Round 2 Jawun Secondee – Beth Lewis

By Beth Lewis, Jawun Secondee

It has been such an enriching experience to live and work here on Yorta Yorta Country during my six-week Jawun secondment with the Kaiela Arts team, who have built such a strong sense of community, creating a safe space where culture, language and the people who gather here are celebrated and supported. I have felt welcomed and so grateful to work in a space with such strong community focus and values, not to mention the beautiful views of the lake.

While my professional background is in grants and program management within the public service (National Indigenous Australians Agency), I’ve been able to draw on my knowledge of grants and program management systems to support the Kaiela Arts team across a number of operational projects.

My projects have focused on finding ways to strengthen operational systems and processes to help make day-to-day administrative work smoother and more manageable for staff. This included supporting projects to organise information, improve tracking and reporting processes, and strengthen coordination across memberships and engagement with customers of the gallery. My goal has been to build systems that support staff capacity, creating more time to focus on the meaningful work Kaiela Arts provides for artists and the broader community.

Thank you to the team and Kaiela Arts community for having me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to play even a small part in the valuable work being done, and I look forward to staying connected and continuing to follow the inspiring work of Kaiela Arts into the future.