Career kickstart for Arts graduates

Some talented TAFE SA Adelaide College of the Arts graduates and students have been recipients of The Helpmann Academy competitive grants for 2010, which are awarded to fourteen individual projects to emerging artists from a range of creative disciplines.

Bachelor of Dance Performance graduate Lisa Lonero will travel to South Africa to participate in a secondment with Debbie Turner, the Artistic Director of the Cape Dance Company during September and October. The secondment also offers the potential for a performance in the company’s 2010 season.

Third-year acting students will present their graduation showcase to agents and industry professionals in Melbourne and Sydney in October 2010.

Tobiah Booth-Remmers, Bachelor of Dance Performance graduate, will collaborate with a group of dance professionals to produce In Absence Of for Ausdance's SA Choreolab season. The project will be mentored by SA professional artist, Carol Wellman.

Visual arts graduate, Desma Kastanos, will present her first professional solo exhibition - My City - at Greenhill Galleries in October. The show will include a series of cityscapes, drawings of crowds and still lifes.

“As many of these students and graduates are at the very beginning of their careers as artists, it is important for them to have as broad a horizon as possible,” says Alison Dunn, CEO Helpmann Academy.

“By tapping into the knowledge and experience of overseas artists through master-classes and international arts institutions, or by taking their own projects to global audiences, these emerging artists are taking an important first step, and the Helpmann Academy is proud to be supporting them at this vital stage of their careers.”