Cecelia Cmielewski

Most Recent Affiliation(s):

• The University of Western Australia

ISEA Bio(s) Available:

• ISEA2022

  Dr Cecelia Cmielewski is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University (WSU) with over thirty years’ experience in the cultural sector. She is the author of Creative Frictions: Arts Leadership, Policy and Practice in Multicultural Australia (2021, ANU Press). Cecelia’s research interests address inclusion in the creative sectors with a focus on the relationship between creative production and multicultural policies. Her current research role is on the ARC funded The Collaborative Museum – Embedding Culture in the City (2021-2025). Cecelia held Senior Policy and Project Management roles at the Australia Council, the Federal Government’s arts agency between 1998 and 2011.

  ISEA2014

  Cecilia Cmielewski, SymbioticA, University of Western Australia. SymbioticA is an artistic laboratory dedicated to the research, learning, critique and hands-on engagement with the life sciences. Cecelia Cmielewski produces artworks where social, technological and cultural engagements intersect to encourage new understanding across knowledge systems. She realises these artworks as an artist, curator and manager. She holds an MBA (University of Adelaide), Bachelor of Design (University of South Australia) and a Bachelor of Arts (Flinders University).

  ISEA2013

  Cecelia Cmielewski, University of Western Australia, AU

  ISEA2011

  Cecelia Cmielewski has made significant contributions to the strategic development and capacity building of the Australian creative sector, particularly through policy research, analysis and development for the Australia Council, the Federal Government’s arts funding and advisory agency. She was responsible for the development and implementation of the Arts in a Multicultural Australia 2000 and 2006-09 policies and for managing all the policy areas of Council included in its Cultural Engagement Framework and the Arts and Health Strategy. Cecelia is interested in innovations where social, technological and cultural engagement intersect to encourage a sense of belonging and well-being. She actively maintains a wide network of European, American,  Asian and Australian cultural networks and participates regularly in national and international cultural events including the International Symposia on Electronic Art. A Partner Investigator and one of the three curators for the Australian Research Council Linkage Project, ‘Large Screens and the Transnational Public Sphere’, her media curating experience also includes for two Adelaide Festival of Arts and several Cinemateque and media festivals in South Australia. She helped establish the Tudawali Award in 1996 to recognise the contribution of Indigenous fimmakers in Australia. Cecelia presents on a regular basis at local, national and international forums on arts and multicultural societies, arts and technology and, at the inaugural World Forum Venice, on the relationship between culture and the environment. She has worked closely with the academic community to further an actively informed and engaged arts sector, providing research and delivery for the Australia Council on a number of international conferences, including Empires Ruins + Networks (2004) at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne and Globalisation + Art + Cultural Difference (2002) at Artspace in Sydney. She was instrumental in the successful programme with the British Council: Making Creative Cities: The Value of Cultural Diversity in the Arts (2008). Cecelia develops and facilitates roundtable industry consultations and has been effective in the establishment of national networks including ArtsPeak, the national arts service peak body and visionary in the establishment of kultour, the national multicultural arts touring organisation. Cecelia holds a Bachelor of Design (University of South Australia), Bachelor of Arts (Flinders University) and a Master of Business Administration (University of Adelaide). She has advised on the design of evaluation processes for multi-year funded arts and non-arts projects with average budgets in excess of a million dollars.

  ISEA2009

  Cecelia Cmielewski, Manager, Cultural Engagement Initiatives, Community Partnerships, Australia Council for the Arts

  ISEA1994

  Cecelia Cmielewski is the Multicultural Project Officer at the Media Resource Centre, Adelaide, South Australia where she is involved in increasing participation of people from diverse cultural backgrounds in moving image culture. She is a designer who is involved in cross-art form practice.

International Programme Committee:

• ISEA2013