Calie Russell is a hard-working member of FReeZA in Darebin. She was artist liaison at the festival ‘A Weekend For Everybody’ that was held at Northcote Town Hall this year. She also helped out with the Decibels indie showcase at the Northcote social club also this year as the stage manager. Calie enjoys those two roles because it’s hard working just like herself and also loves to help others, she has a creative mindset and imagination. Her interests are photography, FReeZA, and dance. Calie is excited to be helping out all the 10 young people with the let's take over program and can't wait to get start.
Aidan Knight is a songwriter and music producer based somewhere south of Melbourne. He is currently studying year 10, and runs a non-funded independent record label from his laptop, providing a platform for young alternative artists to reach a wider and more diverse audience, while still maintaining the independence they deserve. Aidan has a passion for art in all it's forms, and focuses his pursuits on building and strengthening a community of artists and like-minded people of the next generation. On the side, Aidan dabbles in poetry, and audio engineering, as well as photography and editing. After receiving a distribution deal from Amuse entertainment in January, Aidan has released 5 singles and a double EP, boasting a little over 26,000 collective Spotify streams. He has broken the top ten of the ReverbNation music charts, twice, and is currently working closely with the 9 artists signed to the label, including two members of the award winning indie-electronica band, Spectrum.
Zadie McCracken is a Melbourne-based student and writer. In 2015, she self-published a set of poems and short stories, and was shortlisted for The Somerset National Novella Writing Competition. Zadie participated in YWCA Victoria’s 2017 Dear Diary event as a panellist and presenter, and was shortlisted for the Slade Literary Award in the same year. Since the age of fifteen, Zadie has been published in several magazines, including August Blue Magazine, My Period Story, Ramona Magazine For Girls and Rosie.
Andy Phan is 17 years old and currently studying TAFE at Northern College of the Art and Technology. Dancing is his life and passion and dreams about running his own dance studio one day. He wants to learn more about marketing and revenues that Melbourne has to offer. On top of that, exploring his own potentials and limitation.
Klari Agar is an emerging visual artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). Her work is multi medium and based around the concepts of time and motion. Klari was involved with the founding of Fledgling Magazine and has had photographic works featured in other Naarm-based magazines including Verve and Good Material. Klari was awarded the People’s Choice Award for Top Shots at the Monash Gallery of Art in 2016. Also in 2016, Klari was given an Honourable Mention at the Deakin University Capture Art and Performance Exhibition, Project Space, Geelong. Klari has had her work exhibited in various group exhibitions and galleries in Naarm, including Girlhood, group show in the Old Bar, Fitzroy in 2017 and at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), end-of-year group exhibition, Arts Space in 2017.
Tré Turner is an Arrernte drag performer/ queer artist, currently residing in Naarm. A student at the University of Melbourne, completing a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Linguistics and Sociology). Since discovering the drag scene in 2017, they have performed mostly around Fitzroy. Performing under the guise of Stone they celebrate and focus on WOC artistry and clubkid aesthetics
Jessica Phippen is a contemporary artist, jeweller, and object maker based in Melbourne, Australia. Her practice explores ephemerality, domesticity, beauty and the grotesque. What pulls you in and what thrusts you away in pure disgust. Playing with the fine line of beauty and repulsion that is easy to cross but more enjoyable to mingle with.
Experimentation is an immensely important part of Phippen’s practice, challenging the expectations of materiality, the notion and supposed limitations of jewellery. How one wears their body and exists within it. How creating objects to be worn on the body influences that.
Phuong Lam is a current arts management student at RMIT who has previously studied international studies at Swinburne as her undergraduate degree.
She is passionate about music, having studied violin in high school and founded/presided a music production club at university called Soundfreqs at Swinburne University.
Samantha Martin is a young arts manager hailing from Perth WA - the most geographically isolated capital city in the world. Having worked the past 6 years in festival tents and offices, she’s recently settled in Melbourne to work with the circus. She was a founding collaborator in Safer Venues WA, a NFP aiming to reduce sexual harassment and violence in nightlife and entertainment spaces, and continues to advocate for inclusivity in the arts and events sectors.
George Lazaris is a theatre director, set designer and dramaturg with experience across over 60 productions, having worked at the Hayes Theatre, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Seymour Centre, Butterfly Club and La Mama. George has directed experimental, contemporary and classic plays, cabaret, opera and musical theatre, including Hamlet at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Spring Awakening, An Oak Tree, Misery Loves Cabaret starring Shannen Sarstedt as part of Bondi Feast and the world premiere of the opera Somewhere Between the Sky and Sea at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. At the Hayes Theatre, George was Lighting Operator and Assistant Stage Manager of Cry Baby in 2018, and Deputy Stage Manager of Big Fish in 2017. Across 2016 and 2017 George created set designs for productions of Spring Awakening, Company, The Last Five Years and The Tempest. He studied theatre and performance at UNSW under the tutelage of Clare Grant of The Sydney Front, writing his honours thesis on time structures and temporal play in the contemporary American musical.