Monash University Performing Arts Centres announces recipients of prestigious Progress Links Commissions

Monash University Performing Arts Centres announces recipients of prestigious Progress Links Commissions

Monash University Performing Arts Centres (MPAC) is thrilled to announce the recipients of its Progress Links Commissions. MPAC has provided two successful applicants with $5,000 plus a 5 – 10 day residency in 2024/25 in one of its venue spaces to develop a ‘proof of concept’ proposal for further commissioning and development within the MPAC program to create and present brand-new works.

The Progress Links Commission is driven by the conviction that creativity is a force that animates and inspires everyone – artists and scientists alike. This year MPAC is excited to have received over 20 applications that looked at bringing artists together with researchers in other fields to respond to the world.

MPAC Executive Director Paul Grabowsky said: “The two winners reflect the range and quality of the proposals evaluated by MPAC’s assessment panel, made up of experts from outside and within Monash University. In the end we selected two radically different works. Both projects will be developed over the next couple of years with support from MPAC and the Monash research community.”

One of the recipients is Emily Sheppard, a composer and scientist, along with her collaborators, Rachel Meyers and Dr Mandy Quadrio. Together they will develop a project entitled ‘Sounding the Great Southern Reef’, an immersive project with multiple outcomes using research about the marine areas and kelp forests off the Tasmanian coastline.

Emily Sheppard is a Tasmanian violinist, composer and improviser. Her music is inspired by the liminal spaces between musical genres, and science and art, created in submerged and subterranean environments. Emily studied at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and has taken masterclasses with violin and fiddle legends Ivry Gitlis, Martin Hayes and Jeremy Kittel.

The other project recipient is Sophie Derkenne, in collaboration with Lauren Swain, who will develop an enchanting project that aims to introduce children to the forgotten ‘little creatures’ of our environment, including worms, bugs and microbes, with the aim to remind us all how much we owe them. The project will emerge as a participatory theatre show and ‘playspace’ for young people and their adults.

Sophie and Lauren said: “We are delighted to be recipients of this award, as it will support essential development of our work for young people exploring the ecosystems beneath our feet. It is particularly unique and exciting to be supported in a multidisciplinary process working with Monash’s researchers; we can’t wait to learn all things critters, soil and microbes!”

Sophie’s work and passion is in immersive, interactive work that is collaborative, playful and addresses responses of the body. She is excited by the possibilities of theatre transforming unexpected spaces, bringing people together and offering broader audiences moments of magic. Sophie works as an artist with Polyglot Theatre Co, with whom she has facilitated workshops and performed internationally. She is an inclusion artist with St Martin’s Youth Arts Centre and volunteers as a playworker at the social organisation the Venny. 

Lauren is a proud Dabee Wiradjuri person with mixed settler heritage. She grew up in a rural town in the mountains of Ngarigo Country (Cooma, NSW) and is now based in Melbourne. Lauren’s upbringing in a small town but in a big family underpins her multidisciplinary artistic practice, which is grounded in community consciousness and care. She is the program producer for the Australian First Nations Circus and Physical Theatre Circle at Theatre Network Australia and a sessional staff member at the University of Melbourne. Lauren is also an artist with Polyglot Theatre Co. and the Bloomshed Theatre Co.

Monash University Performing Arts Centres (MPAC) is the public performing arts and cultural arm of Monash University. MPAC venues are vital to the cultural life of the University, and act as a window to Melbourne’s south east community, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors to the university each year. MPAC seeks to connect, challenge and excite its audiences through the commissioning of unique works, along with curating a program that brings the best of local, national and international performing artists to its stages.

Emily Sheppard, MPAC Progress Links Commissions Recipient, Image credit MPAC