Carly Davenport Acker

Carly Davenport Acker believes that participatory media methodologies are a potent form of advocacy, build leadership capacities and have the power to mobilise impactful social, cultural and economic change when employed by the creative industries in partnership with First Nations cultural organisations.

Carly’s Awards include the 2021 MAGNA Award – Australian Museums and Art Galleries Association’s ‘Best Indigenous Project’ for the National Museum of Australia’s Encounters Fellowships Program and Cultural Connections Initiative; 2021 DNA Paris Design Award (Thylacine Design & the Western Australian Museum / Boola Bardip (Many Stories); 2022 National Museum of Australia’s Peter Yu Award (Cultural Connections Initiative Team).

Carly holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Impact, Innovation + Entrepreneurship (FOXTEL Scholarship) School of Business, University of Western Australia (2013); a Postgraduate Diploma in Anthropology, Humanities, University of Melbourne (2000); and a Bachelor of Arts - Art History and Curatorship, Anthropology major, Australian National University (1995).

With 25 years’ professional experience, Carly has a strong track record in founding, co-designing and leading multi-arts and multi-disciplinary teams to deliver ground-breaking projects, programs, and practices within the creative and cultural industries - locally and globally. As a Churchill Fellow Carly explored the design and use of participatory media toolkits by First Nations peoples in remote and rural environments to communicate with major cultural and education institutions and their audiences across Canada, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The experience fuelled her passion for amplifying diverse voices, facilitating intergenerational knowledge exchange, cultural governance and storytelling platforms through genuine partnerships. She applied her learnings and international networks to her program management at the National Museum of Australia through the Encounters Fellowship Program (2016 & 2019), and in the delivery of the Cultural Connections Initiative (2018-2022) in partnership with 16 First Nations organisations across Australia.

A career highlight includes representing the Museum to present at the 2019 UNESCO Culture 2030 World Forum in Meishan China, describing how the creative industries can nurture and sustain livelihoods in remote and regional Australia and why this is important in promoting cultural diversity and history, whilst strengthening skills on the ground in communities.

In her current role as CEO and Director of Ainslie and Gorman Art Centres (Arts Capital Ltd.) Carly continues her commitment to creating new pathways for future generations of arts makers, artists, cultural practitioners and aligned creative industry partners to share their stories and trailblaze, lighting the way for others.