Vanessa Keenan

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Vanessa brings over 20 years experience to her position as Managing Director of Acorn Creative Group from within the private sector, non-profit, State Government and Local Government as well as successfully running a busy independent consultancy for a number of years.

With significant project management experience across a broad range of sectors in the arts and cultural industry and award winning community engagement projects under her belt, Vanessa is uniquely placed to undertake this project management role.

Vanessa’s roles in arts management and her communication background give her an ability to not only understand the requirements for delivering projects but also build and manage an effective network of stakeholders and project champions.

Vanessa is also currently Museums & Galleries NSW Museum Advisor for AlburyCity, Greater Hume and Snowy Valleys Councils and is a member of Interpretation Australia. In 2020 Vanessa was named a Regional Arts Australia Fellow.

She is the Curator of Arbour Festival, a multi-artform festival held across the fifty days of the one year annniversary of the Dunn’s Road Fire in the Snowy Valleys region from 28 December 2020 to 15 February 2021. 

In her spare time Vanessa is restoring a circa 1880 building in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. 

Nat Ord

Artwork reproduction and collections digitisation

Nat Ord specialises in commercial and art photography, ranging from comprehensive events to single product profiles. She uses professional equipment from capture through to post-production. Nat has a strong interest in fine art reproduction and digitising gallery and museum collections. She prides herself on maintaining consistently high standards of quality, together with excellent customer service. Every job is delivered to brief, budget and deadline.

Dagmara Gieysztor

Curator/Producer

Polish born, Melbourne based artist and curator. 

Starting her arts career as a writer, Dagmara found English as a second language limiting so she began to teach herself storytelling in different mediums from film, puppetry, theatre, photography and installation. Effectively becoming a multidisciplinary artist and has worked in this way for over 25 years.

As a way of connecting her Australian practice to the wider world she has curated a substantial number of grass roots programs, events, discussions, residencies , live art and site specific performances.

Besides independently designing and writing for theatre and creating public art  projects locally and overseas - her personal interests further unearthed the connections of forms and disciplines with her design research culminating in becoming the first graduate of the Master of Design for Performance at Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) - under the banner of a visual dramaturg, which she has pioneered in Australia and has represented in Prague Quadrennial – 2019  World Stage Design Festival where she presented a workshop for international designers.

Dagmara is a teaching associate at the Victorian College of the Arts – University of Melbourne  in various subjects including Design For The Moving Image and Sustainable Practice and Visual Dramaturgy.

Dagmara runs an artist residency space in her hometown of  Łódź, Poland – which focuses on cultural exchange as well as in Melbourne, Australia for artists who are interested in upcycling and sustainable practices at the THEATRE RESEARCH INSTITUTE of which she is a founding member.

Mikk Hwat

Curator/Producer

Mikk Hwat is a multidisciplinary producer and visual artist with a penchant to creating productions that differ from the generic form. His work proposes creative and technical solutions to ethereal and physical challenges. Having traversed the design, communications, entertainment, corporate, TV and film worlds for well over a decade, he pulls from all experiences to achieve outstanding end results, be it a small room live production or lighting design for a stadium show, a 30 second TVC or a contemporary interactive installation.

His work has taken him over three continents, managing productions of all kinds. He tries to always bring on ideas and solutions while taking away crucial experiences well applied on future projects. He strives to challenge the creative industries by blending creative problem solving, a healthy dose of real-world hands-on experience, cutting edge technology, and asymmetrical data analytics.

“Bring me my Leatherman and come back in an hour, I'll have it sorted.”