Jason Marsiglia (he/they) joins the ACF team having worked with independent artists and venues at festivals including Melbourne Fringe, Midsumma and Adelaide Fringe. We’re excited for them to share their experience and passion with our ACF community.
I love being able to support artists and producers to realise their bold creative visions.
Crowdfunding is a really powerful tool for supporting your artmaking. It allows artists and producers to be bold and brave and take creative risks by creating their own paths without necessarily having to rely on large funding bodies, and the Australian Cultural Fund can help make the process easier and smoother (and tax deductible). I’m really thrilled to be supporting artists to use this great fundraising resource.
I love seeing all the incredible projects that come through the ACF every day — there are so many artists in Australia making exciting work, and I love being able to play a small part in helping those works come to life.
Tell us a bit of background on your pre-Creative Partnerships life and some career highlights.
My career background is mostly in working for large open-access festivals, where I’d support artists and venues to produce successful seasons.
I’m originally from Adelaide, and grew up obsessed with all the incredible shows at Adelaide Fringe. I’d binge as many as I could over February and March (the best time to be in Adelaide). After a working holiday at Edinburgh Fringe, I landed a job at Adelaide Fringe and was thrilled to turn my passion for independent arts and festivals into a career!
I stereotypically moved to Melbourne (the Adelaide expat scene here is very strong) and worked at Midsumma Festival, then most recently at Melbourne Fringe as Senior Program Manager (Independent Arts).
Tell us about a really great piece of art you experienced recently.
An incredible independent theatre company called Pummel Squad present an annual Christmas pantomime. Their work is often cartoonish and silly, but also always incredibly witty and clever. My friends and I have a fun tradition of seeing their annual panto together which mostly recently was their production of How the King Learned to Live Forever and it blew me away.
The show was absolutely wild, mixing physical comedy with a clever adult fairytale story about our fear of death. A huge ensemble cast of twenty-five delivered serious wow factor (the massive ensemble conga line comes to mind). The design was also gorgeous, with lots of handcrafted props and costumes. Overall the show was so joyfully exhilarating, and I can’t wait to see what they deliver next December!
What’s your most loved Melbourne past time?
I love going to the movies, particularly Brunswick Picture House which recently opened up in my neighbourhood. They program the coolest movies there, and I love going to check out a hot new film, a great classic, or a weird gem. Then I generally follow it up with dinner or a drink somewhere on Sydney Road while I ponder what my Letterboxd review will be.
If you want to get in touch with Jason for advice on running a fundraising campaign or how to donate, contact her here.