Staff & Board

  • Robert Leonard

    Director

    Robert Leonard (he/him) is an art curator and writer with over three decades of experience. He has returned to the Director’s seat, having earlier led the IMA, from 2005 to 2013. In New Zealand, he held curatorial posts at Auckland Art Gallery, City Gallery Wellington, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, and Wellington’s National Art Gallery, and directed Auckland’s Artspace. He was the curator of New Zealand pavilions at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2015.

    Contact: director@ima.org.au

  • Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer

    Assistant Director — Operations

    Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer (he/him) is an artist and arts worker with ten years of experience in the industry. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has worked at Artspace, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, and as a lecturer and tutor at the University of Technology Sydney and Queensland College of Art. He holds a Bachelor of Design with Honours in Photography and Situated Media from UTS and a Masters of Fine Art (Research) from the University of New South Wales.

    Contact: nick@ima.org.au

  • Kate Usher

    Assistant Director — Programs

    Kate Usher (she/her) is an arts manager and performing-arts curator. She has held positions at Studio1, Supercell Festival, Ausdance, Museum of Brisbane, Metro Arts, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, and Queensland Museum. She holds a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Dance), a Graduate Certificate in Arts Administration, and a Masters in Creative Production and Arts Management from the Queensland University of Technology. In 2020, she was awarded the Weary Dunlop Fellowship for Asialink Business Leaders through the University of Melbourne.

    Contact: kate@ima.org.au

  • Stephanie Berlangieri

    Adjunct Curator

    Stephanie Berlangieri (she/her) is a curator, researcher, and writer. Her research interests include digital technology, labour, mental health, and subjectivity in relation to neoliberalism. She is currently Associate Curator at Carriageworks, and has held curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Biennale of Sydney. Her exhibitions include Salote Tawale: I Remember You and The National 4: Australian Art Now (Carriageworks, 2023); and Vivienne Binns: On and through the Surface, Doug Aitken: New Era, and Anywhere but Here (Museum of Contemporary Art, 2021). She has written for Art Monthly AustralasiaArt Asia PacificArtist Profile, and Art and Australia.

  • Shannon Brett

    Adjunct Curator

    Shannon Brett (they/them) is a proud Wakka Wakka/Butchulla/Gooreng Gooreng person, an artist, designer, and curator, currently completing a PhD in Social Justice at the Queensland University of Technology. Their research on whiteness responds to systemic racism and misogyny in Australia from decolonial and black feminist perspectives. They hold a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art from the Queensland College of Art and have worked in numerous arts institutions throughout Australia.

  • Kink

    Adjunct Curators

    Kink are a cross-disciplinary working group researching and formalising a history of queer Australian art. Their work is defined by interests in scholarship, publishing, advocacy, and  access. They are passionate about generating new and open resources for and about the Australian LGBTQIA+ visual arts community. They currently comprise art historian Amelia Barikin, artist and facilitator Courtney Coombs, artist and researcher Callum McGrath (pictured, right), artist and educator Spiros Panigirakis (pictured, left), and art historian and curator Tim Riley Walsh.

  • Tina Agic

    Marketing Manager + Publisher

    Tina Agic (she/her) has delivered communications in diverse fields, including working for 4ZZZ and the Office of Kevin Rudd. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Arts from the University of Queensland, and is completing a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies at the University of Sydney. 

    Contact: tina@ima.org.au

  • Nadine Schmoll

    Education Manager

    Nadine Schmoll (she/her) is an artist and educator experienced in working with diverse audiences. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education (Visual Arts) and has worked across curriculum areas, including art, design, fashion, history, science, and English. Prior to joining the IMA, she was Learn Curator at the Museum of Brisbane.

    Contact: education@ima.org.au

  • Larissa Deak

    Educator

    Larissa Deak (she/her) is an an artist and experienced arts educator. She works in visitor experience and learning at the Museum of Brisbane, and in programming for Annerly Junction Fest. She holds a Bachelor of Theatre Theory and Practice from the University of Western Sydney and a Graduate Diploma in Arts and Cultural Management from the University of South Australia.

  • Caitlin Sheedy

    Shop Manager

    Caitlin Sheedy (she/her) is an artist and experienced retail manager, with interest and knowledge in artisanal design. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Queensland College of Art, where she was awarded the Win Shubert Graduate Prize for Fine Art and the Karl and Gertrude Langer Memorial Prize for the highest graduating student in printmaking. Prior to the IMA, she worked at the Museum of Brisbane and Artisan.

    Contact: shop@ima.org.au

  • Jessica Dorizac-Aquilizan

    Shop and Front of House Assistant

    Jessica Dorizac (she/her) is an arts worker and artist whose practice explores assemblage, ornament, and pattern. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has worked within the artist-family collective, Fruit Juice Factori Studio. In 2022, Dorizac was awarded the National Artists’ Book Prize.

  • Katie Rasch

    Producer — Exhibitions and Events

    Katie Rasch (she/her) is an artist and arts producer with an interest in live production design for gallery spaces, community-led productions, and de-colonial storytelling. She holds a Bachelor in Screen and New Media Production from Griffith University, and has produced work independently and with Backbone Youth Arts, Metro Arts, and Brisbane Festival.

    Contact: engagement@ima.org.au

  • Misteria Towler

    Associate Producer — First Nations

    Misteria Towler (she/her) is a performing artist and choreographer of Wiradjuri heritage. She has performed nationally and internationally, including at documenta fifteen in Kassel, and has worked with the Aboriginal Centre of Performing Arts, Pride Festival Brisbane, Digi Youth Arts, and Brisbane Festival. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Secondary Education with the University of Southern Queensland. 

  • Dean Ansell

    Gallery Assistant

    Dean Ansell (he/them) is an artist of Melanesian (Rigorabana, Balawaia, Papua New Guinea), Maltese, and Anglo-Celtic heritage. His practice is a material-oriented investigation into concepts of time, place, memory, and transformation; using the body, the earth, and its atmosphere in the works’ creation. He is currently studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Queensland University of Technology. 

Board of Directors

  • Nick Dignan

    Treasurer

  • Zoë Connolly

    Chair

  • Christina Cho

    Deputy Chair

  • Nerida Cooley

    Secretary

  • Leighton Craig, D Harding, Tarun Nagesh, Courtney Pedersen, Kirsty Rourke, and Trish Szonert

    Directors

  • D Harding (Chair), Katina Davidson, Les Malezer, and Warraba Weatherall

    Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council