2022/23 Grants Assessment Panel

Felicity successfully chaired the inaugural ARTS Impact Grants Assessment Panel in 2022 and will be back for one more year to bring her extensive experience to the process. Her past role as the Co-Chair of Impact100’s Arts & Culture focus area, her passion for the arts and her stewardship of the 2022 selection cycle put her in a unique position to chaperone the task for 2023. A new Chair will be appointed in 2024. For more than a decade Felicity has also been the Deputy Chair of Fremantle Press Publishing.

Mark Coughlan is a pianist, conductor, artistic director and gallery owner. Mark presents performances for Government House Ballroom, the Perth Concert Hall’s New Year's Eve concerts, Lost & Found Opera, and OpusWA Arts Orchestra and Chorale. Previously Head of UWA Music, he is a WAAPA Advisory Board Member and a former director and CEO of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Mark was formerly a music writer for The Australian newspaper and a judge for the Helpmann Awards. Mark is the founder and director of The Orangery Gallery and is a three-times finalist for West Australian of the Year in the Arts and Culture category.

Peter Kift is currently the General Manager of the Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company. He has over 40 years’ experience in the non-profit, private, government and community sectors and as an accountant his primary focus is on finance, management, governance and compliance. He has a keen interest in the arts, having been a musician, singer and actor in his younger days. Peter has been the State Finance Director of the Victorian YMCA and a production accountant on many independent film & television productions. Peter is determined that arts organisations become financially sustainable and achieve best practice in every aspect of their business operations.

Minali is a governance, risk and audit professional with 17+ years experience working in global mining and critical infrastructure organisations. Minali’s other great passion is art; specifically democratising art by making it accessible, exciting and engaging, particularly to younger people. In support of this, she supports the arts through advocacy, philanthropy, arts governance and advisory roles and collecting. She is a Board member at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, sits on the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s Foundation Council and is a member of the Lester Collective. She is also the founder of “perth.art.seeker”, a social media based information sharing service about art exhibitions, events and industry opportunities in and around Perth.

For over 25 years Andy Farrant has worked in diverse roles in the arts sector. From marketing and media lead to CEO and lobbyist. He has also Chaired and been a member of Federal and State Ministerial Advisory Committees and has been responsible for the delivery and probity of funding programs. He now consults.

Ella is the Director of the Art & Culture Initiative at Minderoo Foundation, looking after the Foundation’s strategic investment into the creative industries. Passionate about helping the industry to thrive and increase participation in the arts for all, Ella is driven by her belief that arts can change the world. Ella was previously the CEO of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival and recipient of the International Visitors Leadership Program for Promoting Social Change through the Arts from the U.S Department of State. Her international experience in Arts Management has taken her around the world from the Lincoln Center in New York City to the Druid Theatre in Galway, Ireland, and back home with the Sydney, Melbourne and Perth Festival. Ella is an accomplished musician and Arts Management graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Leon Pericles is a painter and printmaker. Over his 55-year career he has been a prolific creator, collaborator, supporter, educator and advocate for the arts in WA. Leon was named a finalist in the Western Australian of the Year awards, is the Patron to the Printmakers Association of WA, is an Ambassador for Nature Conservation Margaret River Region and supports numerous community groups and schools with his art and expertise. Leon has held more than 150 solo exhibitions, published nine books and won national and international acclaim showing in both the National and State Galleries. Leon’s creations can be found in important collections with major works at WAAPA, PLC and more recently a depiction of Western Australia in the Parmelia Hilton Hotel.

Bourby Webster is the Founder of Perth Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra set about achieving its mission of “Music for Everyone” by selecting crazy performances spaces, playing music from Mozart to Nirvana, and taking orchestral music out of the concert hall into the community making it accessible to all. Bourby is a lecturer, presenter, music reviewer, and consultant. She is a Western Australian of the Year (Arts & Culture), WA Business News 40 Under 40 winner, and in 2022 was named in the Business News inaugural Power 500 of the most influential people in Western Australia.

Independent consultant Liesbeth Goedhart is a senior professional in the area of arts philanthropy, cross-sector partnerships and business development. She has been involved in the arts and culture sector in Western Australia for over twenty years, including five years (2000-2005) as Director Marketing and Development with the Perth Festival and as State Manager Artsupport [now Creative Partnerships Australia], a role she pioneered in WA for the Australia Council for the Arts. Since 2010, through her firm Goedhart Consulting, Liesbeth has been providing advice and mentorship to arts and not-for-profit organisations in the areas of strategic planning, fundraising and community consultation. She has served on the Boards of: Strut Dance, Tura New Music, The Blue Room Theatre and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (advisory board – current).

Michela has an art background and many years of experience in fund-raising. She is the co founder of the White Swans giving circle for BSSTC and was chair of the philanthropy committee for BSSTC. Advocate and patron of the New Australian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale (opened in 2015) and an advocate for WA community engagement with the Venice Biennale.Michela was also a WA committee member of the Snowdome Foundation investing in new treatments and early clinical trails for blood cancer and now a board member of BCRWA. She is currently a board member of the Sheila Foundation that addresses the historical and continuing gender bias of women in Australian art and a board director of the Fremantle Theatre Company.

Jodie is a First Nations descendant of the Butchella and Jagera people of Southeast Queensland and is CEO and Producer at Ramu Productions, a community-owned Production company in Broome, WA. Jodie has produced numerous short films including the CinefestOZ 2020 Indigenous Short Film winner Doug the Human, the Cinewest WA Short Film winner at CinefestOZ 2021 The Lost Crystals of Jessica’s Room, as well as award winning short documentaries Naji, Marrimarrigun and Saving Seagrass. Jodie has also produced a number of short documentary series’ for NITV. Jodie was Co-producer on the CinefestOZ 2015 film of the year, feature documentary Putuparri and the Rainmakers and in 2019 she joined the CinefestOZ team as the Indigenous Film Manager.

Tabitha McMullan is a passionate visionary for arts and culture. With over eighteen years’ experience in the international creative sector, across not-for-profit, university and local government organisations, she strongly believes in Western Australia’s place as a cultural leader on the world stage. She is currently CEO of FORM Building a State of Creativity Inc. For Tabitha, collaboration is critical to realising the state’s potential and driving ambitious cultural development programs.