Artistic director: Mary Lou Jelbart
Mary Lou had a long career as an arts reviewer and reporter with ABC Radio National and Radio 774. She managed to combine this with several years in local government, as a councillor with the City of St. Kilda, where she founded the St. Kilda Festival (of which she is no longer so fond) and the St. Kilda Film Festival (of which she is very proud). Apart from being involved in protests against the Grand Prix in Albert Park, she has managed to keep out of trouble most of the time.
Venue Manager and Administrator: Philippa Jelbart
Philippa’s background of 15 years in hospitality has prepared her for the multitude of different events that take place at the venue every year, although there is always something to surprise her! Her managerial experience means that she is equally happy balancing the books, selling tickets and artworks, and doing the housekeeping to boot. Apart from encouraging Mary Lou to protest in rallies against the Grand Prix, she tries to keep her out of trouble most of the time.
Gallery Manager: Abby Storey
Originally from Northland, New Zealand, Abby worked in the arts in Auckland before moving to Melbourne in 2009. She is an exhibiting visual artist and, more recently, mother to a (very cute) small boy called Senan.
Theatre and Communications Coordinator: Kieran Swann
Kieran is a multidisciplinary artist working in combinations of objects, installations, video, and performance art. A founding member of Transparency Collective, from 2005 to 2009, he also co-led the Restaged Histories project, Artists in Residence at Brisbane Powerhouse. His work has been seen at numerous galleries (Conical, Dear Patti Smith, Metro Arts) and theatres (Queensland Theatre Company, Brisbane Powerhouse) – and he is very pleased to be able to help artists and performers have theirs seen at fortyfivedownstairs.
Gallery and Communications Coordinator: Sally McKittrick
Sally coordinated a ‘Live Art Speed Dating’ event during her internship with fortyfivedownstairs in September 2011. She has since moved to Melbourne town from Canberra to take up the position of Gallery and Communications Coordinator. Sally is completing her Masters in Liberal Arts at Australian National University and has worked at The Front Gallery, Canberra Glassworks, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery. Outside the office she cooks a mean home-made pasta from scratch and spends her time hunting for bargains at vintage thrift stores.
Resident Assistant Curator: Hannah Presley
Coming from a background of visual arts, Hannah has worked both as a practitioner and an Arts Administrator. As Exhibitions Officer at Araluen Galleries in Alice Springs, she co-ordinated many exhibitions including Desert Mob, an exhibition of artwork from remote Art Centres from around Central Australia. Hannah has also recently completed her Visual Arts degree, majoring in Photography, at La Trobe University. Hannah is doing a 9 month residency with fortyfivedownstairs, curating the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards 2012.
This position is supported by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria and the Federal Government through the National Arts and Crafts Industry Strategy (NACIS).
Technical coordinator: Andy Turner
Andy has recently returned from the UK where he has spent the past two years working at the National Theatre as a Lighting Supervisor. He has a wide range of live arts technical experience, having worked with many of the UK’s leading arts organisations. Andy is pleased to have started here with the team at fortyfivedownstairs.
Accounts: Corey Reynolds
Corey is currently studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Marketing) at Melbourne University, where he is also known to frequent the stage in many a student theatrical production. He has worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Trainee Consultant, completed a Business Internship at the Australian National Academy of Music and was the Treasurer for the Melbourne University Music Students’ Society. He is passionate about the Arts, and is a volunteer (sometimes paid…mostly not) at many festivals including The Falls, Meredith, Stereosonic, Next Wave and Melbourne Fringe.
Front of house manager: Andrew Hansen
A man of the theatre, Andrew was a founding member of the groundbreaking, mainly adult, puppet company Handspan. Handspan theatre toured extensively in Europe, the U.S. South America, Japan and Indonesia, with ground breaking productions such as Four Little Girls (Ariette Taylor) Secrets (Nigel Triffitt) Cho Cho San (Daniel Keene). Andrew is well known to fortyfivedownstairs’ patrons for his enthusiastic and effusive audience welcomes.