I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people on whose land I live and work on. I pay my respects to their Ancestors and Elders, past and present, and to the places of community, of learning, of knowledge exchange, that First Nations people have fostered, cared for and shared across generations, and continue to do so. Sovereignty was never ceded. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
Dr. Jacina Leong 梁玉明 is an artist-curator, educator, and researcher engaged in critical processes of community engagement, arts leadership, cultural strategy, and curatorial practice. Her work explores care ethics, organisational purpose, and knowledge exchange, and the role of the arts in responding to converging social, ecological, and political crises.
Jacina recently developed Caring in and Through Our Practices, an online resource designed to support practitioner reflexivity by posing questions that examine not only the complexities of care but also the purposes, values, and ethics underpinning creative practice. Her current work explores the systemic interconnections between burnout, climate crisis, and (arts) labour.
From 2023 to 2024, Jacina was Acting CEO/Director for Next Wave, a leading not-for-profit arts organisation that, since 1984, has played a pivotal role in supporting early-career practitioners working across multiple art forms. Jacina was instrumental in securing Next Wave’s ongoing tenancy at Brunswick Mechanics Institute (2025–34), establishing partnerships with A Climate for Art, CAST (Contemporary Art and Social Transformation) and Composite, and shaping the organisation’s Strategic Plan 2025–28.
Previously, Jacina was Co-Director of Bus Projects (2021–2022), Public Programs Curator at The Cube (2012–2017) and Ipswich Art Gallery (2009–2011), Gallery Manager at Jan Murphy Gallery (2011–2012), and Creative Producer for the Creative Industries Precinct (2008). She has also worked as a sessional academic and HDR supervisor at RMIT University and La Trobe University (2020–2023), a mentor for the ACMI CEO Digital Mentoring Program (2022), and is a co-founding member of the Guerrilla Knowledge Unit (2017).
Jacina is currently Co-Chair of Bus Projects, one of the longest-running artist-run initiatives (ARIs) in Narrm/Melbourne. She also serves as Chair of the RMIT University School of Art Industry Advisory Committee, a member of the Darebin Council Art and Heritage Advisory Panel, a guest curator for La Trobe Art Institute, and a research fellow on the ARC Linkage Project Museum Digital Social Futures.
Living and practicing on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people in Narrm/Melbourne, Jacina is of mixed Chinese and Italian heritage.
Connect
Interested in working together? Say hello through LinkedIn.
Jacina recently developed Caring in and Through Our Practices, an online resource designed to support practitioner reflexivity by posing questions that examine not only the complexities of care but also the purposes, values, and ethics underpinning creative practice. Her current work explores the systemic interconnections between burnout, climate crisis, and (arts) labour.
From 2023 to 2024, Jacina was Acting CEO/Director for Next Wave, a leading not-for-profit arts organisation that, since 1984, has played a pivotal role in supporting early-career practitioners working across multiple art forms. Jacina was instrumental in securing Next Wave’s ongoing tenancy at Brunswick Mechanics Institute (2025–34), establishing partnerships with A Climate for Art, CAST (Contemporary Art and Social Transformation) and Composite, and shaping the organisation’s Strategic Plan 2025–28.
Previously, Jacina was Co-Director of Bus Projects (2021–2022), Public Programs Curator at The Cube (2012–2017) and Ipswich Art Gallery (2009–2011), Gallery Manager at Jan Murphy Gallery (2011–2012), and Creative Producer for the Creative Industries Precinct (2008). She has also worked as a sessional academic and HDR supervisor at RMIT University and La Trobe University (2020–2023), a mentor for the ACMI CEO Digital Mentoring Program (2022), and is a co-founding member of the Guerrilla Knowledge Unit (2017).
Jacina is currently Co-Chair of Bus Projects, one of the longest-running artist-run initiatives (ARIs) in Narrm/Melbourne. She also serves as Chair of the RMIT University School of Art Industry Advisory Committee, a member of the Darebin Council Art and Heritage Advisory Panel, a guest curator for La Trobe Art Institute, and a research fellow on the ARC Linkage Project Museum Digital Social Futures.
Living and practicing on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people in Narrm/Melbourne, Jacina is of mixed Chinese and Italian heritage.
Connect
Interested in working together? Say hello through LinkedIn.