Join Arts Activators - young creatives shaping the arts in Maroondah

In 2025, Arts Activators presented five bold and thought-provoking works by emerging artists aged 18 to 25, each transforming material, space and sound into immersive sensory experiences.

Rory Giezekamp

Rory Giezekamp’s sculptural installation invisible wall made the unseen visible by recycling rubbish from the Maroondah area.

Amelie Stewart

Amelie Stewart presented suspended ceramic forms shaped by the ever-changing rhythms of nature and creativity.

Koko Crozier and Claire Riverland

Koko Crozier and Claire Riverland’s The Caretaker’s Guide to Loving a Home was a fusion of film and props that follows a cleaner of deceased estates who transforms her work into a 5-step ritual of care, reflecting on memory, loss and the commodification of housing.

Jordz

The Music Zone, an intimate listening space crafted by Jordz, layered airy music and offered an escape from the sensory stresses of the world.

Emma Lyn-Winkler and Neve Curnow

The thought-provoking What Remains was an immersive multimedia installation by Emma Lyn-Winkler and Neve Curnow. Merging Victorian 19^th century death symbolism, rural gothic, and dark humour, the work transformed the space into a ghostly cemetery that playfully confronted mortality, anxiety, and sexuality.

For 2024 three artists were selected through an open callout for projects including sculptures, installation, puppetry and performance.

Mikayla Hotton

Mikayla Hotton is an early career artist who specialises in the art of puppet making and mould making. She created highly detailed otherworldly characters who are as quirky as they are mischievous. Building stories from the ground up she meticulously sculpted all sets and props by hand, giving her backgrounds a character of their own. Puppet movements are carefully engineered and tested.

Maya Grkow

Maya Grkow is an emerging New Zealand, and Australian artist who studied Sculpture at RMIT University. Utilising recycled materials she explored the ideas of comfort and hope. Her works serve as a metaphorical comfort pillow—a symbol of hope and support during life's trials.

Imogen Davis

Imogen Davis is an artist and art student interested in the world-building of real life and how we as humans, as well as animals, plants, and non-organism elements interact with and in turn affect everything within it. She worked in installation creating expanded 3D collages to explore the environment and ecosystems that can be found in and around Maroondah.