Torres Strait Cultural Festival coordinator Leo Akee, Canberra heritage collection manager Alana Garwood, and Launceston visual artist
Yvonne Kopper have been appointed to a board of the Australia Council.
The appointments to the Council's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board are for three years, from August 1999.
'I am very pleased to welcome Leo Akee, Alana Garwood and Yvonne Kopper to the Board,' Federal Minister for the Arts, Peter McGauran,
said.
'Their appointments will ensure the Board continues to have broad geographic representation and a wide range of skills in various artforms
and areas of cultural activity,' he said.
Leo Akee is a manager in the Queensland Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations, a member of the Torres Shire
Council, and Secretary of the Thursday Island Branch of the Returned Services League. He is a member of the Australia Council's
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Grants Committee, and of the James Cook University Reference Group on Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Studies. He won the Mayoral Award for Services to the Community in 1996 and the Australia Day Award for a
Community Event in 1998.
Alana Garwood is the Arts and History Collection Manager at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies,
where she has been the library subject specialist in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts since 1989. She has been Coordinator,
Treasurer and President of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library and Information Resource Network. In 1994 she won the
Australian Heritage Commission Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for photography.
Yvonne Kopper is an arts worker with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation for Women's Arts and Crafts. She was involved in the
Trouwerner Diary Project in 1994 and the Trouwerner Calendar Project in 1998. Her works have appeared in many local exhibitions and
are in the collections of the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
The Board supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to explore and promote their rich cultural inheritance.
The Australia Council is the Commonwealth Government's arts funding and advisory body. It promotes excellence, understanding and
enjoyment of the arts. The Council also provides, and encourages the provision of, opportunities for people to practice the arts, and
promotes the knowledge and appreciation of Australian arts in other countries.
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