Seven people from across different parts of Australia and the sector have been selected from an EOI process for Creative Climate’s Green Team, a new pilot program to grow climate action capacity from within the arts and culture sector.  Co-designed and led by Erica McCalman and Matt Wicking, with contributions from others in the Creative Climate consortium and friends, the participants will attend a 3 day intensive at CommonGround on the lands of the Taungurung People in November 2026.

Supported by Creative Australia’s Leadership CapabilityProgram.

Adelaide Fisher (they/them) is a Creative Producer in RMIT’s Creative Student Life team producing RMIT’s annual student co-created Public Art Trail. They created a community arts festival called Happenstance and have produced projects and programs for City of Darebin, Fed Square, Regional Arts Victoria, the Emerging Writers Festival as well as independent collaborations presented at Melbourne Fringe, MPavillion, FCAC and more.

Edwina Guiness has worked in the performing arts industry for over 18 years in producing, project management, company, touring and stage management. She is currently Event Producer at PAC Australia, working across APAX and APAM. Edwina is passionate about the importance of the arts and the potential it has to support wider climate action. 

Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and creative communicator drawing a better world into being. She is the paintbrush behind the Costa's Garden series of children's books with Gardening Australia's Costa Georgiadis. She also draws for the likes of the United Nations, the Australian Red Cross, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program, and CSIRO. Brenna is regarded as one of the country's leading sustainability educators, and has spoken at some of the world's biggest festivals, from Glastonbury in the UK to Woodford Folk Festival in QLD. She lives in a strawbale house that she built from reclaimed materials on Bibbulmun Menang boodja, in an intentional community in Denmark, Western Australia.

Holly Riding (she/they) is an industry expert in leading the design development of museums, galleries, and public art across Australia and in Europe. Holly spends her time between Qtopia Sydney Museum on Gadigal Country, where she is Curatorial Director, and Magandjin Brisbane at the State Library of Queensland, delivering award-winning exhibitions.In 2025, Holly designed the debut exhibitions and public art grounds of the newly built WAMA National Centre for Environmental Art gallery at the foot of the Gariwerd/Grampians. Earlier work includes leading creative production for Dark Mofo Festival in Nipaluna/Hobart, serving as Exhibition Director for the internationally renowned sustainable contemporary art fair Haus Wien in Vienna, Austria, and serving as residential designer for Schloss Hollenegg for Design Graz, Austria.

Penny Sadubin is an Artist and Educator living on Dharawal Land, the Illawarra region of NSW. Her multi-disciplinary arts practice seeks to observe human connections to landscape in varied ways. She  works to inspire and create thoughtful connections between people and the places they inhabit through this creative practice of observation and reflecting. 

Rob Sowinski is a theatre practitioner residing on the lands of the Yalukit-willam of the Kulin Nation. He is Head of Production and Operations at The Substation in Melbourne’s west and maintains an award-winning freelance lighting and scenic design practice. With a keen interest in education and climate, Rob is grateful for the opportunity to further explore sustainability with this group.

Sen Vanderzalm. As the current Producer and Operations Manager at APHIDS, Sen delivers complex cultural projects across both institutional and independent contexts. Her experience includes being the former Co-Curator of Melbourne Art Book Fair at the National Gallery of Victoria as well as directing grassroots projects as Co-Founder of the creative collective N0 R3PLY. Grounded in a deeply collaborative approach, her work spans a multitude of creative outputs such as festivals, exhibitions, publications, and performance.

Facilitators:

Matt Wicking - an artist, environmental consultant and facilitator with two decades experience helping organisations, communities and individuals embrace an Earth-centered approach. A settler on Bunurong / Boon Wurrung Country with Scottish and Cornish heritage, he is a member of the Creative Climate consortium and also runs a freelance practice, Cloud Catcher, and makes music with The General Assembly. 

Erica McCalman (she/her) - Creative director, producer, strategist, facilitator and speaker based in Melbourne. She works with organisations, artists and individuals doing ambitious, values-driven work. She is a Ballardong Noongar woman with Irish Convict, Cornish and Scottish heritage, and is neurodivergent. She moves through the world as someone who has always lived at several intersections at once, in the liminal spaces between cultures, ways of knowing and ways of being.