Since 2011, the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships have celebrated our nation's cultural lifeblood – offering untied support to early midcareer Australian artists, creatives and cultural leaders.
Sidney Myer, in whose honour the Creative Fellowships are named, came to Australia having fled antisemitic pogroms in Russia. This year, we announce these Creative Fellowships in the wake of horrifying antisemitic violence here in Australia and in a time of national mourning and grief.
Sidney Myer had a profound love of arts and culture and a belief in their power to bring communities together. It was back in 1929 that Sidney Myer began financing free open-air public concerts by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Botanic Gardens – a gift that continues to give, every summer, to this day. It is this spirit of community benefit that continues to inspire Sidney Myer Fund’s affinity with arts, culture and creativity. These Creative Fellowships are an investment in the continued vibrancy of our nation's culture.
In 2025, from a very strong field of nominations, eight Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships have been awarded alongside two Ian Potter Creative Fellowships. Each Creative Fellow receives an unrestricted, $200,000 tax-free grants over two years. In total, $2 million in funding will flow to these ten outstanding individuals.
The 2025 Sidney Myer Creative Fellows are Emily Bitto, Gabrielle Brady, Joel Bray, Kimberley Moulton, Nathan Maynard, Nithya Nagarajan, Ryan Presley and Yve Blake.
Emily Bitto is a writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.
Her debut novel, The Strays, was the winner of the Stella Prize in 2015. Her second novel, Wild Abandon, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2021. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne and has been teaching creative writing for over a decade.
Gabrielle Brady is a writer and director who makes films and video art situated between fiction and documentary.
Her latest feature, The Wolves Always Come At Night (2024), premiered in competition at Toronto International Film Festival and was selected as Australia’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. Her debut feature, Island of the Hungry Ghosts (2018) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, winning Best Documentary and went on to receive over 30 international awards.
Joel Bray is a Wiradjuri man and Artistic Director of Joel Bray Dance.
After training at NAISDA and WAAPA, he had a significant international career as a dancer, returning to Australia to perform with Chunky Move before establishing his own choreographic practice.
Joel's works as Artistic Director of Joel Bray Dance, including Biladurang, Considerable Sexual License, Daddy, and Monolith, have been commissioned by major players like RISING, Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Dance Company and the National Galleries of Australia and Victoria, and tour globally.
Kimberley Moulton is a Yorta Yorta woman and an independent curator and writer.
She is the Adjunct Curator Indigenous Art for TATE (Tate Modern) London and Senior Curator Exhibitions at RISING, Melbourne’s international arts festival. Kimberley was previously Senior Curator First Peoples Collection at Museums Victoria and is an Emeritus Curator with Museums Victoria. In 2025, Kimberley curated the Tarrawarra Biennial: We Are Eagles and co-curated On Country: Photography from Australia at Les Rencontres d'Arles France.
Kimberley works at the intersection of historical collections and contemporary art and her practice aims to extend what exhibitions and research can be for First Peoples communities and artists globally. She holds a PhD in Curatorial Practice, from Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab, Monash University.
Nathan Maynard is a Trawlwoolway man and multidisciplinary artist.
He has written or co-written 11 plays, including The Season, 37 (winner of the 2025 Victorian Literary Award for Drama), At What Cost, A Not So Traditional Story and The Box. He has directed productions for Melbourne’s Art Play and Mudlark Theatre Company.
On the screen, Nathan directed and co-wrote Moonbird for SBS, directed an episode of Stuff the British Stole for the ABC, and co-wrote and directed the short film My Journey. In the visual arts, his installation We Threw Them Down The Rocks Where They Had Thrown The Sheep was a featured work for the 2025 Dark Mofo Festival.
Nithya Nagarajan is a Tamil-Australian artist, curator and writer working in contemporary performance and visual cultures. Her practice is driven by a commitment to artist development, experimental processes and culturally grounded modes of collaboration across Australia and the Asia Pacific. She is Artistic Associate at Sydney Festival and Curator at Parramatta Artists Studios.
Nithya commissions site-specific projects across festivals, institutions and independent contexts. Her focus is on nurturing spaces where Indigenous, Black and PoC artists can realise ideas on their own terms. She is the co-founder of South Asian artist collective H-ME W-RK and the co-creator of Nayika: A Dancing Girl at Belvoir St Theatre. She approaches the cultural landscape as civic terrain, where art is both responsibility and rebellion.
Ryan Presley is a Marri Ngarr artist with a practice spanning painting, drawing, printmaking, installation and new media.
Ryan’s work is held in major public collections across Australia. His most recent project, Paradise Won (2025) was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. Blood Money (ongoing since 2010) reimagines Australia's currency as a celebration of Aboriginal history, and is held in the collection of the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Ryan holds a PhD from the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, and is on the board of the National Association for the Visual Arts.
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Yve Blake is a writer and composer for stage and screen.
She created the musical FANGIRLS, which won a Sydney Theatre Award, a Matilda Award (Queensland), a Green Room Award (Melbourne), an AWGIE award and an ARIA nomination. In 2024, FANGIRLS played at London’s Lyric Hammersmith, and Yve is now developing it as a film with Fremantle.
An alum of the Royal Court Writers’ Programme, Yve was a 2024 Women in Music Australia Soho House Fellow, and the 2025 winner of the The Stage UK x Netflix Debut Award for Best Composer, Lyricist or Book Writer.
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