ARTISTIC VISION
The Cad Factory is an artist led organisation creating an international program of new, immersive and experimental work guided by authentic exchange, ethical principles, people and place.
We present high quality and current contemporary arts practice utilising the unique spaces and locations within the Riverina to present performance and installation work. This spotlight on Australian landscapes and the communities that exist within them is at the core of The Cad Factory activities.
Our program aims to bring artists from city centres and international communities to the Riverina to share their skills, ideas and practice to create work in response to the great Australian landscape and all that resides within it. We aim to partner local artists to our programs to facilitate capacity building and networking opportunities and to highlight the unique regional voice.
ARTISTIC VISION
The Cad Factory is an artist led organisation creating an international program of new, immersive and experimental work guided by authentic exchange, ethical principles, people and place.
We are a multi-disciplinary organisation that engages with the real world to extract poetry from lived experience. We place people at the centre of our arts practice, believing that if the arts is about an exploration of the human condition, then engagement with human beings is the best way to make meaningful work.
The Cad Factory embraces opportunities to expand contemporary arts practice by working with diverse sectors such as health, business, education, community and the environment. We work independently and in collaboration to create new contemporary art and performance.
We devise, deliver and evaluate what we do within an ethical framework so we can confidently push ourselves and others.
Our programming is based on breaking down hierarchies and binaries that exist within our contemporary world; such as the division of regional and urban, man and woman or human and non-human. We understand these realities as being in complex, intra-connected relationships, rather than in opposition. The Cad Factory believes some of the best, most original, innovative and exciting ideas exist just beyond the things we know, where real and imagined borders are porous.
DONATE TO US
In June 2018 The Cad Factory attained Deductible Gift Recipient status and became a registered charity.
You can support the work we do by donating to us. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
We accept donations via:
Direct Deposit or PayPal
The Cad Factory
BSB - 062009
A/C - 10883486
PEOPLE
Vic McEwan
Artistic Director, Artist
Vic McEwan is an interdisciplinary artist exploring sound, video and installation. Through the Cad Factory, Vic explores experimental and contemporary arts practice in partnership with diverse sectors.
Vic’s practice involves working with sound, video, installation and performance with a particular interest in site-specific work. He is interested in creating new dynamics by working with diverse partners and exploring difficult themes within lived experience. Vic aims to use his work to contribute to and enrich broader conversations about the role that the arts sector can play within our communities.
Vic was the 2015 Artist in Residence at the National Museum of Australia and the recipient of the Inaugural Arts NSW Regional Fellowship 2014/16. He has shared the outcomes of this work internationally in the UK (Tate Liverpool), Lithuania (National Gallery of Lithuania) and Australia (The Big Anxiety Festival). He sits on the NSW/ACT Arts and Health State Leadership Group, is a board member of Music NSW, holds a Masters of Arts Practice with High Distinction and a First Class Honours (Fine Art) for which he received the University Medal.
Vic was the recipient of the Council for the Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) 2018 Australian Prize for Distinctive Work for his project The Harmonic Oscillator which involved 3 years of creative research within hospital environments. In 2019 Vic has enrolled in a PhD at The University of Sydney, being the first contemporary artist to be accepted into the School of Medicine as an artist to undertake creative practice led research.
Sarah McEwan
Creative Producer, Artist
Sarah McEwan is an artist and musician interested in interdisciplinary practices and feminism.
In 2012 Sarah started creating work under the pseudonym “Her Riot” which is her anti-band; producing installations rather than performing live gigs.
Sarah studied painting at Sydney College of the Arts and Fashion Design at East Sydney TAFE. She has a diploma in Education.
Sarah has extensive experience in the arts covering all aspects of project development, administration, co-ordination, communication, education and audience development having held positions at Penrith Performing and Visual Arts and Eastern Riverina Arts.
From 2015 - 2017 Sarah was on the steering committee for the Supported Studio Network, run by Accessible Arts. During these years she helped to establish the Riverina's first supported studio, in collaboration with Leanne Dyer.
Sarah is on the community advisory committee for Riverina Community College.
Claire Harris
General Manager
Over the past fifteen years, Claire has worked in various areas of the arts, most recently as Creative Producer at Outback Theatre for Young People in Deniliquin developing programs and engaging with young people across South West NSW.
In Sydney Claire was the Marketing Manager at Australian Theatre for Young People and in Melbourne she was the Membership and Marketing Manager for Live Performance Australia. Since moving back to her home town, she has worked with Riverina arts organisations such as The Wired Lab and Eastern Riverina Arts, where she produced the Riverina tour of the BASIN project.
Claire graduated from Charles Sturt University with a Bachelor of Arts (Design for Theatre and TV) and has also completed an Advanced Diploma (Business and Public Relations) at Box Hill Institute of TAFE.
Claire now happily divides her time between Outback Theatre for Young People in Deniliquin as their Business Manager and the Cad Factory, while working from a farm in Lockhart, NSW.
Kimberley Beattie
Project Assistant
Kimberley Beattie is a Narrandera local with a passion for environmental community engagement, and cultural storytelling. She enjoys discovering new ways to connect people with the natural world, local history, and each other. As a short fiction and non-fiction writer, and small-time poetry buff, Kimberley loves the power of storytelling in all its forms as a means of bringing people together despite the barriers of time, distance and culture.
Kimberley has qualifications from The University of Sydney and Charles Sturt University in both Environmental Science and Social Engagement, and is self-taught in cross-platform online engagement. She has worked extensively with rural and urban communities across the Riverina since 2006.
Kimberley works part-time for the Cad Factory assisting with administration and project delivery.
Michael Petchkovsky
Creative Solar Technician
Michael Petchkovsky is an artist, organiser and technician who divides his time living between the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and the Snowy Monaro region in southeast NSW. With a strong focus on community-oriented, collectively-implemented solutions, his work aims to explore and facilitate discourse around social change at the meeting points of our sciences, arts and cultures. He believes that hybrid, relational and speculative SF-infused methodologies provide future-tense generative pathways for activist, agential working process. His art practice explores the ways our tools and technologies both represent and affect our lives, working across traditional and contemporary electronic mediums.
Michael is working with The Cad Factory to develop a flexible, multi-purpose, modular solar power system capable of meeting power requirements for installations of all sizes. The Cad Factory will aim to use this solar system for all upcoming Cad Factory projects where possible and to provide training and development for artists and arts organisation to pass on skills and knowledge about the accessibility of alternative energy technologies.
Danielle O’Keefe
Intern, Artist
Danielle O’Keefe will be interning with the Cad Factory for 'Becoming the Future' in 2019. Danielle is an interdisciplinary contemporary artist whose compositions and performances with young female singers are being recognised internationally. Passionate about passion, her work has been featured in collaborations at Melbourne Festival, Dark Mofo, and Sydney Festival.
In 2014, she established the House ensemble with 12 creatively-distinct young women, the ensemble is now gaining recognition as an extraordinary multidisciplinary performance collective. Most recently the ensemble performed with Sydney Chamber Opera in their acclaimed production 'The Howling Girls' and in 2019 the ensemble will be featured at the Venice Biennale in renowned Australian video artist Angelica Mesiti’s work 'Assembly'.
BOARD
Renay Ringma: President
Renay is a highly experienced marketing, change and communication strategist with a passion for the arts. She has held senior management positions in the public, private, ASX Top 100 and NFP sectors. Renay holds a Bachelor in Art History, Masters in Communication Management and a Masters in Arts Administration.
Sabiene Heindl: Vice-President
Sabiene is a senior executive and lawyer with experience running an Australian music industry body, stakeholder relations in NBN and many years in a top law firm. She is passionate about the arts and regularly works with clients across the creative industries. She holds a First Class Honours Degree in Law, Bachelor in International Business and recently graduated from an MBA between liberal arts university Brown in the US and IE Business School in Spain while working for the United Nation's World Intellectual Property Organisation in Switzerland.
Linda is an artist who has worked as a dancer, choreographer and teacher since 1998 and is currently working in the Performance Department at Wollongong University. Linda has been a core member of the De Quincey Co since 2004. Linda has over 15 years experience as a financial consultant for the arts.
Sarah McEwan: Secretary
Vic McEwan: Public Officer
Keith Besgrove
Keith was a senior official in the Commonwealth Department of Communications for fifteen years. Since 2014, he has mentored technology start-up companies and provided strategic advice to not-for-profit groups including Financial Counselling Australia and Energy Consumers Australia. Keith was a research associate at the University of Technology (Sydney) and an honorary fellow at the Cyber-security Research Centre at Macquarie and Newcastle Universities. He is a member of the Australian Computer Society’s Professional Advisory Board, a vice chair of Internet Australia, and a governing member of auDA.
Tahni is a performing arts producer and consultant based in Albury-Wodonga. She is the Executive Producer at Flying Fruit Fly Circus, and a Producer with Performing Lines. In 2017 she founded her company Froudist, with a focus on contemporary practice and participatory work. Froudist works with artists across the country proudly supporting the development, creation and touring of new Australian work.
Kirsten Wehner is an Australia curator, visual anthropologist and narrative designer. Her practice explores people's inter-relationships with the more-than-human world, with a particular focus on how creative collaboration between artists and communities can build ecological understanding, cross-species empathy, and flourishing multi-species places. Kirsten has worked in the Australian cultural sector for over 20 years, and is currently Director of PhotoAccess, the ACT's centre for photography and photo-media arts. She holds a PhD from New York University and an MA from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
