About the Arts & Health Foundation

The Arts and Health Foundation aims to improve individual and community health and wellbeing in Australia. We plan to do this by increasing the knowledge, evidence and capacity of arts activities in all health settings.

The Arts and Health Foundation plans to obtain long term support for arts and health practices by promoting the evidence of what works and so increasing investment in this sector. In addition, we invite all interested persons to become part of developing the Australian arts and health sector and its community base.

We support:

• arts programs aiming to improve patient and staff health and wellbeing in all health settings
• community-based programs that promote arts activities that improve health
• activities and research which develop the knowledge and understanding of the benefits of the arts to individual and community health and wellbeing.

Our Board

The Arts and Health Foundation is led by a national Board with members representing the arts, health and business from across Australia. Current members are as follows and additional members are under consideration.

Chairman:

Michael Brogan

Michael is a former senior executive director of the FirstRand Banking Group. He is the immediate past Chairman of FirstRand International Limited and the RMB Australia Group.

Michael is the non-executive Chairman of AWA Limited, a non-executive director of Oceania Capital Partners Limited (OCP). He is also a director of the Indochina Starfish Foundation (Australia) Limited and a trustee of the Indochina Starfish Foundation (UK).

Michael has extensive domestic and international business experience in the areas of strategic business development, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, audit, compliance and risk management.

Members:

Lisa Colley

Director, Creative Industries Innovation Centre

Lisa has extensive experience in government relations, policy and program development at a senior management level in the Arts and Cultural sectors. Until June 2005, Lisa was the Executive Director, Policy, Communications and Research at the Australia Council for the Arts.

During her 13 years work at the Australia Council, Lisa developed networks across the arts, government, research and community sectors that position her well to build strategic alliances to develop effective arts and health programs.

Sally Francis RGN, Grad Dip Management – Arts

Arts Coordinator, Arts in Health at FMC, Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia

Sally has a background in community health, visual arts practice and arts management. She is an advocate for developing government support for arts and health in hospitals throughout Australia and in 2008 assisted SA Health with the development of the SA Arts in Health Partnership Agreement.

Sally is a Churchill Fellow and member Society for the Arts in Healthcare (US). She has presented widely at conferences in Australia and overseas on arts and health program development and management.

Claude Gauchat (BScAg, MBA, FAICD)

Managing director of direct2

Claude Gauchat (BScAg, MBA, FAICD) is the managing director of direct2, a corporate advisor on reputation management. He has extensive international business and board experience, with expertise in strategic planning, informing government policy, corporate governance and NFP company start-ups.

Claude is currently the independent chairman of Agrifood Awareness Australia and acts as a non-executive director of several other small-to-medium sized companies. He is also an accredited casual facilitator of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, delivering the strategy & risk modules.

Geoffrey Hilton

Director

Lawyer, corporate advisor and company director Senior Partner of Henry Davis York, a Sydney law firm Chairman of Man Investments Australia Limited Director, Globalaw Limited Non-executive director of RMB Australia Holdings Limited 1999 – 2010 and non-executive director of M-co International Limited 2001 – 2010.

Professor Michael Kidd AM

Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Flinders University

Michael Kidd is a general practitioner and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Flinders University. He is a past president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and is the President-elect of the World Organization of Family Doctors.

Professor Peter Smith, RFD MD FRACP FRCPA FAICD

Dean of Medicine at The University of New South Wales

Professor Peter Smith is Dean of Medicine at The University of New South Wales. He specialised in cancer medicine and research following study in Australia, USA and Germany. Peter has held senior hospital management posts in Brisbane and Melbourne, senior academic appointments at the Universities of Queensland, Melbourne and Auckland.

He has served in a consulting role to government, including as Chair of the Inquiry into Vietnam Veterans Cancer Incidence and Mortality. Peter is currently a Director of St Vincent’s Health Australia, NewSouth Innovations, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and a number of research centres and institutes.

Professor Matthew Vadas MB BS,FRACP,FRCPA,PhD,DSc

Executive Director Centenary Institute

Professor Mathew Vadas is a medical researcher and Executive Director of the Centenary Institute.

Mathew has held senior positions on various scientific advisory panels and boards for leading research bodies including the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council and Sydney Institutes of Health and Medical Research.

Helen Zigmond MA

Arts and Health Consultant

Helen Zigmond has an extensive background in education and the arts, working as a practitioner and a consultant involved in training and policy development in school, universities and other community institutions.
Since 1995 she has worked in the Health sector believing health to be a cultural context. In 1997 Helen developed the innovative arts in health program Creative Well for the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW and the community based Clacia program for regional and rural communities . She has represented her work overseas and developed a number of working relationships in the UK. Helen has been a director of the Arts and Health Foundation since 2009.

Project Director

Deborah Mills

From a diverse background in community and cultural development spanning 30 years, the last 20 at Director/CEO level, Deborah has a strong record in management and policy development in the public and not-for-profit sectors as well as commercial environments.

Deborah’s professional policy and research background spans cultural, social, health, social justice and environmental concerns. She has worked in Federal, State and local government jurisdictions as well as for the not-for-profit and commercial sectors.

Deborah is a Master of Arts in Cultural and Media Policy, a Fellow of the Institute of Company Directors (FAICD), an experienced facilitator and a qualified mediator (LEADR).

Deborah is the co-author (with Dr Paul Brown) of Art and Wellbeing: a guide, (Australia Council for the Arts, 2004) and has written extensively on cultural planning and policy.

Deborah’s professional involvement in the arts and cultural sector began in 1980 with her appointment as Principal Project Officer with the (then) Community Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts where she was responsible, amongst other things, for the development of the first policy on arts and disability in Australia. Deborah’s thirteen years at the Australia Council culminated in her Directorship of the Community Cultural Development Board (CCDB) for five years. She subsequently worked for five years as Director of Community Development for Newcastle City Council where her duties included cultural policy and planning and the management of major regional cultural institutions. For the last ten years Deborah has worked as a freelance consultant in policy, organisational and leadership development.

Project Partners

In addition to the Board Members, key medical and research agencies and practitioners support the Foundation by helping identify best practice in arts and health and key advocates for forums and events. Current project partners are as follows:

• DADAA WA
• Flinders Medical Centre
• VicHealth

Ambassador

• Professor Ian Hickie – Executive Director Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney (View news release here)
• Robyn Archer AO - Singer, writer, director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts . (View news release here )

Supporters

• The Australia Council has provided initial funding to support the work of the Foundation.
• Freehills has provided ongoing pro bono legal services.
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers has provided ongoing pro bono auditing services.