When artists thrive, communities thrive: WA artists pursue bold new work with Minderoo Artist Fund.

04 Mar 2025 – From an electronic music album recorded on country in the Kimberley to a Wheatbelt community creating a major sculpture and puppetry event led by artists, to scientists and Indigenous custodians, nine mid-career artists from across WA will tackle ambitious new projects with the Minderoo Artist Fund.

Established in 2020 to support mid-career artists, the Minderoo Artist Fund plays a key role in supporting Minderoo’s vision for vibrant, connected and cohesive communities.

The 2025 Minderoo Artist Fund cohort includes dance artist and choreographer Laura Boynes, Broome actor and musician Mark Coles Smith, dance artist Emma Fishwick, author and poet Alan Fyfe, Jaru/Noongar/Japanese writer, director and filmmaker Gary Hamaguchi, visual artist Hiroshi Kobayashi, performer and theatre-maker Sarah Nelson, composer and producer Elise Reitze-Swensen and ceramicist and installation artist Fleur Schell.

Nicola Forrest AO said she was excited to see the inspiration and impact the new cohort would bring to WA communities with the Artist Fund’s support.

“The Minderoo Artist Fund’s 2025 cohort is a stunning group of creatives who devote their lives to the arts and the positive impact it has on our communities,” she said.

“I’m proud that the program has grown to support such a diverse cohort of high-quality artists who have proposed bold new work that will help develop their careers while inspiring audiences and engaging communities.

“I am delighted to see this new group of nine artists take this opportunity and I can’t wait to see where it takes them.”

Each artist within the Artist Fund cohort will receive either a $35,000 grant or a six-week residency at Forrest Hall in Perth to support them as they pursue a new artistic project that will further develop their career and artistic practice.

Minderoo Foundation CEO, John Hartman, said the Artist Fund was a vital part of Minderoo’s commitment to the arts sector in WA.

“At Minderoo we understand and value the vital role that artists and arts organisations play in creating vibrant and connected communities where people and families can reach their full potential,” he said.

“Art has the power to bring people together, inspire change and create the sense of belonging and meaning that our communities need to thrive.”

The 2025 Artist Fund cohort was announced at an event on Wednesday, 5 March in Perth, close to where the new home of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) is being constructed, supported by a transformational $30 million, 25-year philanthropic partnership between Minderoo and Edith Cowan University (ECU).

WA author Holden Sheppard was announced as the winner of the Minderoo Artist Award of $50,000 – awarded to one member of the previous Artist Fund cohort who best leveraged their time in the program to innovate, collaborate and broaden their practice while making a meaningful contribution to the sector.

As a member of the Artist Fund cohort, Sheppard developed the sequel to his award-winning novel, Invisible Boys, which explores the challenges faced by a group of gay teens in the regional WA coastal town of Geraldton.

Sheppard’s Minderoo Artist Fund supported project follows the characters as they enter young adulthood and focuses on discrimination against homosexuality in Australian Rules football and the pressures of masculinity.

“This is beyond lifechanging as a mid-career artist telling West Australian stories,” Sheppard said.

“Having Minderoo’s support makes me feel these stories and these voices – at this moment and in this climate – are important.

“Being able to stand up and look opposition in the eye and talk about gay stories without fear. I’m grateful to Minderoo Foundation not just for backing artists but for backing me in this specific project.”

Artists and their projects for the 2025 Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund

Recipients of $35,000 grants

Laura Boynes is an award-winning dance artist and choreographer whose contemporary dance and experimental theatre work Subtext follows a group of individuals as they attempt to communicate, exploring power dynamics and audiences’ biases. This work sees Laura collaborating with artists of mixed abilities including acclaimed artists Julia Hales (You Know We Belong Together) and Patrick Carter (Creative Australia 2024 National Arts and Disability Award).

Mark Coles Smith, also known by his stage name ’Kalaji’, is an award-winning actor, writer and musician based in Broome. His project, Kalaji 2 is an eight-track electronic music album exploring his Nyikina spirituality and resilience in an age of cultural collision and ecological complexity.

Alan Fyfe is a poet and storyteller. The Nine Angles is a work of prose fiction using magical realism to explore the duality of gentrification and homelessness in the Peel Region. This will be the third novel in a trilogy and as part of the research for the novel, Alan will be volunteering with St Pat’s Homelessness Outreach.

Gary Hamaguchi is a Jaru/Noongar/Japanese writer, director and filmmaker based in Broome. He will commence the script-development of a sci-fi feature film, Kodj, about a Noongar father who takes his son into the bush to teach him traditional knowledge so they can survive an ongoing alien invasion.

Sarah Nelson is a performer and theatre-maker. Her performance project, Into the Fog, chronicles her experience in prolonged isolation in the UK with Long Covid and subsequent Functional Neurological Disorder. Sarah will undertake a residency at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) to complete the third stage development of this work which evolves the everyday into the hyperreal, creating a visceral visual language.

Elise Reitze-Swensen is an award-winning composer and producer whose compositional project, Matrescence in Sound, is centred on the theme of becoming a mother. Elise will collaborate with fellow musicians, producers, songwriters and composers, capturing the transition of becoming a mother in sound, resulting in a new 20-track electro-acoustic album.

Fleur Schell is a ceramicist and installation artist whose project, Biosphere, engages the community of Goomalling in a major site-specific arts event. It will involve a series of workshops with the local community led by artists, scientists and Indigenous custodians. Biosphere will culminate in a significant public event showcasing large-scale sculptures and puppets.

Recipients of six-week residencies at Forrest Hall

Emma Fishwick is an award-winning dance artist exploring how choreography can transcend time and space. Her residency will be an opportunity for creative development of I promise you this time it’s true: performance in a time of exhaustion, a work exploring personal truths, beliefs and convictions during a time of global crisis. Emma will engage with ten individuals from the community to create filmed portraits, photographic stills and interview transcripts, informing a new dance work.

Hiroshi Kobayashi is a visual artist, and his project S(Es)graph\S(Es)gram will capture, through interviews, the unconscious motivations and inner identities of students, academics, and staff at UWA and Forrest Hall. Hiroshi will use these transcripts to create abstract portraiture using a unique technique that blends fine art methods with new technologies.