ANAT CEO Melissa DeLaney was delighted to be awarded a 2021 Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop Asialink Fellowship. The program provides emerging and established leaders in both the private and public sectors with the insights, capabilities and connections to navigate the foreign policy, business, cultural, political, ethical and regulatory environment in Asia.

Established in 1990 as a joint initiative of the Australian Government’s Commission for the Future and the Myer Foundation, Asialink is hosted by the University of Melbourne. With over 26 years of history, the Asialink Leaders Program is Australia’s premier program for the Asia capable leaders of today and tomorrow, empowering over 950 alumni globally.

As a Dunlop Fellowship recipient, Melissa was offered the latest insights and connections to arts leaders across the region. Over a year of virtual connection rather face to face national events, Melissa’s aspiration was to strengthen Asia-related knowledge and networks, by connecting artists, scientists, business and communities across the Indo-Pacific. The strategic goal is to create more international opportunities for the ANAT alumni.

Completing the fellowship in early 2022 Melissa, significant outcomes include Australia-Korea Art + Technology Talk Series, a two-day online talk series on 24 – 25 February 2022. Melissa was joined by Australian arts leaders from Illuminate Adelaide, Museum of Discovery. (MOD.) and Patch Theatre. Korean experts joined the conversation from the Art & Technology Team at Arts Council Korea and Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Total Museum and Dandi Fest. Discussing how arts leaders face change and transform art within this disrupted environment in a hyper-connected world, the Connect2Abilities two-day online event began with a special keynote address by Korea’s pioneering digital art museum director, Roh Soh-yeong at the Art Center Nabi.

“From where do national narratives arise? To whom or what should we look to find our new Asia narratives? The lessons of past narratives are that they do not come from a particular place.”

Finding Australia’s new Asia Narrative was launched exclusively at the Asialink Leaders Summit. Read the full text here

Melissa DeLaney is Chief Executive Officer of ANAT (Australian Network for Art & Technology), a global leader in brokering opportunities for artists to work with science and technology partners. With qualifications in visual art and arts management, Melissa facilitates connections and collaborations. She sees artists as perfectly placed to be working at the forefront of possible futures, adding the human aspect to developments in technology and science. Her work dwells in the intersections of art & cultural development, recreation, wellness, creative industries, technology, science, education and government in work she calls social sculpture.

Recently returned to Australia from Vietnam, Melissa has grown up in Papua New Guinea and Samoa, and has extensive lived and professional experience in Asia including leading a team of Indonesian artists. Previously, Melissa worked at RMIT Vietnam, where she advised on the Global Leadership Program and was a recipient of SOS International Duty of Care award for international student support program on behalf of the University.
As a recipient of the Dunlop Fellowship, Melissa intends to extend and strengthen Asia-related knowledge and networks, to connect artists, scientists, business and communities across the Indo-Pacific