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we are Placemakers, artists and curators for the public realm

TEAM

Mark McClelland

Creative Director and Co-Founder

Harry Partridge

Technical Director and Co-Founder

Amanda Jelicich-Kane

Managing Director

Drenka Andjelic

Non-Executive Director

Bethan Donnelly

Curator and Project Director

Cathy Drew

Artist/Curator/Project Manager

Alexandra Jonscher

Curator and Project Manager

Hannah Molyneux

Project Manager

Lily Keenan

Curator and Project Manager

Hayley Phillips

Creative Urbanist

Dara Gill

Project Manager

Gina Mobayed

Curator and Project Lead

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

Technical Director and Co-Founder

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

Harry has 35 years of structural design and project planning experience. He has worked closely with many artists to design structural solutions that bring their visions to life. Harry’s expertise in engineering the most sophisticated and complex artworks is highly regarded by Australia’s leading public artists.

Harry’s collaborative projects with artists have included:

  • Halo, Turpin+Crawford, Central Park, Sydney 
  • Tsunami 1.26, Janet Echelman, Town Hall, Sydney, (temporary) 
  • Convergence, Chris Fox, Paris France

Amanda Jelicich-Kane

Managing Director

As Managing Director Amanda plays an important role in setting the strategic vision for the company and ensuring that the team produces exemplary work. Her guidance is critical to the success of the company’s projects, which involve collaborating with multiple stakeholders to plan, curate, and deliver large art and cultural projects for major government and commercial clients.   

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 Director

Bethan is a curator, creative placemaker, and arts and cultural strategist whose practice centres leading contemporary artists in public realm. She produces dynamic and ambitious projects that create extraordinary experiences and increase access and engagement with art and culture. Through her work, Bethan also attempts to address the urgent issues facing our creative practitioners who live and work in our places.

Bethan has significant experience in precinct-wide creative and cultural strategy and placemaking, consulting to leading clients in the cultural, public, and development sectors. Bethan helps clients to realise vital and sustainable cultural projects that deliver tangible benefits for communities. Her projects include working with cities, creative precincts, infrastructure projects, mixed-use developments, parks, and heritage sites.

The breadth of her experience includes artistic visioning, empathetic leadership, inspiring stakeholder engagement, simplifying complex deliverables, and effective project management.

Bethan’s career spans working in multidisciplinary cultural and creative spaces, museums and galleries, and performance spaces.

Cathy Drew

Artist/Curator/Project Manager

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

Curator and Project Manager

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

Curator and Project Manager

Lily is a curator, artist, creative project manager and writer.

She is a specialist in creative direction, artist management, stakeholder engagement, project budgeting, and overseeing complex installations. She is an excellent communicator who is skilled at managing multiple stakeholders and overseeing large project teams.

Her career to date has included curation, event management, writing, curatorial project management, and creative business administration.

She is passionate about facilitating genuine opportunities for diverse communities and telling meaningful and place-relevant stories through art.

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

Hayley Phillips

Creative Urbanist

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

Project Manager

Dara is a seasoned contractor who specialises in supporting artists through design, fabrication and installation processes. Passionate about helping artists realise their vision, Dara leverages his background as a visual artist and a project manager in the construction industry, serving as a link between these two professions.

Gina Mobayed

Curator and Project Lead

Gina is an established curator of the visual arts in Australia.

She has delivered bold creative outcomes for artists and commissioners alike. Her work spans leadership and artistic direction, consultancy, and collection management. Gina is experienced in working beyond the institution and engaging with diverse people, artists, and communities. 

She is dedicated to developing ambitious artistic projects with artists working at all stages of their careers. She works across media and conceptual realm for institutional, government, and private clients.

Gina’s work is driven by a commitment to facilitate connections between artists, people, and places. She has worked in the major cities and rural regions of Australia, bringing new conversations, ideas, and experiences to communities through contemporary art.

Her work has been awarded by the Minister for Women in Local Government, Museums and Galleries of NSW, Goulburn Mulwaree Council, and The Australian Graphic Design Association.