The IMA is pleased to announce the appointment of two new Board Members, Christopher Bassi and Leighton Craig, and the appointment of existing Board Member Cheryl Leavy to the role of Deputy Chair. Their wealth of experience within the arts and governance will be an invaluable asset to the organisation.

Rachel Crowley remains as Chair, Nerida Cooley as Secretary, and Nicholas Dignan as Treasurer. They are also joined by current Board members Christina Na-Heon Cho, Tarun Nagesh, and Zoë Connolly.

We bid farewell to and thank outgoing Board Members Jay Younger, Sam Cranstoun, and John Hirschfield.

Christopher Bassi is an Indigenous Australian artist of Meriam, Yupungathi, and British descent. Working with archetypal models of representational painting, his work addresses concepts of cultural identity, alternative genealogies, and counter narratives within the art historical language of painting. He is represented by Yavuz Gallery Sydney/Singapore.

Running concurrently to his visual arts practice is his work in the urban design sector where his specific focus is on the intersections of placemaking, arts practice, and designing for social outcomes. His work centres on working to determine appropriate methodologies for embedding First Nation’s experience and agency into the built environment.

Cheryl Leavy is a Kooma and Nguri woman. Kooma Country is in south west Queensland, between St George and Cunnamulla and Nguri Country is in the Upper Maranoa, Carnarvon Gorge region.

Since emerging from the University of Queensland with a degree in Art History, Cheryl has enjoyed two career streams. The first has seen an enduring engagement with the arts sector. While still at University, Cheryl kicked off her career as a journalist at the ABC here in Brisbane where her dogged insistence on covering the arts round was tolerated with some bemusement in a then sport-dominated newsroom. She has served on several boards including the Queensland Art Gallery, Canberra Museum and Gallery, ACT Cultural Council, and the Queensland Music Festival. She is currently a member of the Queensland Children’s Hospital Arts in Health Committee and is on the board of the Brisbane Writers Festival and the Institute of Modern Art. Cheryl is Deputy Chair of the IMA board and Co-chair of its recently announced First Nations advisory committee with artist D Harding.

The second stream of Cheryl’s career has seen her work in both the private sector, and state and federal governments in diverse fields including health, taxation, education and transport. Cheryl’s current ‘day job’ is as a public servant leading First Nations policy and programs.

Leighton Craig is a musician/artist born in Aotearoa and based in Meanjin. For over 25 years Leighton has pursued a minimal approach to creating keyboard works, field recordings, sound installation, songs, and works on paper. He has released an extensive discography of solo and group recordings on international and domestic independent record labels, and has played in numerous bands (The Lost Domain, The Deadnotes, Fig. et al). He is currently a member of the duo Primitive Motion. Leighton is also an experienced senior executive in the public sector and has worked in a diverse range of policy and project settings including constitutional, law and justice policy, disaster relief, community engagement, strategic communications, and corporate governance. He is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland.