Information about the Board of Directors
Leonie McNally (shown right) was raised on the north coast of NSW in a farming community. Aged 11 she commenced life as a boarder at St Hilda's Southport QLD.
Career One: Following studies at the Sydney based Australian College of Physical Education in association with Sydney Teachers College and Sydney University she became a physical education and physiology teacher until an accident closed that chapter.
Career Two: Sydney based at George Pattersons, Australia's then leading advertising agency; planned and implemented marketing campaigns (television and cinema) for British Tobacco around Australia and the Pacific Islands. Brand campaigns demographic based.
Relocated to Darwin and became part of management team and marketing manager for Lend Lease shopping centre. This involved budgets, collecting rents, sourcing tenants to ensure a viable mix, marketing the tenants as well as responsible for company brand image.Was then convinced to move to another company to assist in the final stages of construction and tenancy of shopping precinct, centre plus stand alone office block and majors eg KFC. Sole employee managing the entity. Post Grad Shopping Centre Management, Marketing and Promotion, and business studies informed the above positions
Career Three: 1988 Joined Crafts Council of the Northern Territory Incorporated as Executive Officer and there the lengthy and close association with the not for profit sector began. The responsibilities of the position included employing staff in the 4 major population centres of the NT, managing 4 workshop facilities, 3 galleries, 3 retail outlets, and devising an annual skills enrichment program across all skill levels for the membership and the community at large. The organisation in a sense was professionally led and volunteer based. Funding was annually sought and received from the federal government (Australia Council for the Arts) and the NT Government (Arts & Museums). CCNT was also part of the national network of Craft Councils.
Incorporation in accordance with the Associations Act was the basis for applying for funding from any agency and also obtaining public liability insurance. The constitution provided the operating structure of the organisation and a copy was registered and held by Dept of Justice. Annual audited financial reports, minutes and board member information also lodged with Dept of Justice.
During 2005 the NT Government undertook a review of the Act and implemented a new set of criteria causing the 1,750 registered not for profits to rewrite their constitutions in accordance with the new prescriptive framework. This move affected school councils, Rotary, Girl Guides to name a few – many relying on volunteers decided too difficult and wound up. The Territory offices of nationally registered bodies were required to comply with the rules of the NT jurisdiction.
Arts funding was reduced during 2007 and many organisations and / or positions were no longer funded including my position and most of my staff members.
Other not for profits I have had board/committee association with include Rotary, Inner Wheel (Rotary Wives), Quota (women's service club), Artback NT Arts Touring, National Trust NT, Handicapped Persons Assn, Museums Australia, RSPCA.
Kay Faulkner has been a full time professional hand weaver for over 20 years and has been working, studying and playing in the textile field all her life. She has exhibited, been published and has taught both nationally and internationally and has work in several public collections. She has a Master Weavers accreditation. Her commitment to weaving, textiles and the Arts in general has caused her to be involved with several not-for-profit organisations. She has been on the boards of TAFTA, Complex Weavers, RADF and briefly QSWD (retired due to family illness). Prior to her involvement in hand weaving, from 1975-1983 she taught Home Economics in various State Schools through out Queensland.
Sue Ford trained as a teacher (Dip.T 1970) and subsequently obtained an Associate Diploma in Fine Art – Qld College of Art (1975). She has worked in South-east Queensland for over 30 years as a teacher for Queensland State Primary, Secondary (Art, Art Advisory teacher) and in non-government secondary schools (Art), TAFE QLD (Adult Education) and Queensland Newspapers (N.I.E program). hroughout her career, Sue has always been involved in community arts either as a volunteer, member or supporter of many art galleries and groups, namely: Volunteer: St. John’s Cathedral Art Shows; Volunteer/member: Qld Art Gallery Society; Member: of Pine Rivers Shire Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) committee; Pine Rivers Shire Council Arts Advisory committee, P.R. Gallery Art Awards committee; Friends of the Gallery Society; Board member: Pine Rivers Shire Council Art Gallery and Cultural Foundation Ltd; Co-founder and Inaugural President of the Samford Art and Craft Association Inc and management committee member; Member: Queensland Spinners, Weavers and Fibre Artists Assoc (QSWFA); Australian Textile and Surface Design Association (ATASDA); The Australian Forum for Textile Arts (TAFTA). IN 2007 Sue was awarded Pine Rivers Shire Council Australia Day Cultural Award for service to the arts community. From 2008 she has been President of theSamford Art and Craft Association Inc; amember of Pine Rivers Shire Council RADF committee; and a Board member of TAFTA along with being an ATASDA committee member.
Sue has retired from teaching but not volunteer work and is currently building up her arts practice.
Sue Mears was born in Brisbane in 1955 and obtained a Diploma of Teaching (Secondary Art, majoring in woven textiles) in 1974 from Kelvin Grove Teachers College, Qld. and was appointed to Holland Park SHS. In 1980 she obtained an Associate Diploma of Visual Art (in surface design textiles) from Kelvin Grove College of Advance Education, while working full-time as an art teacher for the Queensland Education Department. Her work, “Under the Tankstand” was purchased by Tamworth Fibre Prize. “After the Feast” was awarded the Embroidery prize at Townsville’s Fibres & Fabrics Exhibition. Sue was transferred to Mount Gravatt SHS, completed Japanese language component of Modern Asian Studies Degree at Griffith University in 1986. She subsequently resigned from Education Queensland and undertook part-time tutoring at KGCAE in the ADVA and B.Ed. courses until mid 1989. Sue was then offered a job at a large new Bayside school - Alexandra Hills SHS, and has worked there happily since then, as an art and media teacher, and for the last few years, as Head of Visual Arts, in this school of 1500 students with 8 Visual Arts teaching staff. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Educational Studies at GU, in 1993, and a Graduate Certificate in Computer Education in ’96. She has served as a TAFTA board member twice, in the early 90’s and presently, as Vice-President. She lives at Redland Bay, Queensland.
Jude Skeers is a self taught textile artist who works exclusively with hand knitting. He has been knitting since his youth and has had several major exhibitions of his knitted webs, trees and other sculptures. He has exhibited his work over a 30-year period in galleries all over Australia. He has also worked as an installation artist and teaches workshops. Jude has specialised in circular knitting. In the 1990’s he designed and wrote the patterns for a range of hats. These were published in ‘Yarn Art’. His hand knitted hats were sold widely in Australia and the USA. In the last few years, he has developed a range of wearable pieces using his specially designed circular needles known as the ‘Broome Beanie Needle’. In more recent times he has designed a number of garments for which he has written the patterns. These garments have included Möbius knitting. Jude’s hand knitted, one-off garments have evolved from his artistic knitting. He enjoys incorporating a variety of yarns and stitches into his designs.
Svenja was born and raised in Brisbane and completed a BA Drama, Stage Management at QUT. Following this she spent time at Moreton Institute of TAFE studying selected subjects in Fashion [1997]. Pattern drafting, Millinery and Surface Decoration were the most memorable of these. After a year living on Tamborine Mountain and exploring silk painting, she came back to Brisbane to do a Certificate III in Drawing [1999]. She spent close to a year at Craft Queensland as trainee assistant to the gallery curator, during which time she completed a Certificate III in Business Administration. She has attended the McGregor Creative Arts School, TAFTA’s Brisbane FORUM and ATASDA workshops to further her skills, and am fortunate enough to have 2 home studios to play in. She has exhibited with ATASDA, Fashion Fantasia, World of Wearablearts (New Zealand), and with Carol Wilkes. She notes that, “Like many, my own experience with textile arts in Australia would be non-existent without the presence of TAFTA, in particular, TEXTILE magazine. I have relatively little experience with not-for-profit organisations, but am passionate about the continuation of this one.
Donna Toussaint was born in Melbourne some time in the 60’s. She has had various occupations, finally finding her calling in community development through the arts. She has worked in a number of roles from co-ordinator with Brisbane City Council to artworker in Doomagee, mostly in Queensland for regional and urban locations over the past twenty years. Finally she has a ‘real job’ as a casual florist for the Mater Hospital in Brisbane and is enjoying her three children and partner. Still passionate about the art of textiles and has been known to cover a porta-loo in knitting for the Brisbane Festival in 2010. Currently the Honourable Secretary for TAFTA.
Martien van Zuilen has been a professional textile-arts practitioner since 1988, specializing in high quality handmade Felt. Over the past 22 years, Martien has taught felt-making workshops at all levels of experience throughout Australia, as well as Russia, the UK, Holland, and the US. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, lectures on textile & fibre arts and sells her work. She is the coordinator of the Australian National Yurt Project and the founder of the Victorian Feltmakers Inc. Martien had her first FORUM experience in 1989. Since 2006 she attends FORUMS as a member of staff and has previously participated as a tutor and installation artist at these events. Currently enrolled in a PhD (Anthropology), her ethnographic research documents the significance of time and materiality in contemporary textile and fibre art practice in Australia. Her website is www.martienvanzuilen.com
Sheila Virgo emigrated from Manchester, England to Adelaide in 1964 and took out Australian citizenship 13 years later. Her working life was as a medical scientist; she graduated from Charles Sturt with BAppSc. in 1980 and moved to Sydney where she worked full time for Macquarie Pathology before moving to St. George Hospital as senior in charge of the Auto-immune laboratory, working in diagnostic and research of auto-antibodies. She retired in 1997 and moved to Brisbane. She first learned to weave in 1987 and soon began dyeing her own yarns, becoming more involved in shibori dyeing. Since moving to Brisbane she has participated in many group exhibitions at various galleries, including the Redlands Art Gallery, and Gallery 159. She also exhibited at the Narrabri Cotton Expo and was successful in exhibiting with the International Shibori Symposium in Paris in 2008 and Sydney in 2010. She is still actively involved in shibori, complex cloth, stitching, beading and embellishing. Groups and memberships: from 1989 to 1999 she was a member of the Spinners and Weavers Guild of NSW and during the 1990s she was an active member of the Society of Arts and Crafts at The Rocks. After moving to Brisbane she joined the Queensland Spinners, Weavers and Fibre Artists and was a board member of the QSWFA for 4 years. She has been a member of ATASDA since they commenced in Brisbane and was on the board for 3 years, in the job of workshop co-ordinator. She has been a member of TAFTA since the early 1990’s and has served on the board for 2 terms prior to the present one.
