Our Staff

Pilar Kasat > Managing Director

I manage all the operations of CAN WA - providing leadership, mentoring and support to staff, as well as developing the direction of the organisation and securing its resources. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to assemble a team that I trust to deliver our vision.

In my role at CAN WA I have travelled widely within WA and assisted many communities and organisations with their cultural development plans. I especially love the work that we do with young people and Indigenous communities. I am passionate about diversity, the right to self-determination and freedom of expression.

I am proud that under my leadership CAN WA has grown and consolidated its position in the Western Australian cultural landscape. The establishment of the office in Kellerberrin has been a particularly rewarding project this year. My work for CAN WA has included some of the most challenging and gratifying undertakings of my career. I believe in the importance of our work and vision.

Jason Cleary > Funds and Operations Manager

A major part of my job is managing the funding schemes on behalf of our partners, the Department of Culture and the Arts and Healthway. I explain the selection criteria for these grants to applicants and convene the independent panels that assess applications. I also oversee the training arm of CAN WA, ensuring that any training runs smoothly and that we comply with government standards.

The great part about working at CAN WA is being able to see communities benefit directly from the programmes we deliver. Arts and culture are things that everybody should have access to. The work we do here is a major connection for many people into something that most of us take for granted. It's a great feeling to know that my work helps facilitate this process.

Lauren Holst > Strategic and Cultural Development

My work is so varied at CAN WA that it is hard for me to say what I will be doing on any one day. I work closely with local governments through CAN WA’s Cultural Planning program, bury myself in word-smithing for many of our publications, work on various consultancies and deliver training. Underlying all of my work is a sense of advocacy for the value of community cultural development.

I love that my job challenges me on a daily basis and that I am able to combine my passion for artistic expression with a commitment to enabling positive change at a grass-roots level. One of the most exciting projects that I have been involved in during my time at CAN WA was the cultural exchange in Kellerberrin between the Narasirato Pan Pipers of the Solomon Islands and the Noongar Indigenous community. I will always remember the awesome jam we helped stage: the frosty air, a fusion of Indigenous Aussie rhythms and pan pipes, and the glow in everyone’s eyes.

Simone Ruane > LiveworX Manager (Youth Arts and Culture)

I direct the LiveworX program, an initiative which is designed to create opportunities for young people to thrive through arts and cultural activities. In the past I have been employed in sustainability, community planning and youth work.

I believe strongly in the participatory approach of CAN WA’s ethos: that you don’t have to be an elite arts practitioner to make or be involved in an arts project that says something about you and your community. I am proud of designing and delivering the LiveworX and Fired up programs, and of knitting together cultural development with vocational training for youth.

Frank Walsh > Indigenous Arts, Cultural Development Officer, Kellerberrin

I work from the office in Kellerberrin, facilitating self-determined Indigenous cultural development through the arts. I feel privileged to be a part of an organisation that had the heart and vision to establish the Kellerberrin office. Our work here has visible repercussions in terms of building community and making Indigenous people aware of their strengths. I am proud that we are contributing to a more socially conscious region and assisting with healing our community through art.

Indigenous cultural development is bound up with principles of sustainability, self-determination, social and environmental responsibility, and authentic process-driven arts. CAN WA values these principles and aspires to mobilise Indigenous communities through artistic practice. I feel that my work is an extension of my own values, as well as those of the organisation.

Brenda McIntosh > Indigenous Arts, Cultural Development Office Administrator, Kellerberrin

The thing I like most about working for CAN WA is being able to live and work in my community and see the differences our work makes with the different workshops that we have been fortunately been able to run since the office opened in Kellerberrin.

Our work is very unique as Aboriginal people we are put in compromising positions with having to accomplish goals and strengthen and support the Indigenous community and then to assist with CAN WA's goals a special and natural gift is required for this type of work.

Andrea Hammond – Indigenous Arts, Special Projects Officer

My job is to act as a conduit between CAN WA’s Perth offices and the Indigenous arts unit in Kellerberrin. I grew up out here in the Wheatbelt, and have a background in social work and sustainable development. I am committed to notions of social justice and environmental consciousness, and my job enables me to explore those ideas with other people. I believe that our projects in Kellerberrin are trail-blazing forms of artistic practice and impel real progress within communities.

Barb Howard > Local Government Cultural Development Manager

I am CAN WA’s advocate for community cultural development and planning at a local government level. My role is to promote integrated cultural planning, and to design programs that convey the principles of CAN WA’s ethos with respect to community culture. Helping a group of people to build a vibrant, sustainable place to live is really important work, and I am so happy that I can be a part of that.

I have almost twenty years’ experience working with communities in voluntary organisations, the arts, government and the corporate sector both here and in New Zealand.

Jill Brown > Project Officer

I coordinate the funding programs Community Culture and Sharing Stories, that CAN WA manages on behalf of our partners Department of Culture and the Arts and Healthway.  My role is to oversee these programs and that means ensuring people are aware of them, working with communities to access these funds, convening panels to assess applications, and supporting the process of following through and acquitting projects.

The funding I coordinate is for regional Western Australian communities, and it’s a real pleasure to work with people from far and wide across our huge state. Having grown up in regional WA it’s nice to have that connection with arts and culture in rural and regional towns.

I especially love that my job is about enabling communities to grow their spirit and to explore, express and celebrate their identities through the arts.
 

Natalie Scholtz > Community Culture Project Officer

I joined CAN WA in September 2006, working closely with the Community Culture Fund and Youth training programs. I love that my job involves meeting new people and being able to explore areas of personal interest to me, such as concepts of art, culture and community. CAN WA enables people to explore their social realities through art, and to expand those social realities in line with a grass-roots vision. I consider myself lucky to be able to assist young people and others with this process.

Ling Lee > Accountant

I currently work part-time at CAN WA ensuring that the organisation adheres to good financial management practices. CAN WA has a number of funds-providers so my job is to keep track of money coming into and out of the various funding pools. I also provide timely and meaningful financial reports to the Board and funding bodies regularly.

The working environment of CAN WA is inspiring – my colleagues are passionate and enthusiastic about their work, and supportive of one another. As an accountant I am proud that I can use my professional expertise to advance such a valuable and integral organisation as CAN WA.

Rebecca Speidel > Communications Officer

As Communications Officer, I spread the CAN WA message to our members and the community. My job involves writing our monthly e-bulletin, coordinating all communications materials such as brochures, booklets and correspondence, communicating events and opportunities to our members and networks and providing administrative support.

What I love most about being CAN WA's Communications Officer, is the range of artistic and inspirational projects I have the opportunity to work on - all in an organisation that is benefiting the community.

Fiona Brown > Administration Officer

I take pride in being at the interface between CAN WA’s members, the public and the organisation. I feel like my ability to direct people to the right resources enables their creative expression and in that way, I share in the realisation of projects. CAN WA’s commitment to an authentic creative process and to telling stories that are original is the part of the job that I most enjoy.

Kate Iles Fealy > Junior Administration Assistant

I started volunteering at CAN WA in the week that I begun university and was offered paid work shortly after. My job is to manage the office and make sure that the other staff members have the administrative support to do their jobs efficiently. The idea of the arts being inclusive and bringing communities closer is a concept that I strongly identify with, and I am happy to be a part of an organisation that promotes that concept.