Kiri believes in the process of unlearning as much as she does learning.
Each day begins with a gentle reminder: ‘I am learning’
Each day ends with reflection: ‘what did I learn today?’
KIRI MORCOMBE SHE/HER
LONG
Kiri is based on Ngunnawal, Ngarigo and Ngambri country, located between the Southern Tablelands NSW, and Canberra, ACT, Australia. Kiri is an Independent Creative Producer specialising in live performance and projects that engage community.
Kiri currently works at the Canberra Theatre Centre, focussing on the redevelopment of the Centre, including operational readiness strategy, disruption planning, managing sensitive and confidential information exchange, stakeholder engagement and managing large funding applications.
Kiri manages multiple projects with expertise and experience in curation, programming, producing, planning, audience development, community engagement, project delivery, strategy, fundraising and grant writing, with specialised and specific artform knowledge in dance and textiles.
Previous roles have included:
> Company Manager for Australian Dance Party (ACT)
> Special Projects Officer for Southern Tablelands Arts (Regional Arts Development Organisation NSW)
> Creative Producer for University of Canberra for the Creative Resilience and Recovery Program (ACT)
> Manager for Ausdance NSW (service organization for dance in NSW)
> Curator and producer for Contemporary Dance (Campbelltown Arts Centre)
> Creative Australia Program funding for Dance
> Blacktown Arts Centre’s Performing Arts Development Officer
Summary of successful duties: Creation and delivery of performance programs, First Nations relationships and artist management, Working with culturally diverse artists and diverse contemporary and traditional cultural content, international artist exchange projects, large scale dance festivals and works, including public art installations, short dance films and commissioned cross- artform works with contemporary international artists, funding programs and capacity building responses, secured program and project funding, engaged communities and audiences, advised as funding panel member (multiple boards) and contributed to arts policy and strategy as legacy to growing western Sydney arts communities, artists and artmaking.
Kiri has produced works by independent artists that have been programmed at the Sydney Opera House, at Carriageworks and Dancehouse for the Keir, in regional tours, for Sydney Fringe Festival, as and presented as part of Sydney Festival.
WEAVE Parramatta is a textile based arts group for diverse communities and a longstanding program of Parramatta Artists’ Studios, delivered by Kiri and a spin off, ADORNED collective focussing on contemporary adornments inspired by tradition is co - delivered with Liam Benson.
Kiri has studied in design, specifically custom fashion design and costuming (CIT), contemporary dance (WSU), and has completed supplemental courses in Costume design and Wardrobe standby, AFTRS. Kiri has dressed in the costume department backstage for Billy Elliott the Musical (Capitol Theatre), Glen St Theatre and Riverside Theatres for touring companies, including STC, ADT, QBC, MTC, QTC, ADP and Company B Belvoir.
Her most cherished and challenging project yet is being mumma to a sassy lil Māori fella.
SHORT
Kiri is an independent Creative Producer based on Ngunnawal, Ngarigo, and Ngambri land, situated between the Southern Tablelands of NSW and Canberra, ACT. With a deep commitment to live performance and community engagement, Kiri currently works at the Canberra Theatre Centre, focusing on its redevelopment and operational readiness strategy.
Kiri has extensive expertise in project management, curation, programming, producing, and community engagement. She excels in strategic planning, audience development, fundraising, and grant writing, with a strong focus on dance, textiles, costume design and making, cultural diversity, and capacity building within the arts.
Over the years, Kiri has held a variety of leadership roles, including Company Manager for Australian Dance Party, Special Projects Manager for Southern Tablelands Arts (RADO NSW), Creative Producer for the University of Canberra’s Creative Resilience and Recovery Program, Manager for Ausdance NSW, Producer for Contemporary Dance (CAC NSW), and Creative Australia funding officer for dance.
Kiri’s passion for textiles as a medium for cultural expression is evident in her work with WEAVE Parramatta, a textile-based arts initiative for diverse communities, which she has led for almost 15 years as part of the Parramatta Artists’ Studios program. She also co-delivers ADORNED, a project exploring contemporary adornment inspired by traditional practices, alongside artist Liam Benson.
Through her diverse experience and dedication to fostering artistic expression and community connections, Kiri continues to contribute to the Australian arts landscape.
Her most cherished and challenging project yet is being mumma to a sassy lil Māori fella.
Producer bio
Kiri Morcombe is a mum, and a Ngunnawal, Ngarigo and Ngambri (Southern Tablelands/Canberra) region based artist who makes objects, wearables and installations with cultural identity at the core of her works. While her wearables are usually made from non-traditional materials – including found objects such as nature, glass and car parts – Morcombe also uses textiles in unusual ways, beyond their traditional wearable or ornamental purpose. In her large-scale installation There’s Something About Pattern (2011), Morcombe collected and compiled op-shop doilies before stiffening and dyeing the fabric, and using the patchwork as a screen for video projection. Morcombe honours the labour that went into these small lacework textiles, celebrates her own rich and complex ancestry, reflects on diversity and the effects of colonisation, the textile skill trade that has wider reach than the spice trail, while transforming and recontextualising them as contemporary art. Found objects, both manufactured and natural, also find their way into Morcombe’s work, from wood, shells, feathers and leaves to chandeliers and car parts. In each case, there is a delicate negotiation between honouring the original object, and altering it to tell a new story.
Morcombe, who is learning more deeply of her mixed heritage (Celtic, Bavarian and English backgrounds), grew up on Ngunnawal and Ngambri lands (Canberra, ACT) and moved to Sydney at age 21 to study contemporary dance. The influence of dance and movement is evident in her works that move, shimmer and shake, or click and jangle as the piece is worn or touched. Hypnotic rhythms also unfold through the dense patterns, bright colours, fractals and spider webs that recur throughout her work.
Alongside her own practice, Morcombe has an extensive background in the arts, with roles across theatre, curatorial, education and arts management. She has been a dresser for companies including Sydney Theatre Company, Company B Belvoir and Riverside Theatres; curator of Contemporary Dance at Campbelltown Arts Centre and Manager at Ausdance NSW, amongst other roles in the sector. Kiri currently works for Canberra theatre Centre and recently as Company Manager for Australian Dance Party (ACT) and Special Projects officer for Southern Tablelands Arts (NSW).
Morcombe coordinates WEAVE Parramatta for Parramatta Artists Studios, an intercultural group that connects diverse peoples through textile art, and together with Liam Benson co-delivers The Adorned Collective, an inclusive group working with people from diverse communities to create large-scale, ambitious exhibitions.