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we are Placemakers, artists and curators for the public realm

TEAM

Mark McClelland

Creative Director and Co-Founder

Harry Partridge

Managing Director and Co-Founder

Amanda Jelicich-Kane

Director and Curator

Drenka Andjelic

Non-Executive Director

Bethan Donnelly

Curator and Project Lead

Cathy Drew

Curator and Artist

Alexandra Jonscher

Associate Curator

Hannah Molyneux

Project Manager

Lily Keenan

Project Manager

Hayley Phillips

Urban Designer

Dara Gill

Construction Manager

Tess Allas

Consultant, Indigenous Curator

Mark McClelland

Creative Director and Co-Founder

Mark has become a leading Australian voice in the emerging field of cultural placemaking. He provides advice on urban design for cultural outcomes to government and the development industry.

Mark is recognised as an authority and speaker on the subject of shaping cities and places for the human experience.

Mark’s vision extends from landscape and city scale to the smallest details of place. His practice draws from his experience as cultural strategist, curator in the public realm, artist and designer and his career has taken him from Australia to projects in the US, the UK, Europe and multiple Asian countries.

Mark’s particular interest is in fully integrating art-thinking into urban design to create places of meaning for the people who will inhabit and experience them. In this capacity he also undertakes projects as a sculptor and public artist. Mark is a three-time finalist and former winner of Sydney’s prestigious art event – Sculpture by the Sea.

Harry Partridge

Managing Director and Co-Founder

As co-founder of Cultural Capital, Harry has been instrumental in the firm’s evolution into Australia’s leading cultural placemaking agency.

Harry works across the spectrum of Cultural Capital’s activities from co-authoring cultural visions for place to directing the production of art strategies, working with artists on their implementation of major projects and providing curatorial advice on significant projects. His engineering background informs his leadership of quality control and risk management processes within the business.

Harry has 35 years structural design and project planning experience and has worked closely with artists to design structural solutions that bring their visons to life.

Harry’s expertise in engineering the most sophisticated and complex of artworks is highly regarded by Australia’s leading public artists.

Amanda Jelicich-Kane

Director and Curator

Amanda works across genres from the purely creative area of cultural visioning to the practicalities of leading large-scale art delivery projects.

She is a people person who establishes close relationships with her team, her clients and the artists she works with.

Amanda’s career has taken her from curating art collections in major hotels in China; working in the performance and film industries; to her role in Sydney in the world of cultural placemaking and art projects.

Amanda’s ability to be both creative and practical enables her to apply her imagination to the authoring of cultural visions and art strategies; and then pragmatically lead the project team to their successful delivery.

A recent career highlight was authoring the curatorial strategy for Interloop at Wynyard Station. This project won the inaugural Outstanding Project of the Year award at the National Trust NSW 2018 Heritage Awards and has become an iconic work in Sydney.

Drenka Andjelic

Non-Executive Director

Drenka’s background in construction and the strength of her project management company Construction Assignments provide Cultural Capital’s clients with surety of delivery in any context. Drenka brings a detailed understanding of the needs of all levels of the property development industries.

After graduating from UTS as a civil engineer Drenka gained extensive experience in client-side project management, working for 15 years at AMP Property Investments and Accor Hotels before establishing Construction Assignments in 2006, and joining Cultural Capital in 2015.

Drenka has received awards including: NAWIC, 2011 CB Richard Ellis Businesswoman of the Year and UTS 2011 Alumni Award, Faculty of Engineering and IT. Drenka is current Chair of the NSW Hotel Property Committee, Property Council of Australia.

Bethan Donnelly

Curator and Project Lead

Bethan is a curator, project manager and arts/cultural strategist delivering ambitious public art projects.

She works with government and commercial clients on the strategy, procurement and implementation of complex projects, and manages them to successful completion.

Bethan facilitates multi-stakeholder teams alongside architects, engineers, urban designers, landscape architects, and creative practitioners while mindfully managing artists through project delivery. With nearly a decade of experience working in the arts, Bethan has developed her unique curatorial practice and has established an ever-expanding network of contemporary artists and creative practitioners.

Bethan connects artists with opportunities to make relevant and dynamic work that creates an extraordinary experience of place.

Cathy Drew

Curator and Artist

Cathy sees the urban landscape as a boundless series of opportunities to create cultural meaning. She addresses those opportunities as a curator of art in the public realm and co-author of cultural visions for place.

Cathy develops art and cultural strategies for projects ranging from inner-city Metro’s to extended urban parklands and mixed-use projects. When projects move from strategy to production phase, Cathy sees them through to fruition; cultivating close relationships with contemporary artists and creative practitioners for project implementation.

In doing this work Cathy draws on twenty years of creative experience in the arts and her background as a multidisciplinary artist working across photography, sculpture, drawing and painting. Her strong art process skills make Cathy a great curatorial partner for artists transitioning from their own practice into larger works in the public realm. In her role, Cathy also undertakes public art projects.

Alexandra Jonscher

Associate Curator

Allie is an artist, curator, and creative producer with a passion for making art accessible for everyone. At Cultural Capital Allie brings bold creativity paired with an understanding of client’s needs and an appreciation of what art can offer to the public domain. 

Allie graduated with First Class Honours from Sydney College of the Arts in 2021. She is currently the Executive Producer of On-Air Programming for FBi Radio Arts and Culture, and runs her own clothing label called Dylan Alexander. She has experience in artist-run spaces and event production from her time as SCASS Galleries Director in 2019. 

Allie uses her diverse experience in the arts to inform her work as an associate curator, leading projects with an informed understanding of contemporary art in Australia. She is motivated by connecting with artists and inspiring clients with ambitious contemporary art outcomes that create forward-thinking, inspiring and meaningful contributions to place.

Hannah Molyneux

Project Manager

Hannah is a creative project manager, administrator, communicator and writer. She is inspired by ideas, and loves to work with artists to plan, conceptualise and realise their vision for the benefit of community at large. She is driven to build a legacy of transporting and engaging public art in her home city of Sydney. She is passionate about inviting and encouraging people from beyond the confines of traditional art world to build their own positive relationship with art.

Recent major career milestones include the curation and delivery of a landmark large -scale digital video project at 80 Collins, Melbourne (Scale in Nature) and the curation and delivery of an engaging and inspiring art collection to accompany the recent redevelopment of the Deloitte Melbourne headquarters (Surprise and Delight).

Lily Keenan

Project Manager

Lily is a curator, artist, creative project manager and writer. She is passionate about facilitating genuine opportunities for diverse communities and telling meaningful and place-relevant stories through art. She is a specialist in creative direction, artist management, stakeholder engagement, project budgeting and overseeing complex installations.

Recent major career milestones include a comprehensive art strategy for 44-50 Waterloo Road and the curation and delivery of a landmark large scale digital video project at 80 Collins, Melbourne (Scale in Nature) .

As a public artist, Lily’s practice focuses on community engagement and collaborative design to create artworks that tell important community stories.

Hayley Phillips

Urban Designer

Hayley is an accomplished designer and emerging visual artist. She has spent the last 13 years working worldwide, empowering people and places to thrive. Hayley leverages her urban design, planning and visual arts background to add value through integrated design thinking and communicating complex ideas simply.

She has extensive experience in urban design, project positioning, facilitation and engagement. Her past roles have required her to understand the diverse client and stakeholder needs and aspirations. Her experience includes working on projects for both private and public sectors; ranging from minor urban realm improvements to large area redevelopment visions and master plans for new cities.

Dara Gill

Construction Manager

Dara is a seasoned contractor who specialises in supporting artists through the production, fabrication and installation process. In addition to supplying installation, videography, web design and graphic design support services to artists, he has held numerous positions in the artistic production industry including:

Project Manager & Studio Manager – Hewson Industries, Sydney.

Director – Lupa Player

Producer & Production Coordinator – UNSW Galleries

Tess Allas

Consultant, Indigenous Curator

Tess Allas is an artist, researcher, curator, writer and academic. She has been working in the field of Aboriginal art and cultural practice since the early 1990s. Tess was formerly an Associate Lecturer in the School of Art History & Art Education at COFA, and the Director of Indigenous Programs and Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Art & Design at the University of NSW, where she facilitated the annual Aboriginal printmaking residency and workshop programs.

Tess has curated and coordinated numerous exhibitions in Australia for cultural institutions such as Wollongong Art Gallery, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Carriageworks, as well as overseas at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection in the United States Tess is a regular writer for key Australian arts publications she has written hundreds of biographies on Aboriginal artists for the ‘Storylines Project’ (www.storylines.org.au) which were published on the Design & Art Australia Online website (www.daao.org.au). In 2012 she was awarded an Indigenous Arts Fellowship from Arts NSW to investigate the collecting history of Indigenous shell-worked objects.