Award Winner's stories
Where are they now...
Awardees for Writing
"I've always known I wanted to be a writer because it's what I'm passionate about. Sure, some days I wish I was passionate about investment banking, but here we are.”
writer Ashleigh Mounser - May 2018
The Bouddi Foundation for the Arts (BFA) awards grants up to $5000 across a broad spectrum of artistic genres. Since 2011, the Foundation has made 186 grants worth over $375,500 and, in November 2022, awarded $57,600 in grants awards to 21 young artists from the Central Coast. Writing, including poetry and play/screenwriting, is one of the vibrant genres represented in the grant awards. Since 2020 acclaimed independent Australian book publisher Allen & Unwin and its founder and chairman, Patrick Gallagher, have kindly supported an annual BFA Allen & Unwin Award for Creative Writing.
Writers Ashleigh Mounser, Andrew Mencken, Lily Cameron and Olivier Wolfe received Bouddi Foundation for the Arts grant awards for Writing. Let's catch up with these writers and their achievements.
Ashleigh Mounser: Blair Moon: Too Cool for School, Ashleigh's debut children's novel about an ambitious 11-year-old girl who grows up in a nursing home, will hit shelves in June of this year.
The book comes 11 years after her 2012 graduation from Kincumber High School, and in the same year winning the Sydney Morning Herald award for Young Writer of the Year for the story "A Kiss Before Dying", set during the WWI battles of the Ypres, and scored the youth section of the Henry Handel Richardson Centenary Writing Competition.
Her first BFA grant that year helped her begin studies at the University of Wollongong. Before graduating with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing) (Deans Scholar), Ashleigh wrote Questions and Comments, a screenplay made into a film during an exchange year at University of Miami in the U.S. The film premiered at festivals across Europe, America and South Africa and has received numerous laurels.
BFA grants in 2016 and 2021 assisted her writing career. Her work has been published by Spectrum, Furious Fiction, Outlook Springs, Melaleuca Blue Life Writing Anthologies, Needle in the Hay, Tales from the Pandemic: an anthology, Grieve vol. 9, WA's Best Australian Yarn.
Ashleigh will be interviewed on her writing by BFA Chairman Actor/Director John Bell during the 18 March “Words at Wagstaffe.
writer Ashleigh Mounser - May 2018
The Bouddi Foundation for the Arts (BFA) awards grants up to $5000 across a broad spectrum of artistic genres. Since 2011, the Foundation has made 186 grants worth over $375,500 and, in November 2022, awarded $57,600 in grants awards to 21 young artists from the Central Coast. Writing, including poetry and play/screenwriting, is one of the vibrant genres represented in the grant awards. Since 2020 acclaimed independent Australian book publisher Allen & Unwin and its founder and chairman, Patrick Gallagher, have kindly supported an annual BFA Allen & Unwin Award for Creative Writing.
Writers Ashleigh Mounser, Andrew Mencken, Lily Cameron and Olivier Wolfe received Bouddi Foundation for the Arts grant awards for Writing. Let's catch up with these writers and their achievements.
Ashleigh Mounser: Blair Moon: Too Cool for School, Ashleigh's debut children's novel about an ambitious 11-year-old girl who grows up in a nursing home, will hit shelves in June of this year.
The book comes 11 years after her 2012 graduation from Kincumber High School, and in the same year winning the Sydney Morning Herald award for Young Writer of the Year for the story "A Kiss Before Dying", set during the WWI battles of the Ypres, and scored the youth section of the Henry Handel Richardson Centenary Writing Competition.
Her first BFA grant that year helped her begin studies at the University of Wollongong. Before graduating with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing) (Deans Scholar), Ashleigh wrote Questions and Comments, a screenplay made into a film during an exchange year at University of Miami in the U.S. The film premiered at festivals across Europe, America and South Africa and has received numerous laurels.
BFA grants in 2016 and 2021 assisted her writing career. Her work has been published by Spectrum, Furious Fiction, Outlook Springs, Melaleuca Blue Life Writing Anthologies, Needle in the Hay, Tales from the Pandemic: an anthology, Grieve vol. 9, WA's Best Australian Yarn.
Ashleigh will be interviewed on her writing by BFA Chairman Actor/Director John Bell during the 18 March “Words at Wagstaffe.
Andrew Mencken: Completing a Bachelor of Arts (Honours I) in English literature and German in 2018, Andrew Menken was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship and began a PhD at the University of Newcastle in 2020. Many of his poems are imaginative explorations of his hometown of Budgewoi. Puncher & Wattmann, Australia's leading publisher of poetry, will print Andrew's book-length collection of poems this year. Andrew is the recipient of the 2021 BFA Allen & Unwin Award for Creative Writing and, in June of 2022, was interviewed by Allen & Unwin founder and chairman Patrick Gallagher at “Words at Wagstaffe.”
Lily Cameron: The 2020 inaugural winner of the Allen and Unwin Award for Creative Writing is currently studying at the University of Technology Sydney and much involved in literary activities of that institution as the editor for UTS Writers' Anthology and former Fiction and Online editor for the UTS flagship magazine Vertigo. Lily is the 2020 and 2021 Inner West Council Young Writer Awards winner. Her Writing has appeared in Cordite, Voiceworks, UTS Writers' Anthology, The Sutherland Review, The Brag, and elsewhere.
Olivier Wolfe: Now a full-time English teacher, Olivier was awarded a Bouddi Foundation for the Arts grant in 2021 to assist her in publishing a school poetry exercise book. Olivier notes that the teaching experience has influenced modification and improvements to her project.
Donations to Bouddi Foundation Pay Off in Young Artist Success
Two Grantees on Their Artistic Journey
Did you know that over 99% of each dollar donated to the Bouddi Foundation for the Arts (BFA) is awarded to young Central Coast Artists? We catch up with two awardees whose careers are energised by BFA Grants made possible by generous donors to the Foundation . If these updates move you, please consider helping at https://www.bouddiarts.org.au and click on the DONATE button.
Gabrielle ‘Gab’ Paananen - Puppet maker, designer, sculptor, visual artist, taxidermist, and mycologist. With her most recent BFA grant, Gab from Macmasters Beach has just returned from a trip and practicum working with a master taxidermist in the US. Let’s hear about her accomplishments in Gab’s own words:
“I’m back home from the US and had a fantastic time. The time I spent working in Master Taxidermist Patrick Rummans’ studio in Oregon was invaluable. I’m so excited to now be putting everything I learned into practice. Part of the training was developing skills in taxidermy/specimen preservation. Patrick specialises in ornithology and has a vast knowledge of bird anatomy and behaviour. Much of his work ends up in special collections and natural history museums. I spent time drawing and re-sculpting the anatomy so these birds [transformed into animatronic puppets] could be as lifelike as possible.
I was taught methods of preparing skin for puppets and moving parts. I learnt moulding and casting techniques and how to create hyper-realistic wing mechanisms. One of these creature effects will be shot in a feature film later this year at Legacy Effects - a special effects studio in LA that specialise in creature design and animatronics.
Since my return, I’ve set up my workshop to practice everything I learned overseas and develop my sculpture work. I am already planning to go back and work with Patrick to collaborate on projects. I’ve just spent another week welding steel sculptures at the National Art School in Sydney. Sculpture is something I feel very drawn to, and I would like to pursue it further next year.
I am working as Lead Designer on the production ‘Arc’ for Sydney Opera House, showing 24 September – 7 October (2022). I designed all the puppets and worked with the team at Erth to construct them.
After the Opera House, we will be at the State Theatre in Melbourne in October. I am also putting a couple of welded steel sculptures in a group show at the aMBUSH Gallery in Waterloo on the 23rd -25th September (2022).
As always, sending my deep appreciation for the Bouddi Foundation’s ongoing support.”
“I’m back home from the US and had a fantastic time. The time I spent working in Master Taxidermist Patrick Rummans’ studio in Oregon was invaluable. I’m so excited to now be putting everything I learned into practice. Part of the training was developing skills in taxidermy/specimen preservation. Patrick specialises in ornithology and has a vast knowledge of bird anatomy and behaviour. Much of his work ends up in special collections and natural history museums. I spent time drawing and re-sculpting the anatomy so these birds [transformed into animatronic puppets] could be as lifelike as possible.
I was taught methods of preparing skin for puppets and moving parts. I learnt moulding and casting techniques and how to create hyper-realistic wing mechanisms. One of these creature effects will be shot in a feature film later this year at Legacy Effects - a special effects studio in LA that specialise in creature design and animatronics.
Since my return, I’ve set up my workshop to practice everything I learned overseas and develop my sculpture work. I am already planning to go back and work with Patrick to collaborate on projects. I’ve just spent another week welding steel sculptures at the National Art School in Sydney. Sculpture is something I feel very drawn to, and I would like to pursue it further next year.
I am working as Lead Designer on the production ‘Arc’ for Sydney Opera House, showing 24 September – 7 October (2022). I designed all the puppets and worked with the team at Erth to construct them.
After the Opera House, we will be at the State Theatre in Melbourne in October. I am also putting a couple of welded steel sculptures in a group show at the aMBUSH Gallery in Waterloo on the 23rd -25th September (2022).
As always, sending my deep appreciation for the Bouddi Foundation’s ongoing support.”
Ruby Archer – Singer/Songwriter. Ruby from Phegans Bay styles herself as “a young singer-songwriter who creates angry, jazzy pop with feminist undertones and husky vocals.”
Ruby won the Bouddi Foundation ORiGiN Music Publishing Award in 2021, including professional mentoring, followed by the BFA Narelle Jones Memorial Award in 2022. As one of BFA’s adjudicators noted: “She has ‘it’! Great jazz sound to her voice and excellent piano technique and personality.” Another commended her songwriting: “Excellent raw emotional material.”
In June, Ruby won third place and an encouragement award in the Speak Up, National Singer/Song Writer Competition encouraging teenagers to share original music and shine a light on the importance of mental health and wellness for young Australians.
In July of this year, Ruby, with her band, ‘Ruby and the Groovy Doobys’, scored the top prize and a Special Finalist Award in the YouthRock competition for bands who write original music.
Also, in July, Ruby played the role of Veronica in the ABC ME series “Soundtrack to Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse.” As she described it: “Four music obsessed teens are on a mission to win triple j Unearthed High – so the end of the world will have to wait. Soundtrack To Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse is a 10×30 min ABC ME series offering action-packed, cranked-to-11, zombie-fueled fun!“
We’ll take Ruby’s word for the ABC series, but there is no doubt that with a jump start from her BFA awards thanks to our generous donors, this young Central Coast artist is.
Ruby won the Bouddi Foundation ORiGiN Music Publishing Award in 2021, including professional mentoring, followed by the BFA Narelle Jones Memorial Award in 2022. As one of BFA’s adjudicators noted: “She has ‘it’! Great jazz sound to her voice and excellent piano technique and personality.” Another commended her songwriting: “Excellent raw emotional material.”
In June, Ruby won third place and an encouragement award in the Speak Up, National Singer/Song Writer Competition encouraging teenagers to share original music and shine a light on the importance of mental health and wellness for young Australians.
In July of this year, Ruby, with her band, ‘Ruby and the Groovy Doobys’, scored the top prize and a Special Finalist Award in the YouthRock competition for bands who write original music.
Also, in July, Ruby played the role of Veronica in the ABC ME series “Soundtrack to Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse.” As she described it: “Four music obsessed teens are on a mission to win triple j Unearthed High – so the end of the world will have to wait. Soundtrack To Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse is a 10×30 min ABC ME series offering action-packed, cranked-to-11, zombie-fueled fun!“
We’ll take Ruby’s word for the ABC series, but there is no doubt that with a jump start from her BFA awards thanks to our generous donors, this young Central Coast artist is.
Bouddi Foundation Grantees Achieve Success in the Arts
Under the leadership of its founder, actor and director John Bell OA, OBE, FRSN, the Bouddi Foundation for the Arts, now in its twelfth year, supports, mentors, and encourages young Central Coast artistic talent across a wide range of genres with grants for tuition, equipment, and relevant travel. In its first 11 years, the Foundation awarded over $317,000 to 165 artists. BFA Chair John Bell describes the Foundation's work in a March 2022 interview
Awardees include actors, singers, songwriters, opera singers, musical theatre performers, painters, sculptors, ceramicists, writers, screenwriters, playwrights, classical, popular, and jazz instrumentalists, art curators, photographers, cinematographers, theatre producers and directors, puppet makers, indigenous, classical, and contemporary dancers.
The outstanding eight grant winners below are emblematic of the Bouddi Foundation making a difference in the lives of young artists – never more important than in the current environment
Awardees include actors, singers, songwriters, opera singers, musical theatre performers, painters, sculptors, ceramicists, writers, screenwriters, playwrights, classical, popular, and jazz instrumentalists, art curators, photographers, cinematographers, theatre producers and directors, puppet makers, indigenous, classical, and contemporary dancers.
The outstanding eight grant winners below are emblematic of the Bouddi Foundation making a difference in the lives of young artists – never more important than in the current environment
Actor Imogen Sage – Imogen, the first Bouddi Foundation for the Arts major grant recipient, was sponsored by the Foundation to London's prestigious Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. After roles in West End productions, Imogen returned to Australia and, in 2019, co-wrote and performed her debut play 'Woyzeck + Marie' for a short sold-out season in Melbourne. In April 2021, Imogen was acclaimed for her starring role at the Sydney Opera House in 'Claudel', the story of sculptor Camille Claudel Rodin's love, muse and most gifted pupil.
Painter, Jordan Richardson – Jordan was raised on the Bouddi Peninsula. He gained his passion for painting with oils at 15. Jordan is well known for his portraits of noted Australians, for which he was named a finalist in the Archibalds in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In these and other works, Jordan is influenced by the Baroque period of the seventeenth century. He has also been a two-time finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship. He has been featured in exhibitions, including the Gosford Art Prize. His work is exhibited at the Michael Reid Gallery, Chippendale, Sydney. Jordan serves as an adjudicator and mentor for visual arts for the Bouddi Foundation for the Arts annual grant competition.
Flautist, Alyse Faith – Alyse Is an exciting and versatile performer. She is a winner of competitions in Australia and abroad. Alyse has a Master of Arts in Performance from the Royal Academy of Music in London. Supported by grants from the Bouddi Foundation, Alyse has performed with the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, Academy Opera Orchestra, the University of London Symphony Orchestra, and the Academy Manson Ensemble. She performed as principal flute on tour in China with the orchestra of the Australian International Opera Company.
Puppet Designer and Illustrator, Gabrielle Paananen - Gab is a puppet maker/designer, artist, and sculptor passionate about breathing life into inanimate materials using the language of movement to engage people and tell a story. Fascinated by connections and patterns in nature, Gab studied natural history illustration, animal behaviour, taxidermy, mycology, and skeleton articulation. She was awarded several Bouddi Foundation for the Arts grants; completed a Diploma of Production Art; illustrated scientific papers and a book on Permaculture. Under the mentorship of artist and BFA adjudicator Peter Godwin, Gab released a print series illustrating Australian wildlife. In 2022 Gab built a giant glowing butterfly puppet for theatre company "Born in a Taxi;" is the lead artist for Erth Visual and Physical puppetry-based theatrical productions; and commences a project in Oregon, USA building animatronic puppets with realistic creature skins for an upcoming film.
Indigenous Director of Photography and Video Artist, Ryan Andrew Lee – Winner of the Bouddi Foundation of the Arts John and Merran Adams Award grant, Ryan purchased a unique vintage lens to produce his artistic signature. Ryan is a conceptual new media artist whose experimental cinematography, including cinema verité́ and slow cinema, highlights social, cultural, and environmental issues and is strongly informed by First Nations people and community. His work is a deeply contemplative exploration of humankind's place and condition. Ryan holds a BMA (Digital Media) from the University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts and has exhibited at numerous galleries and festivals across Australia and the world.
Singer-Songwriter, Lucy Parle – At just 18 years of age, Lucy is a gifted storyteller and rising star. Her distinctive sound sits at the intersection of folk, pop, indie, and alt-country. Lucy's ORiGiN Music award from BFA included mentoring and studio time from ORiGiN's professional team to nurture and encourage her emerging talent in writing songs and delivering them remarkably polished for a young artist. Lucy is a self-described lover of honest and confessional lyrics. Lucy took first place in the International Songwriters Competition (ISC), winning the Teen Category with her song 'Back Up'. Lucy inked a record deal with boutique Australian indie label Double Drummer in early 2021. Lucy's latest single, 'Loud', is out now.
Dancer Eliza Williams - Eliza from Narara graduated from Conlon College ballet school in Pymble. In 2020 she was selected to attend the Berlin Dance Institute - an international institute of excellence in contemporary dance education. In September 2020, she began her studies there with grant support from the Bouddi Foundation. COVID-19 shuttered The Berlin Institute in May 2021, returning Eliza to Australia. Undaunted, Eliza commenced a Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition and Exercise) with the University of South Australia whilst continuing classes via Zoom with the Berlin Institute. Coming out of lockdown in September 2021, the Institute in Germany invited Eliza to return. With a rare Australian Government exemption to travel abroad, and again with Bouddi Foundation support for travel and tuition, Eliza has returned to complete her studies.
Curator and Museums Studies researcher Lilia Jackson is an emerging curator and Museums Studies researcher. Her Bouddi Foundation for the Arts grant enables her current study for a Master of Research in Exhibition Studies at the prestigious Central Saint Martins - University of London. Lilia is devoted to exploring inclusion and transparency through engagement within Museums. Lilia has worked for both nationally and internationally recognised arts organisations. Most recently, Lilia interned at Leonard Joel Auction House. Working with the Sydney Fine Arts Department, Lilia gained skills in artwork valuations, authentications, and provenance research. With an insight into the art market, Lilia also assists with artwork cataloguing, phone bidding and curating auction collections. Since this intern experience, Lilia has worked for Leonard Joel on a variety of auctions, including Fine Art, The Collectors Auctions, and Important Jewels.