Committee and Staff

Committee and Staff

A contemporary visual artist with an interest in DIY (community-driven) culture, Kerrie has started and supported various artist-run initiatives since 1985. Her artworks are held in key public and private collections throughout Australia, she is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery and has lived in Footscray since 1995.

Kerrie first became involved with the Living Museum in 1993, becoming captivated by its experimental philosophy of ‘inclusive museology’ as Australia’s first ‘eco-museum’ and its interdisciplinary and multicultural work environment which then included Aboriginal cultural advisors, an archaeologist, historian, scientists, horticulturalists and a media team. She moved to Footscray then began to design collaborative projects with the Museum that connect people, art, history and the environment including the Pioneer Women’s Shelter (1997) and Pipestacks Sculpture (1999) in Pipemakers Park; the Museum’s portable outreach exhibitions Still Here, with Uncle Larry Walsh (1996), and Pobblebonk, animals of the Maribyrnong River Estuary (2005).

Poliness left the Museum in 2007 and produced the exhibition Volcano Dreaming (2009) with her life-partner, and the Museum’s former Director (1997 – 2007), Peter Haffenden. Kerrie was invited to re-join the Committee in 2012 and continues to help coordinate the Museum’s artist in residency, education and exhibition programs. She has been a committee member of West Space since 2014 and is a member of several environmental groups including the Grassy Plains Network (since 2018) and Friends of Buckley Park (since 1999).

She currently works as an artist independently on a range of public art and exhibition projects and completed a practice-led PhD with the Centre for Ideas, at the VCA, University of Melbourne in 2019 which connects art, science and eco-museology.

A contemporary visual artist with an interest in DIY (community-driven) culture, Kerrie has started and supported various artist-run initiatives since 1985. Her artworks are held in key public and private collections throughout Australia, she is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery and has lived in Footscray since 1995.

Kerrie first became involved with the Living Museum in 1993, becoming captivated by its experimental philosophy of ‘inclusive museology’ as Australia’s first ‘eco-museum’ and its interdisciplinary and multicultural work environment which then included Aboriginal cultural advisors, an archaeologist, historian, scientists, horticulturalists and a media team. She moved to Footscray then began to design collaborative projects with the Museum that connect people, art, history and the environment including the Pioneer Women’s Shelter (1997) and Pipestacks Sculpture (1999) in Pipemakers Park; the Museum’s portable outreach exhibitions Still Here, with Uncle Larry Walsh (1996), and Pobblebonk, animals of the Maribyrnong River Estuary (2005).

Poliness left the Museum in 2007 and produced the exhibition Volcano Dreaming (2009) with her life-partner, and the Museum’s former Director (1997 – 2007), Peter Haffenden. Kerrie was invited to re-join the Committee in 2012 and continues to help coordinate the Museum’s artist in residency, education and exhibition programs. She has been a committee member of West Space since 2014 and is a member of several environmental groups including the Grassy Plains Network (since 2018) and Friends of Buckley Park (since 1999).

She currently works as an artist independently on a range of public art and exhibition projects and completed a practice-led PhD with the Centre for Ideas, at the VCA, University of Melbourne in 2019 which connects art, science and eco-museology.

Tony lives between Melbourne (Braybrook) and Hanoi, Vietnam. He has been a member of the Committee of Management for the Living Museum since 2013.

He is also currently running community cultural development workshops in several arts centres in Vietnam where he uses theatre techniques to teach social skills to disadvantaged youth. This is part of a larger program of cultural exchange projects/ artist residences he is developing between Vietnam and Australia.

After training in Television Production at RMIT TAFE in 1991, Tony completed a B.A. in Community Development and Performance Studies and a Grad. Dip. in Secondary Education at Victoria University, Melbourne (1998-9).

Tony was the Cultural Development Officer at Footscray Community Arts Centre (1995-2000), a Community Development Worker with the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association (2002-8) and Project Manager at the Quang Minh Buddhist Centre in Melbourne (2009-2012). He has also developed programs and taught drama in Melbourne, then across Vietnam. He was awarded a prestigious Community Cultural Development Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2000.

Filipino Australian Melba Marginson has worked in the area of multicultural and women’s affairs since she migrated to Australia 34 years ago. She raised the issues of Filipino women in the Australian public’s agenda in the 1990s, which led to significant policy reforms and legislative changes that increased Australia’s protection of overseas women who became victims of family violence in Australia.

As a result of her pioneering work in this area, she was appointed by then Premiere Steve Bracks as VMC Commissioner in 2000 and served the Commission until 2005. In 2001, she was inducted into the inaugural Victorian Women’s Honour Roll for her work on violence against immigrant and refugee women.

Since the 1990s, Melba has served in Boards and Committees of several non- profit organisations, including Victorian Women’s Trust, Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition, Federation of Ethnic Community Councils of Australia, Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia, Women’s Health West, to name a few. She was also appointed to a number of state and federal Ministerial Advisory Committees as an expert on multicultural women’s issues.

The impact of Melba Marginson’s achievements in the life of immigrant and refugee women was further recognized when she was named by the Westpac and Australian Financial Review as one of “100 Australian women of influence in 2014” and also nominated for Hesta Social Impact Award in 2014.

In 2016, Health Minister Jill Hennessy appointed Melba to the Board of Northern Health. In 2017, Melba founded ‘The Silent Witness Network’, a multicultural network of people who are passionate about reducing family violence and supporting children who become the ‘silent witnesses’ of family violence within culturally diverse communities.

Melba lives in Maribyrnong and in 2021, she joined the Management Committee of Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West becoming its Treasurer in 2022. Professionally, Melba Marginson worked as Media Officer, Diversity and Settlement Planner, Community Unit Manager, Cultural Diversity Trainer and CEO of women’s and multicultural organisations in Victoria. In her semi-retirement, Melba works as translator/interpreter and cultural consultant.

Tony lives between Melbourne (Braybrook) and Hanoi, Vietnam. He has been a member of the Committee of Management for the Living Museum since 2013.

He is also currently running community cultural development workshops in several arts centres in Vietnam where he uses theatre techniques to teach social skills to disadvantaged youth. This is part of a larger program of cultural exchange projects/ artist residences he is developing between Vietnam and Australia.

After training in Television Production at RMIT TAFE in 1991, Tony completed a B.A. in Community Development and Performance Studies and a Grad. Dip. in Secondary Education at Victoria University, Melbourne (1998-9).

Tony was the Cultural Development Officer at Footscray Community Arts Centre (1995-2000), a Community Development Worker with the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association (2002-8) and Project Manager at the Quang Minh Buddhist Centre in Melbourne (2009-2012). He has also developed programs and taught drama in Melbourne, then across Vietnam. He was awarded a prestigious Community Cultural Development Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2000.

Filipino Australian Melba Marginson has worked in the area of multicultural and women’s affairs since she migrated to Australia 34 years ago. She raised the issues of Filipino women in the Australian public’s agenda in the 1990s, which led to significant policy reforms and legislative changes that increased Australia’s protection of overseas women who became victims of family violence in Australia.

As a result of her pioneering work in this area, she was appointed by then Premiere Steve Bracks as VMC Commissioner in 2000 and served the Commission until 2005. In 2001, she was inducted into the inaugural Victorian Women’s Honour Roll for her work on violence against immigrant and refugee women.

Since the 1990s, Melba has served in Boards and Committees of several non- profit organisations, including Victorian Women’s Trust, Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition, Federation of Ethnic Community Councils of Australia, Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia, Women’s Health West, to name a few. She was also appointed to a number of state and federal Ministerial Advisory Committees as an expert on multicultural women’s issues.

The impact of Melba Marginson’s achievements in the life of immigrant and refugee women was further recognized when she was named by the Westpac and Australian Financial Review as one of “100 Australian women of influence in 2014” and also nominated for Hesta Social Impact Award in 2014.

In 2016, Health Minister Jill Hennessy appointed Melba to the Board of Northern Health. In 2017, Melba founded ‘The Silent Witness Network’, a multicultural network of people who are passionate about reducing family violence and supporting children who become the ‘silent witnesses’ of family violence within culturally diverse communities.

Melba lives in Maribyrnong and in 2021, she joined the Management Committee of Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West becoming its Treasurer in 2022. Professionally, Melba Marginson worked as Media Officer, Diversity and Settlement Planner, Community Unit Manager, Cultural Diversity Trainer and CEO of women’s and multicultural organisations in Victoria. In her semi-retirement, Melba works as translator/interpreter and cultural consultant.

Seddon resident, Pamela Mulready B. Ed (Librarianship), Grad Dip (Instructional design), M.Ed. (Research) is a local historian and community representative for the Maribyrnong Heritage Advisory Committee. With a background in organisational change in higher education, she has led cultural development, organisational change, digitisation, and project managed projects throughout her academic career in Australia and Japan.

Following retirement and transferring from the socio-cultural research of higher education to local historical research, she has discovered the current constraints and limitations for research and public pedagogy and is inspired to make positive change. The fragile nature of surviving collections and their inaccessibility to the broader communities and schools, are a major constraint for public engagement with local history. Pam has project managed institutional change projects at a leading Australian University throughout her career and is well connected in Melbourne’s West.

Born in east Gippsland, Andy in his youth worked as a fitter and turner in the Ammunition Factory Footscray. He then went on to work at Albion Explosives, doing maintenance and working on the production side. After that he found himself sought out as an expert for many other munition production projects. Later he and his team were brought onto various environmental clean-up jobs. After a long history of working in the local munitions factories and managing environmental remediation projects, Andrew turned his gaze to the historical side of his work. Assisting as a resource on industry history projects and becoming the caretaker and tour guide at Jack’s Magazine (Saltwater River Magazine). He has since become the Museum’s foremost expert in the history of the local munitions industries.

Ben Woods grew up in Williamstown and is an artist who practices with training in sculpture and sound. He explores how processes of forming, found in sculptural practice, can generate attention to bodily connection and ecological interdependence.

Ben’s work is presented in an improvisational way through spatial installation and performance, allowing for fluid response to the effects of the work. Works often aim at revealing a tenderness and fragility that asks for slowness and care as much as they speak about a bulbous libidinal forming.

Recent presentations of work include Leaves/Hope for Resonance at Youkobo Tokyo in 2020, Benthic Community Flutes at Study Residency in 2021, Forming Resonant Situations (presented at completion of PhD research at Monash University Fine Art in 2022), and Tributary Project (with Geoff Robinson, Ying-Lan Dann, Saskia Schut) presented at Composite in 2022.

Woods lives and works on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, in Naarm, Melbourne. He joined the museum committee in 2023 and has volunteered, held residencies and exhibitions with the Museum since 2018. Weblink: https://vimeo.com/user85290499

Seddon resident, Pamela Mulready B. Ed (Librarianship), Grad Dip (Instructional design), M.Ed. (Research) is a local historian and community representative for the Maribyrnong Heritage Advisory Committee. With a background in organisational change in higher education, she has led cultural development, organisational change, digitisation, and project managed projects throughout her academic career in Australia and Japan.

Following retirement and transferring from the socio-cultural research of higher education to local historical research, she has discovered the current constraints and limitations for research and public pedagogy and is inspired to make positive change. The fragile nature of surviving collections and their inaccessibility to the broader communities and schools, are a major constraint for public engagement with local history.

Pam has project managed institutional change projects at a leading Australian University throughout her career and is well connected in Melbourne’s West.

Born in east Gippsland, Andy in his youth worked as a fitter and turner in the Ammunition Factory Footscray. He then went on to work at Albion Explosives, doing maintenance and working on the production side. After that he found himself sought out as an expert for many other munition production projects. Later he and his team were brought onto various environmental clean-up jobs. After a long history of working in the local munitions factories and managing environmental remediation projects, Andrew turned his gaze to the historical side of his work. Assisting as a resource on industry history projects and becoming the caretaker and tour guide at Jack’s Magazine (Saltwater River Magazine). He has since become the Museum’s foremost expert in the history of the local munitions industries.

Ben Woods grew up in Williamstown and is an artist who practices with training in sculpture and sound. He explores how processes of forming, found in sculptural practice, can generate attention to bodily connection and ecological interdependence.

Ben’s work is presented in an improvisational way through spatial installation and performance, allowing for fluid response to the effects of the work. Works often aim at revealing a tenderness and fragility that asks for slowness and care as much as they speak about a bulbous libidinal forming.

Recent presentations of work include Leaves/Hope for Resonance at Youkobo Tokyo in 2020, Benthic Community Flutes at Study Residency in 2021, Forming Resonant Situations (presented at completion of PhD research at Monash University Fine Art in 2022), and Tributary Project (with Geoff Robinson, Ying-Lan Dann, Saskia Schut) presented at Composite in 2022.

Woods lives and works on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, in Naarm, Melbourne. He joined the museum committee in 2023 and has volunteered, held residencies and exhibitions with the Museum since 2018. Weblink: https://vimeo.com/user85290499

Melanie Avent is a freelance Animator with a passion for IT and machinery. She wandered into the Museum not long into moving to Footscray and took immediate interest in the local history. She has since focused on the digitisation of remaining oral histories and the Museum’s video content.

Chas Manning lives in Yarraville and is an Artist who also works in Conservation and Land Management alongside his role as operations co-ordinator at the Living Museum. Chas was introduced to the Museum through his studies at the VCA, participating in a student exhibition held at the Visitor Centre in 2018. His continued interest and engagement with the Museum led to a studio residency in 2021. Chas’ art practice takes interest in personal histories in relation to our built environment, developing urban landscapes, and the tensions between public and private civic spaces.

Melanie Avent is a freelance Animator with a passion for IT and machinery. She wandered into the Museum not long into moving to Footscray and took immediate interest in the local history. She has since focused on the digitisation of remaining oral histories and the Museum’s video content.

Chas Manning lives in Yarraville and is an Artist who also works in Conservation and Land Management alongside his role as operations co-ordinator at the Living Museum. Chas was introduced to the Museum through his studies at the VCA, participating in a student exhibition held at the Visitor Centre in 2018. His continued interest and engagement with the Museum led to a studio residency in 2021. Chas’ art practice takes interest in personal histories in relation to our built environment, developing urban landscapes, and the tensions between public and private civic spaces.