Michelle Boyde is a designer and curator who, alongside her role at Design Tasmania, leads her own practice, BOYDE. Trained at RMIT Melbourne’s School of Architecture and Design and with a background in contemporary dance, Michelle’s cross-disciplinary skills span fashion, costume, interiors, and live installations. Her diverse portfolio includes design, curation and consultancy work for independent artists, small venues, and major cultural organizations including Chunky Move Dance Co., Mona, Procreate and Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Since 2014, Michelle has been the co-founder, curator, and design director of experimental art collective Unconscious Collective. The group has created interactive installations across Tasmania and Melbourne, from intimate motel art experiences to large-scale speculative art and architecture projects in wild locations. Michelle’s flagship project with the group, Hypnapod, uses 3D-knitted design to explore somatic connections between diverse audiences and has been featured at MPavilion, QVMag, and Monash University, with a cardiophonic furniture iteration acquired by the Menzies Institute for Medical Research.

At Design Tasmania, Michelle is passionate about fostering opportunities for local designers, promoting women’s leadership in design, and nurturing a First Nations design program. Outside work, she is renovating a 1940s tea-room in outer Hobart, where she lives with her cybernetics and music-loving husband.

artisticdirector@designtasmania.com.au

Lauren is a registered BAS Agent and holds a Diploma in Accounting as well as a Certificate IV in Business. Lauren started out in Education but the numbers always spoke to her, leading her to pursue studies in finance and start her own business as a Bookkeeper in 2013. When she's not crunching numbers, she can be found doing literal crunches as a Pilates Instructor or training in the gym, as she holds a National Powerlifting title as well as a Ms. Figure Classic, Tasmania Bodybuilding title.

accounts@designtasmania.com.au

Fresh from completing a Diploma in Graphic Design, Julia joins Design Tasmania as the Administration Manager.

Julia has a background in new media, working for many years as a Front-End Web Developer and Accessibility Consultant in London for a range of clients including Microsoft, Apple, Canon and American Express. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics and a Graduate Diploma in Information Technology. As well as her role with Design Tasmania, she works freelance creating online spaces for local small businesses.

When she’s not at work, Julia is one half of DJ team Cogwebs and Strange – a radio show which goes out weekly on Meander Valley Community Radio (96.9FM) and several internet radio stations in the UK. She also enjoys veggie gardening and can be seen most days at her local dog park with her Boston Terrier, Loki.

Megan is a Tasmanian born and based designer and passionate advocate for design, culture, women and her local community. As a Founder and Creative Director of her self-titled practice she delivers branding, communication design and strategy for cultural institutions and events, products and artists. Recognition for her design includes an Australian Graphic Design Association Pinnacle, and globally with a Dieline First Place and Pentawards Gold. Before launching her practice in 2020 Megan honed her craft as design lead for Mona and Dark Mofo, building the festival brand from its inception. Megan believes good design brings joy to everyday life, and is a powerful tool to revitalise and unify regional communities, and convey a sense of place.

As the daughter of renowned Tasmanian maker Kevin Perkins her connection to Design Tasmania runs deep. Represented in the Wood Collection, Kevin is a founding designer for the organisation. Megan is also a previous recipient of the Design Tasmania award, and recognises first hand the value of opportunity, and the big impact that support, and facilitation can provide Tasmanian designers and their practices.

Suzanne Derry is a principal lawyer with 15 years of experience in the arts at Arts Law (the national community legal centre for the arts in Australia). She is committed to using the law as a tool to achieve more fair arrangements for creatives, greater economic benefit for artists and stronger and more engaged relationships in the creative sector. Suzanne has delivered legal training and services across federal, state and local governments, as well as to arts organisations, creative businesses and cultural institutions.

Suzanne adores audio, and has composed music for the sheer joy of it for many years and recently produced a podcast called Less is More, looking at the community in Launceston’s response to some of the key sustainability challenges of our time. 

Christie has lived and worked in lutruwita/Tasmania for most of her life. She has a background in the creative industries including fine art, design, events and festivals – both as a practitioner and administrator, specifically in marketing and branding. Currently she is employed in the public sector and has worked in several agencies including Tourism Tasmania and Brand Tasmania.

She is passionate about design and believes good design is not only ascetically pleasing but can also make a positive difference to communities considering social, cultural and economic factors. With connections to Tasmania’s timber industry, she understands the value of this exceptional resource to users of this material including the state’s designer-makers.

Christie values having the opportunity to contribute to the Tasmanian community through volunteer positions and brings to the board knowledge and connections to help business development. In her down time, she enjoys all what Tasmania has to offer and is studying Creative Arts and Health and Wellbeing at the University of Tasmania to complement her Batchelor of Fine Art.

Dr Rohan Nicol is Associate Professor of Fine Art and Associate Head of the School of Creative Arts and Media (CAM) at the University of Tasmania (UTAS).

Rohan is an experienced artist with an international profile achieved through a hybrid practice spanning contemporary art, craft, design, and curatorship. His work focusses on the role and impact of art, craft, and design to establish new practices that reconcile domestic habits with the questions of globalisation and pressing environmental challenges. He has published in leading global journals on design ethics and led global teams in collaborative research projects that focus on changing harmful domestic consumption habits. These projects present new living, manufacturing and production models that are scalable and offer prospects for the repair of our planet. Other projects focus on various forms of arts-led innovation (regional and local manufacturing), through collaborative projects that have realised and documented positive impacts on culture, community, and economies.

Zoe Rimmer is a Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) community member from a large extended family from Flinders and Cape Barren Island, with Ancestral connections to the northeast coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania. Zoe has grown up connected to her community, country and culture, and has learnt the cultural skills of basket making and shell stringing from her Elders – traditions she is now passing on to her own daughter, 11-year-old Eve. Zoe has worked in the museum and cultural heritage management sector for the past 19 years and is currently an Indigenous Academic Fellow at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) where her PhD candidature follows on from her work in repatriation and First Nations museology. She is passionate about increasing First Peoples voice and perspectives across cultural institutions and public spaces; as well as facilitating the revitalisation of cultural knowledge and practices. Her interest in public history and the importance of truth telling also motivates her work.

Until recently Zoe was the Senior Curator of First Peoples Art and Culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). Zoe continues to work as an independent curator, most recently collaborating on the new interpretation facility at the Cascades Female Factory and regularly working with MONA FOMA curators.

Zoe is also Deputy-Chair of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Heritage Council; a member of the National Museum of Australia’s Indigenous Reference Group and sits on the Board of Directors of Karadi Aboriginal Corporation. She is an alumni of the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA) Indigenous Arts Leadership Program and has previously had a role as Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for Indigenous Repatriation.

Currently leading the $20 million redevelopment of the Burnie Arts Centre in NW Tasmania, Mark has built an extensive creative and management career across visual arts, heritage, festival development, the performing arts and working with regional communities.

Mark has a particular passion for design and the hand-made and was, for 11 years, the Director of Sturt Gallery & Studios in Mittagong NSW, the original Australian Centre for Design, established in 1941, that incorporates the Sturt School for Wood, Australia’s principal school for fine furniture making.

For Museums of History NSW, Mark held a number of key positions over more than a decade. As Head of Public Programs he was responsible for producing more than 400 major events and festivals each year earning a Helpmann Award nomination and several National Trust Heritage Awards. As General Manager of Properties Mark had overall responsibility for six museums and coordinated a number of important strategic and infrastructure initiatives including the successful World Heritage nomination for the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney. He is also a practising artist and has worked in the UK and Europe as a theatre set designer, scenic artist and production manager.

Mark is a graduate of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.

A graduate of the AICD and a Certified Practising Accountant and has over 13 years' experience as a finance professional within executive and senior management roles across a broad range of sectors such as superannuation, retail, mining, construction, and utilities. May is also the Treasurer for Blue Cow Theatre.