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 whose practice engages with the intersections of community engagement, care ethics and curatorial inquiry. Working across cultural and educational spaces since 2008, her work considers how creative practices and organisations can respond to the converging crises of our time.
Living and practicing on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people in Narrm/Melbourne, Jacina is of mixed Chinese and Italian heritage.
Selected Work.
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. During this time, she co-created partnerships with A Climate for Art, CAST (Contemporary Art and Social Transformation) and Composite; secured Next Wave’s long-term tenancy at Brunswick Mechanics Institute (2025–34); and contributed to shaping the organisation’s Strategic Plan 2025–28.
Her earlier roles include Co-Chair (2023-2025) and 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). In parallel, Jacina 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 co-founded the Guerrilla Knowledge Unit (2017), a collective exploring alternative modes of inquiry and knowledge-sharing.
Today, Jacina continues to contribute to the arts and education sectors as Chair of RMIT University’s 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 associate on the ARC Linkage Project Museum Digital Social Futures.
Jacina has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) and Masters by Research from QUT and PhD from RMIT University.
Living and practicing on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people in Narrm/Melbourne, Jacina is of mixed Chinese and Italian heritage.
Selected Work.
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. During this time, she co-created partnerships with A Climate for Art, CAST (Contemporary Art and Social Transformation) and Composite; secured Next Wave’s long-term tenancy at Brunswick Mechanics Institute (2025–34); and contributed to shaping the organisation’s Strategic Plan 2025–28.
Her earlier roles include Co-Chair (2023-2025) and 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). In parallel, Jacina 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 co-founded the Guerrilla Knowledge Unit (2017), a collective exploring alternative modes of inquiry and knowledge-sharing.
Today, Jacina continues to contribute to the arts and education sectors as Chair of RMIT University’s 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 associate on the ARC Linkage Project Museum Digital Social Futures.
Jacina has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) and Masters by Research from QUT and PhD from RMIT University.