer, and educator practicing on Kaurna Country (Tarndanya/Adelaide Plains). His objects, drawings, installations, texts, and videos variously celebrate popular culture, play, process, and the very act of making. Since 2001 he has exhibited prolifically around Australia, holding solo exhibitions at Adelaide Central Gallery (Adelaide), the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (Adelaide), Dianne Tanzer Gallery+ Projects (Melbourne), FELTspace (Adelaide), Gallery 4a (Sydney), Hugo Michell Gallery (Adelaide), Samstag Museum of Art (Adelaide), and West Space (Melbourne).
His work has been included in such significant survey exhibitions as Primavera (2004) at the MCA (Sydney), the Australian Drawing Biennial (2004) at the Drill Hall Gallery (Canberra), and CACSA Contemporary 2015 at SASA Gallery (Adelaide). In 2017 Ananda completed a post-graduate research degree at the University of South Australia with a specific focus on the intersection of pop-culture fandom and contemporary art practice.
He has lectured in drawing and sculpture at Adelaide Central School of Art since 2004 and currently holds the position of Head of Drawing. His writing has appeared in a wide variety of journals, books, exhibition catalogues, zines, and websites. Ananda was the feature artist of the 2021 South Australian Living Artists Festival and subject of that year’s SALA Publication.
Thomas Buchanan
Thom Buchanan’s practice traverses a Cross-disciplinary mode of investigations. Informed by his background in drawing and painting, it also incorporates installation, photography, video, performance, sound, murals and collaborations. Buchanan is a master of large-scale live performative works and collaboration. He has been interrogating ideas of the physiological ramifications of built and natural environments for 15 years and still asking questions.
He has exhibited extensively locally, nationally, and internationally and has won a number of major art prizes and grants. His work has been commissioned by The State Theatre Company (SA), Australian Dance Theatre, Vivid Festival Sydney, Adelaide Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK), Slingsby Theatre Company, Fringe Festival (SA), SALA Festival, the Surge Festival in Glasgow, Cabaret Festival, Guitar Festival, Canberra Centenary, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Zephyr Quartet, Big Picture Pillar festival, Big Day Out, Rise Festival (NZ), just to name a few.
Dave Court
Dave Court is a multi-disciplinary artist living on Kaurna country in Adelaide, Australia working in areas of painting, sculpture and installation.
Current work includes large-scale public artwork, cross media work and the creation of interactive and immersive events and installations, all with a focus on collaborative and experimental processes.
Dave has experience with a range of different projects including retail store/art space Created Range, street press Yewth Magazine, and festival design with RCC and Adelaide Fringe. Dave is heavily involved with public art, as well as art direction and curation alongside his ongoing studio practice. His process driven style looks at experimentation with gesture, abstraction, and oscillation between digital and physical representations.
Brad Darkson
Bernadette Klavins
Based in Tartanya (Adelaide), Bernadette Klavins is an artist working in the field of sculpture. Through processes of casting, Klavins draws out the poetic potential of materials and interrogates our human relationship to deep time. In 2016, Klavins graduated from Adelaide Central School of Art with First Class Honours and received a Major Travel Award. The following year, she completed a residency at The Icelandic Association of Visual Art in Reykjavik. Klavins has since exhibited at spaces including Watch This Space (NT), Canberra Contemporary Art Space (ACT), Cool Change Contemporary (WA), FELTspace (SA), Floating Goose Studios (SA), Adelaide Central Gallery (SA), Art Pod (SA) and Carclew (SA). Klavins has an upcoming solo exhibition at FELTspace in July 2022. Klavins has also lectured in First Year Sculpture at Adelaide Central School of Art, been a Co-Director at FELTspace, and currently works at the Art Gallery of South Australia in the Public Programs team. Klavins works from Switchboard Studios in Norwood.
Kay Lawrence
Kay Lawrence AM is Emeritus Professor at the University of South Australia where she had a distinguished career as an educator in the visual arts, becoming the first woman appointed to head the South Australian School of Art in 2002. She has an international profile as a tapestry weaver with work in many public collections including the National Gallery of Australia.
In her visual art and writing practices she critically engages with matters of personal and community identity, exploring ideas of loss and connection through the materiality of textiles. She has completed a number of major commissions for public spaces in Australia and overseas and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1989 for service to the arts as designer of the Parliament House Embroidery.
In 2002 Telos Press in the UK published a monograph on her work. Her scholarly writing has been published by Berg Publishers, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, The University of Sydney and Melbourne University Press.
Kaspar Schmidt Mumm
Born in Germany in 1990, my family immigrated to South Australia in the year 2000. My mother was an immigrant to Canada as a result of the civil war between Pakistan and India. My father is a German with a Columbian upbringing.
My education in the arts is based on Mentoring from people such as James Brown IV (MASH Designs), Darren O’Donnell (Mammalian Diving Reflex) and Koruna Schmidt Mumm (Art Therapist). I have always avoided institutionalisation, for better or for worse.
Today the primary parts of my practice are; my music (Slowmango); street performance (Baitfridge); and collaborative gallery performance (IMMI). These projects are deeply collaborative and involve an array of artists and non-artists. Whenever I present an artwork, it comes with an entourage of collaborators. I have an extremely social practice that melds and changes with my community. A process of communication, healing and expression that is centered around play.
Annual Reports
