Shoulder to Shoulder, 2023, And Then, Vic McEwan and the Pinnaroo Project. Photo: Vic McEwan
CASE Incubator National Residency Program
12-month residency and professional development program for 8 mid-career, socially engaged Australian artists – one from each state and territory.
Congratulations to the 2026 selected artists: Clare Walton (TAS), Ellie Hannon (NSW), Muriel Hillion Toulcanon (WA), Nathan Stoneham (QLD), Paul Gazzola (SA), Sam Wallman (VIC), Sammy Moynihan (ACT) & Tanya Voges (SA).
The CASE Incubator National Program is a paid, 12-month residency and professional development program for Australian socially engaged artists seeking to develop their practice, engage with their peers, create networking opportunities with diverse partners, and contribute back to the sector. It will run from October 2026 to September 2027.
Awarded to 8 mid-career, socially engaged artists, one from each state and territory in Australia, this program offers in-depth learning and mentorship from sector leaders, alongside peer-to-peer learning, network building and the support to deliver a small project or resource for the sector.
Each artist will receive:
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$3000 (ex. GST) artist fee + super contribution
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$4000 (inc. GST) to deliver a small project or resource for the sector.
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Travel, accommodation and per diems covered for two in-person residencies (to be held in Sydney)
Selected artists will need to commit to:
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Travel to Sydney for a 4 day residency from 27-30 Oct 2026
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Travel to Sydney for a 4 day residency in August 2027 (dates TBC)
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8 x 2 hour online learning and discussion workshops
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Delivering a small socially engaged art project or resource between November 2026 and September 2027, within the allocated budget
2026 Selected Artists
Clare Walton
Tasmania
Clare Walton is a socially engaged artist, playworker, and artist educator. Her arts practice focuses on collaborating with children and young people to promote their voice and support them to engage as creative active citizens in their community. A multi-disciplinary artist, Clare's work embraces the concept of adventure play as a primary tool to promote child-led collaborative work that questions the current social dynamics that place children and young people in positions of limited power.
Ellie Hannon
New South Wales
Ellie Hannon is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Muloobinba/Newcastle, on the unceded lands and waters of the Awabakal and Worimi People. Working across immersive installation, public art and community engaged projects, Ellie’s practice traces relationships between people and place through the lens of social and environmental justice. Informed by community collaboration and process-led inquiry, Hannon creates spaces for noticing, exchange and collective making. Using colour, familiar symbols and playful structures, her work prioritises relationship building and reparation, both internal and external, self and environment, the simple and complex.
Muriel Hillion Toulcanon
Western Australia
Muriel Hillion Toulcanon is a Réunion-born, Perth-based artist, researcher, songwriter, performer and cultural practitioner. Her work is informed by Maloya, the traditional music and dance of Réunion Island. Maloya explores cultural identity, memory, migration and connection through music, movement and storytelling. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Salama, a contemporary Maloya ensemble bringing together artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. Muriel completed her PhD at WAAPA in 2022, focusing on Maloya music and dance. Her practice includes performance, composition, research, community engagement and the development of new interdisciplinary works in WA, Victoria and internationally.
Nathan Stoneham
Queensland
Nathan Stoneham is a community arts and cultural development practitioner and producer who has been collaborating across art forms and throughout the Asia Pacific for twenty years. He is a member of the independent arts collective Company Bad and has worked in NGOs, local government, and small to large cultural organisations as an artist, facilitator, researcher, organiser, and mentor. Drawing on a master's in social work, and studies in education and the creative industries, Nathan collaborates with groups and individuals to imagine, make, and reflect on socially engaged art in complex contexts. With a queer sensibility and a yearning for more creative lifeways, his practice focuses on relational, reciprocal, and responsive processes.
Paul Gazzola
South Australia
Paul Gazzola (he/him) is an artist, curator and writer of Italian heritage living on Kaurna Country. Originally trained as a carpenter, he has undertaken studies in dance and architecture and is a qualified Feldenkrais practitioner. His interdisciplinary practice across the expanded fields of socially engaged/participatory art, performance, sculpture, video and scenography, explores the intersection between actions, objects and ideas – blurring the edge between art and the everyday. He has created works with Mette Edvardsen, Paul Granjon, Xavier Le Roy, Tino Sehgal & Lone Twin Theatre. Paul is the Artistic Director/CEO of Open Space Contemporary Arts (OSCA).
Sam Wallman
Victoria
Sam Wallman is a writer, illustrator and union activist based in Naarm Melbourne. His work has been published in the Guardian, the New York Times, The Age, Le Monde Diplomatique, the ABC and SBS. He has exhibited at the NGV, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Museum of Australian Democracy. He is currently working on his third long-form comic, 'ALL OUT!: Blue Collars and Pink Bans' to be published by National Library of Australia Publishing and PM Press in the US in 2027. Sam previously worked as a union organiser, and now works part-time as a wharfie.
Sammy Moynihan
Australian Capital Territory
Sammy Moynihan is a Canberra-based theatre director and applied theatre practitioner working in contemporary performance, physical theatre and socially engaged arts. He has trained in Theatre of the Oppressed in Brazil and physical theatre in Switzerland, and worked in Palestine and Egypt. He previously led socially engaged programs at Rebus Theatre and is co-founder of independent theatre company Shwa Shwa Theatre. Sammy holds a Master of Fine Arts in Cultural Leadership from NIDA. His practice includes professional productions and applied theatre projects with diverse communities, focusing on ensemble, play and storytelling. His community-based practice also informs how he directs professional performance.
Tanya Voges
South Australia
Tanya Voges is a socially engaged dance artist and creative arts therapist based on Peramangk Lands of the Adelaide Hills. Through an attempt to capture the ephemerality of dance and connect with audiences, Tanya’s work spans choreography, improvisation and performance drawing for theatres, galleries and screen. Significant recent works include YIELD at Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), The Score at Dancehouse, Melbourne, The Mill, Adelaide and AGSA. Tanya collaborated with visual artist Louise Flaherty and Belinda Gehlert on a suite of projects in nature (Memorial for Forgotten Plants and Understory). Upcoming projects include a commission for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra “Make a Move” family and schools performances in 2027 and performances and workshops for the 2027 Arts Health Week.
2026 applications are now closed.
Eligibility Criteria:
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You are a mid-career socially engaged artist and can demonstrate you have led and delivered five or more socially engaged projects in any artform.
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You have questions about your socially engaged practice and a willingness to discuss these in a shared group environment while also having a generosity to listen to other selected artists’ questions and engage with them.
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You can work well in collaborative and group environments and be part of a curious cohort who are trying to understand their artistic practices more deeply.
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You have an ability to devise and deliver projects according to project timelines and budgets. The CASE Incubator National Program will finish in October 2027 and all creative projects will need to be concluded by September 2027. The $4000 budget is final and no more funds will be offered to selected artists.
To Apply:
Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria will be asked to submit their application via an online form. If you have any additional questions, you can contact our Assistant Producer on email.
Kimberley Beattie
Assistant Producer at the Cad Factory
P: 0408 264 894
E: kimberley@cadfactory.com.au
The form will ask you to include:
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Name, pronouns, date of birth, contact information, ABN and public liability insurance details.
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A current CV.
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A small portfolio of recent work (up to 10 images, 2 pages of text, 5 mins of video or 3 links).
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Responses to 3 key questions.
Applications
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. The Cad Factory is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW and Minderoo Foundation.
