Danielle Nelson / Grants Coordinator – Practice in Community

Dan is an arts worker and visual artist living and working on Awabakal and Worimi Country in Muloobinba, Newcastle, NSW. 

She is passionate about the role creativity plays in the wellbeing of people and their communities, and is delighted to join RAA in a role aligned to her interest in the interrelationship of arts, sustainability and community. 

Dan brings three decades of experience working in community‑based arts and environmental organisations, and for local and state government in roles spanning arts marketing and development, strategic communications and community engagement.

She has a strongly committed to ensuring equitable access to creative and professional development opportunities for artists, wherever they live. Her belief in peer mentoring as a form of creative and professional development has led her to play an instrumental role in strengthening the Hunter Region’s groundbreaking Emerging Artist Mentorship Program over several years.

In recent years she has promoted and overseen creative opportunities including EOIs, grants and major art commissions for local government and worked as a grant program administrator for experimental art organisation This is Not Art.

  Alongside her employment, Dan has volunteered and sat on the boards of several not-for-profit organisations, including artist-run initiatives and cooperatives.