Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) successfully held the Annual General Meeting on Monday 21 May.
George Lekakis AO extended a warm welcome to the Minister of Creative Industries: Mr Martin Foley, CEO of Gandel Philanthropy: Vedran Drakulic, Mayor of the City of Port Phillip: Bernadene Voss and Kris Pavlidis, Chair of the ECCV who addressed the meeting. The MAV Chair also welcomed our longstanding patrons John and Nancye Cain.
The MAV Chair also extended congratulations to elected Board Members CHIDAMBARAM S SRINIVASAM, SYMON KOHUT and LINDA PETRONE.
Chair George Lekakis AO stated “I would like to thank Katie Mc Leish, David Wright and Judith Klepner who leave MAV after contributing significantly to the organisation, also to co-opted member Jasmine Li-Chen Morrissey. We look forward to staying in touch.”
“A warm welcome to our new Board Members Linda and Srini, and welcome back to Symon. We were extremely heartened at the high level and quality of the candidates nominating for the MAV Board and we were also thrilled at the attendance at the AGM as it was a full house” said George Lekakis
OUR NEW ELECTED MEMBERS
CHIDAMBARAM S SRINIVASAM has been a longstanding supporter of cultural activities in the communities in Melbourne for over 3 decades. In his role as VMC Commissioner he has been a keen supporter of MAV and its activities over the years, He has attended many events organised by MAV, including Mapping Melbourne, Emerge Festival programs in Melbourne and Shepparton. He is a passionate advocate for expanding the opportunities and platforms for performing arts groups and artists from multicultural communities. He is familiar with the issues facing the artists from diverse communities especially the South Asian and Indian music and dance community. This knowledge places Srini in an excellent position to provide cultural leadership to promote diversity and the importance of productive community and arts collaborations.
SYMON KOHUT as a performing artist Symon has a practical understanding of multicultural arts, their critical significance for ethnic communities and the potential for them to resonate beyond those communities and foster social cohesion and individual growth and purpose. Symon brings a high level of professionalism, with analytical and organisational skills and experience in people management and governance from his working life. His contribution to the MAV Board is founded on his deep conviction that developing multicultural arts in Australia is perhaps the single most important means of fostering a shared, inclusive and uniquely Australian sense of identity.
LINDA PETRONE has been a passionate advocate for and champion of multiculturalism, social inclusion and human rights during her twenty-five years working across government, the NFP sector and private industry. In government she worked to address systemic barriers to equality and promote cultural, linguistic and faith-based diversity and human rights through her various roles at the Multicultural Commission of Victoria (VMC). She headed research to develop and implemented VMC’s research agenda, working in partnerships with universities, multicultural community groups and service agencies to inform government policy and address diversity issues. She managed the state’s Community Strengthening Program for grant funding which joined up local migrant, refugee organisations with financial and program resources, to respond to systemic issues of discrimination, disadvantage and exclusion. She also has collaborated with Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) on significant state based initiatives.