Annette Nykiel PhD, is a practising fibre/textile artist with curatorial, art project and art gallery management skills. I have undertaken a number of artist residencies, and have qualifications in visual arts and Australian Indigenous Cultural research and a geoscience background, I am knowledgeable and experienced in working in arts administration, workshop facilitation and mentoring artists and have a strong research and writing background. I am a precarious, casual research assistant and academic at Edith Cowan University and an independent maker facilitating workshops and managing art projects.

Employment and Skilled Positions

Always – curious, wandering slow-maker,educatorand naturalist

2023-present casual Centre Officer – all aspects of administration and project planning Centre for People, Place & Planet ECU.

2022-present casual sessional academic and research assistant – School of Science ECU. Collaborating on two research projects:

  • Developing Implementation Guidance for the Impact Assessment Follow-up International Best PracticePrincipleswith University of Groningen and a Delphi panel of invited international experts.
  • Demonstratingtheimpactofenvironmentalimpactassessmentresearchonpolicy,procedureand practice, supported by the ECU Research Impact Evidence Scheme 2023 with Prof Angus Morrison- Saunders.

Tutoring, mentoring and marking postgraduate and undergraduate units in environmental impact assessment.

2018-present casual research assistant and casual sessional academic – School of Education, ECU. Tutoring, and marking postgraduate units in inquiry-based research. Various projects not limited to fieldwork, arts-

2021 casual masters examiner – School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry Curtin University

2019-2022 part time arts project manager, We Must Get Together Some Time – The eleven-member multi- disciplinary artist collective We Must Get Together Some Timehas exhibited a major body of new works in a self-titled multi-venue exhibition in Mandurah (CASM and ManPAC) and touring regionally.

2014-present independent curator/project manager and community art workshop facilitator (adult and youth)—venues including Mandurah Arts Festival, York Festival, Rockingham Art Centre, DADAA Midland, Mundaring Arts Centre, Ngaanyatjarra Lands Schools, ECU (curatoring-Spectrum Project Space, Gallery 25, workshops-university staff and students), Shopfront Gallery, Central TAFE, Carey Baptist College. Facilitating PEAC student art workshops.

2014-2021 casual workshop demonstrator – ECU-School of Art and Humanities; School of Education.

2008-2013 manager – Laverton Leonora Cross Cultural Association (LLCCA).

2008-2010 curator/projectmanager – Marlu Kuru Kuru women’s art project, Laverton WA.

professional Qualifications

  • PhD, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Perth WA.
  • Bachelor of Arts (Indigenous Australian Cultural Studies) (1st Class Honours) Curtin University.
  • Bachelor of Arts (Art) Curtin University.
  • Bachelor of Science (Geology) University of Western Australia.

Grants, Awards and Scholarships

  • Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC), Arts U-15k Grant, 2023, 2021 (co-authored), 2018 (co- authored)
  • Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC)/Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development (DPIRD) Regional Arts and Cultural Investment Program Festivals Fund 2021
  • Mandurah Arts Festival Grant 2019, 2021
  • Spectrum Project Space Artist Residency 2018
  • Bellwether Funding 2016, 2017
  • NAVA Australian Artists Grant, 2016 (co-authored)
  • WAFTA scholarship to Fibreswest 2015
  • Australian Postgraduate Award (APA), 2014-18
  • ECU Merit Award 2014-2017
  • Royalties for Regions 2009-2010 – MarluKuruKuruwomen’s art project, infrastructure and business training
  • 2018 Perth FRINGEWORLD Visual Arts Prize

Curated Exhibitions

  • 2023 CultivatingSlow-making, Mundaring Arts Centre (curator, group show)
  • 2020 Reduce,Reuse,Recycle:IsItEnough?Lynne Cohen Gallery, Edith Cowan University (curator), Perth. 2019 The Overwintering Project(facilitated and co-curated Peel component-workshops, field walk and exhibition) Alcoa Mandurah Art Gallery, Mandurah Performing Art Centre.
  • 2018 Tsukumogami: the faithful tool Garland Magazine online exhibition
  • 2018 Discover: Works inspired by found objects Garland Magazine online exhibition
  • 2017 ThresholdsandThoughtscapes, Bunbury Regional Art Galleries (co-curator), Bunbury WA. 2016 fieldworkingslowmaking, Spectrum Project Space (co-curator), Perth WA.
  • 2010 and 2012 ‘MarluKuruKuru’, Genesis in the Hills Restaurant Roleystone (curator), Perth WA. 2009 ‘Marlu Kuru Kuru’, Access Gallery, John Curtin Gallery (curator), Perth WA.

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2024 Slow-making Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany 
  • 2023 slow-making locally, Rockingham Arts Centre, Rockingham WA
  • 2018 meeting place, Spectrum Project Space, Perth WA.

Group Exhibitions (peer selected/invited last 7 years)

Published writing

Conference Presentations

  • Nykiel, A. (2019). Spinning a dirty yarn. Paper presented at ASAL 2019, UWA, Perth.
  • Nykiel, A. (2018). A yarn about a bottletop. Paper presented at the In ASA 2018 Unsettling Australia Conference, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland.
  • Nykiel, A. (2017). making place. Paper presented at the AAANZ-Art and its Directions Conference, UWA, Perth.
  • Nykiel, A. (2017). A creative practice-led bricoleuse and questions of the Country. Paper presented at Mapping the Inland: A Centre for the Study of the Inland Symposium, Latrobe University, Melbourne.
  • Nykiel, A. (2016). Reimaging the Country. Paper presented at the InASA 2016 Encounter, Recognition, Responsibility: Australia Reimagined Conference, Notre Dame University, Fremantle Western Australia.
    Nykiel, A. (2016). How ethical is a ball of string? Paper presented at the iDARE 2016: Creative Arts Research and the Ethics of Innovation, University of Melbourne, VCA, Southbank Campus.


Conference Proceedings

  • Nykiel, A. & Schwarz, N. (2021) We Must Get Together Some Time: our slow-making stories. Proceedings of Futuring Craft – an international conference, 16-18 September 2021, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University, Fremantle Arts Centre
  • Nykiel, A. (2019). Artist as bricoleuse. Paper presented at the ACUADS Conference 2018: Art and Design in Transition, Central TAFE, Perth, WA.
  • Nykiel, A. (2015). Talking Country. Paper presented at the ACUADS Conference 2015: Art and Design Education in the Global 24/7, School of Art, Architecture and Design, University of South Australia.