PUBLIC SPACE AND PLACE

Eliza Heath – Facilitator

Eliza entered the music scene as a teenager performing in and managing a variety bands throughout the completion of her undergraduate Bachelor of Music at QUT. Continuing on to complete her Masters in Creative Industries (Creative Production and Arts Management) with a focus on networking in the arts, Eliza built a passion for creating events that aid in the formation of sustainable careers and performance opportunities for artists. This passion led her to work with a range of peak organisations including QMusic and QPAC – developing events, festivals, and opportunities for emerging and established artists alike across a range of artforms. Eliza now works with Vast Yonder as the Creative Producer for the Brisbane Street Art Festival, Yonder Festival, and Superordinary.

Jason Dembski & Maria Wong – HKwalls

Jason is an American designer, maker and curator based in Hong Kong. With a background in architecture and a fascination with street art and graffiti, Jason’s interests revolve around the ever-evolving built environment, and its relationships with those who occupy and modify it.

As one of the founders, Jason is a major driving force behind HKwalls, overseeing all aspects of artistic production, shaping strategy and festival framework, while sharing the curation with partners Stan and Maria.

Maria is a curator and art producer. Her career trajectory has taken her from working in the Hong Kong film industry to leading non-profit charitable arts organisations, curating, and producing various arts festivals, events, outreach programs, exhibitions, and theatre productions. She was invited to join HKwalls as the Managing Director in 2014, overseeing the business operations and ensuring the organisation achieves its financial vision, mission, and long-term goals.

Jason and Maria co-founded Current Projects in 2016, a creative agency that provides bespoke design and art consultancy to companies worldwide. Their work includes curation, creation, direction, design, build and more.

Lincoln Savage – Brisbane Street Art Festival

Lincoln is a Creative Director with a strong interest in emerging arts and engaging with new technology. He obtained a Bachelor of Technology Innovation from QUT in 2014 and has since worked on many arts, technology and music based projects with a focus on emerging practice. His stand out projects include establishing the annual music and arts event Yonder Festival, the city-wide Brisbane Street Art Festival, the experiential creative agency Vast Yonder and launching the ephemeral arts project in the Brisbane CBD, Superordinary.

Maia Cavendish – Deicke Richards

A member of Deicke Richards’ urban design team, Maia works on a range of urban design projects, including character studies, guidelines for local government, design review and expert witness work. She has local and international experience in urban design and planning, having studied and gained work experience in Sweden, Denmark and Colombia. 

She completed her planning and urban design studies at QUT (Bachelors) and KTH in Stockholm, Sweden (Masters). Her thesis studies investigated ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ public art in residual urban spaces of Brisbane, and later Stockholm.

In addition to her work at Deicke Richards and tutoring in urban design and urban studies at QUT, she has exhibited collage and print works in exhibitions in Meanjin (Brisbane), and self publishes a zine called Day Job.

Scott Hutchinson – Hutchinson Builders

Hutchies’ Chairman Scott Hutchinson holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) which he completed in 1981 at the University of Queensland. He subsequently completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1986 at the same university after travelling extensively across Europe, North Africa and the UK. Scott attributes his MBA learnings to the success of Hutchies’ flat organisational structure and culture built on empowerment.

Scott entered the family business full time as the fourth generation Hutchinson in 1986 when the company’s turnover was just $6M. He has been Chairman of Hutchinson Builders since 2001, a role he moved into after Greg Quinn was selected as Hutchies’ first non-family Managing Director. Scott was previously Managing Director from 1991 for ten years. Under their direction, Hutchies’ turnover has since grown to $2.8B.

Scott’s personal interest is in preserving Brisbane’s live music scene and this is where Hutchies’ philanthropic contribution has been substantial and significant for the region.