Simon Spain

Simon Spain is a strong believer in the transformative power of art. His personal work reflects his own story and his work with the community, particularly his 30 years work running engaging arts programming for children and families, demonstrates his commitment to providing an opportunity for everyone to be affected by the power of art. Simon trained as a printmaker in the UK and in a journey that has taken him to work in around the world as an artist and presenter he settled in Australia in 2003. Simon established ArtPlay, an arts Centre for children and families in the heart of Melbourne for the City of Melbourne, and is considered one of Australia’s experts in arts for children and families. Throughout all his work with communities as a teaching artist, producer and manager Simon has maintained his practice as a visual artist. Simon exhibits his work regularly and is fascinated with the challenge of bringing new and traditional technologies together to make art. In recent years year Simon has undertaken a residency each year at Bundanon Trust in rural Australia where he combines teaching and making art.

Simn completed a Masters in Philanthropy and Social Investment at Swinburne school of Entrepreneurship in 2015 is currently undertaking a Practice-based PhD in Design and Architecture at RMIT, Melbourne. His subject area is Citizen:artist (the role of the artist as a citizen and the capacity for the citizen to build their creative capacity.)

SImon left ArtPlay in 2015 and moved to Tasmania to establish a new project ALL THAT WE ARE with his wife Victoria Ryle. Www.allthatweare.org.au is a project that connects people through the arts.