The Steering Committee
The Steering Committee was formed in 2009 to act as an advisory board to the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair. It is made up of some of the key stakeholders in the event including , the peak advisory boards ANKAAA and Desart, representation of the Indigenous Art Centres and the artists and art workers they represent and the event managers Top End Arts. Apolline Kohen and Claire Summers are the founding members of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair.
The Steering Committee Members
Ali Copley
Ali Copley is the Indigenous Arts Officer at Top End Arts in the Northern Territory – NT, managing the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and working closely with Indigenous people in the remote areas of the NT around community cultural festivals. With a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Adelaide followed by a Graduate Diploma of Management – Arts and Culture, Ali has a keen interest in festivals particularly local Indigenous community cultural festivals. Ali was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2009 to ‘Investigate Capacity Building around Indigenous Cultural Festivals in New Zealand, Canada and the Northern Territory of Australia’.
Cathy Cummins
Cathy has worked in community arts, community development and indigenous arts for the past 20 years with occasional excursions into personal arts practice. During the past 8 years she has managed Waringarri Aboriginal Arts at Kununurra in the east Kimberley supporting the art centre with a strong focus on enterprise development strategies and indigenous training and employment. Initially arriving in the east Kimberley 15 years ago to facilitate a community arts project with young people she has been unable to find a better part of the world to embrace and celebrate art & culture.
Christina Davidson
Chief Executive Officer – Association of Northern Kimberly and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists – ANKAAA
ANKAAA is the peak advocacy and support agency for aboriginal artists and art centres located in the regions of: Arnhem Land, Darwin, Katherine, Kimberley and Tiwi Islands.
Janice McEwen
Director of Top End Arts, Janice McEwen, has had a long involvement in the arts which includes a Master of Cultural Studies from the University of Essex, UK in 1970, then a Bachelor Fine Arts from Sydney’s National Art School and a Bachelor Visual Arts Hons from Charles Darwin University thirty years later. Before coming to the NT in 2001 she was the Marketing Director for the Australian Consumers’ Association, publishers of CHOICE Magazine and CHOICE Online and in her spare time ran a commercial gallery in Balmain. She has worked for Top End Arts since 2004, first as Indigenous Arts Marketing Officer, then as Director.
John Oster
John is the Executive Officer of Desart, the Association of Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Centres. He has been involved in arts administration for almost 20 years and has worked in the Aboriginal art sector since 1997. He has managed significant Art Centres at Balgo and Mowanjum.
Claire Summers
Claire Summers has a back ground in social sciences and business management and has been working in the Maningrida Community for the last five years. Up until recently, she worked as the Assistant Arts Director at Maningrida Arts and Culture and coordinated the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair with Apolline Kohen in 2007 and 2008. Claire now works in a community development capacity at the Babbarra Women’s Centre and manages Babbarra Designs which produces handmade lino-printed and screen printed fabric.
