Co-directors of all the we are
“Simon and Victoria’s work is grounded in community based and child centred philosophies, whereby their arts practices (in publishing, visual arts, performing arts, community cultural development and social engagement) offer both strong arts disciplinary engagement and sustainable practices. In my opinion, they work at the leading edge of their fields, and are genuine in their efforts to improve children’s lives through, with and in the arts. ”
“Simon has brought a substantive and meaningful experience to the community of practice that is Tate Exchange Associates, and also to the public participants at Tate Exchange. He offers an exemplar of artist-led participatory arts practice and we are keen to develop this relationship further for the value to brings not only to our community of practice but also the UK and global arts and museum learning ecologies more broadly.”
Dr Simon Spain
PhD (Practice based Fine Art), MSIP (Master Social Investment and Philanthropy), BA Fine Art Printmaking (Hons), FICDA
Simon is a visual and socially engaged artist with over thirty-year’s experience of delivering and designing programming for children and young people in several countries and was founding Creative Producer of ArtPlay and Signal in Melbourne. Simon is a highly effective leader of arts initiatives with the capacity to drive high quality results, raise funds and innovate. He is currently co-Director of all that we are and was awarded the Australia Council for the Arts Community and Cultural Development Fellowship in 2017. He is a Tate International associate and is currently working with Tate on capacity building programs for socially engaged artists.Simon is Chair of Regional Arts Australia and is the Arts and Culture representative for the B4 Early Years Coalition in Tasmania. Simon recently completed his practice-based PhDat RMIT, Melbourne looking at current practices of artists delivering participatory community arts projects, and is an Australia Council for the Arts Leadership mentor. Simon also recently completed a Diploma in Business Governance with Our Community in Melbourne.
Victoria Ryle
MA (Language and Literature in Education), BEd (Hons)
Founder of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland (1997) and Kids’ Own Publishing, Australia, 2003, has pioneered publishing books by children through artist-led community partnerships, presenting on this practice worldwide. She is currently undertaking a PhD at UTAS on the culturally transformative power of publishing with children drawing on 30 years experience as a teacher, facilitator, advisory teacher and teaching artist. Victoria is co-director of all that we are, a space for residencies and gatherings that connect communities through creativity in Tasmania. Victoria is Australia’s inaugural representative Catalyst for the new International Teaching Artist Conference (ITAC) Collaborative alongside 12 other international artists.