International Mentorship - Australia 2025
UNSW School of the Arts & Media is delighted to be partnering with Pan Pan to bring its acclaimed International Mentorship program to Australia for the first time. In this edition, Pan Pan’s Artistic Director Gavin Quinn will mentor up to five Australian-based live art and contemporary performance makers to develop early-stage ideas for new performance projects.
This is a one-on-one mentorship program in which each participant will have four mentorship sessions with Gavin (three online and one in person in Sydney). Each of the selected participants will receive a bursary to help set aside dedicated time to work on their ideas. First initiated in Dublin in 2012, the International Mentorship program has previously featured mentors such as Kirsten Delholm of Hotel Pro Forma (Denmark), Viviane De Muynck of Needcompany (Belgium), Tim Crouch (UK), Stewart Laing of Untitled Projects (UK), Anna- Sophie Mahler of CapriConnection (Germany), Johanna Freiburg of She She Pop/Gob Squad (Germany/UK), Kelly Copper of Nature Theater of Oklahoma (USA), Terry O’Connor of Forced Entertainment (UK), Susanne Kennedy (Germany), and Julian Hetzel (Netherlands/Germany).
In 2025, Pan Pan’s acclaimed mentorship program comes to Australia for the first time, continuing its legacy of international dialogue and exchange by creating a space where performance makers are at the core and learning from each other is the key focus.
MEET THE MENTEES
Diana Baker Smith is an artist based on Gadigal land in Sydney. Her video and performance works have been presented at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), Sydney Opera House, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (Milan) and Hayward Gallery (London). In 2024 she received the Judy Wheeler Commission at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and was recently awarded the 2025 Gosford Art Prize for her video work This Place Where They Dwell. Diana is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art & Design at UNSW Sydney.
Simon Croker is a filmmaker, performance artist, and creative producer working across screen, live performance, and installation. As director of All Good Things (Emerging Filmmaker Award, Mardi Gras Film Festival) and the forthcoming short film Sugar, Simon combines theatricality with psychological depth. He plays Tommy in the AACTA-nominated Sequin in a Blue Room (Audience Award, Sydney Film Festival) and show-runs someone gay presents, a collective creating experimental, camp-as-shit performance works, including DAVID’S DEAD !! (ADG-nominated) and BABE: PIG IN THE CITY. Through the Pan Pan Mentorship, he’s developing a queer fable about care and chosen kinship.
Nicole Pingon (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, theatre maker and artist facilitator working across live performance, installation and digital mediums. Nicole's practice is collaborative and process-driven, with a focus on new work and cross-cultural storytelling. Nicole takes play very seriously. They are curious about acts of translation, creating fictions, and spaces in-between. They have recently worked with Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Little Eggs Collective, Blush Opera, Shopfront Arts Co-op and SBS Audio. Nicole was part of Diversity Arts Australia’s inaugural Shifting the Balance Leadership Program, and chairs Shopfront Arts Co-op’s CALD Advisory Board.
Anna Tregloan is a leading cross-disciplinary artist and scenographer based on Gadigal land/Sydney, whose practice spans visual arts, live performance, and museum design. As writer and director, her acclaimed works include BLACK (Malthouse), Skinflick (Artshouse), and The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (Melbourne Festival). Her extensive design collaborations range from Bell Shakespeare and Sydney Chamber Opera to Force Majeure and Garin Nugroho Studio, with works presented internationally across Asia and Europe. As Curator of the Australian Exhibit at The Prague Quadrennial (2015 & 2019) and Australia Council Fellow (2011-2012), Tregloan demonstrates her international leadership and commitment to advancing cross-disciplinary practice through diverse collaborations.
Marcus Whale is a musician and performance-maker. Building on an eclectic twenty-year music career, works hybridise experimental music, dance and performance forms in exploring the tension and spontaneity of the performative moment, often moving off the stage and into the room. These performances, presented across club, theatre and more makeshift contexts, draw from the pageantry of religious ritual, queer performance and horror film. Recent commissions include Ecstasy for Liveworks Festival/Carriageworks and The Substation/Rising, Needlemouthand Tower of Babel for Soft Centre/Now or Never/Vivid and Tiny Hole Inside Me (with Andrea Illes) for Illuminate/The Lab.