Accidental Productions is an Adelaide-based theatre company that aims to foster contemporary works from around the world. Formed in 2007 by three Flinders Drama Centre graduates and their senior drama lecturer, the company is committed to maintaining a relevance to the social, cultural and political world in which we live, endeavouring to entertain the audience with engaging productions. Accidental Productions has been supported by a number of Helpmann Academy grants.

Chris Scherer performed at the 2009 Maestros & Apprentices fundraising dinner. He makes accessible, topical image based work using collision and fusion processes of performance and presentation. He is a rule-breaker who rejects the boundaries of traditional art forms, ensuring his audiences have memorable, personal and unique experiences.

The Helpmann Academy has provided invaluable assistance to five.point.one since the threatre company’s inception in 2008. Through Helpmann’s project grants and media assistance, five.point.one has successfully staged challenging and thought-provoking theatre not seen in Adelaide before. five.point.one is now focussing on the development of new Australian work alongside the very best of contemporary theatre from overseas.

Flinders Drama Centre Graduates are the intelligent alternative of actors and directors. View past graduates, staff, articles, awards, artist links plus what productions are happening in your city.

Megan Huitema is an emerging film producer, currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Flinders University. A recipient of numerous Helpmann Academy grants, she produces short dramas, documentaries and TVCs and is always on the look out for upcoming projects.

Michelle Nicolle is a graduate of the Elder Conservatorium of Music, and is one of Australia’s foremost jazz vocalists. She performed at the Helpmann Academy Jazz Awards in 2009 and 2010.

Sean Weatherly was a recipient of a Helpmann Academy grant, and performed at a number of Maestros & Apprentices fundraising dinners. Sean is an actor, singer, dancer, writer and composer based in Melbourne.

Undertaking a Helpmann Academy mentorship in 2008, Andrea is a recent visual arts graduate who primarily practices as a printmaker and sculptor. Most recently, Andrea received an Arts SA Professional Development Grant to complete a month-long residency at the Banff Centre in Canada, and was awarded the prestigious Print Council of Australia Print Commission for 2009.

Angela Black was featured in the 2008 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition. She is a recent graduate of the Adelaide Central School of Art and her primary practice is painting. While recent work has contemplated themes of time, memory and identity, current work explores similar themes but in a new way.

Annalisa Feleppa is a photo artist who plans to branch out and include other mediums. Her work is an exploration into the notions of femininity, visually expressing various ideas of this concept in photo art through symbolism. The Helpmann Academy has supported Annalisa’s development as an artist over the past five years, through opportunities to exhibit and sell my work.

Annalise is a 2004 graduate of the Adelaide Central School of Art, working predominantly in drawing and installation. The Helpmann Academy has played an important supportive role in establishing her visual arts practice and career as a professional artist; Annalise completed a mentorship with renowned installation artist George Popperwell, visited India as part of the Sanskriti Kendra Exchange and won the Adelaide Bank Award in 2005.

CJ Taylor's current practice examines notions of beauty and the grotesque in an Australian vernacular. Using various 19th Century photographic techniques, he creates potent snapshots of a future embedded in the past, grounded in both science and the arts, in proof and in theory, in fact and in fiction. CJ was shown in the 2010 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition.

Danimations' Dan Monceaux and Emma Sterling (both Helpmann Academy grant recipients) are internationally-awarded multimedia artists. Animation, video, music, performance and collaborative processes collide in their artistic and commercial work.

Deidre But-Husaim studied at both the Adelaide Central School of Art and Adelaide College of the Arts. But-Husaim is a member of TwinBEE studios at St. Peters, and in 2004 co-founded Hedgemaze studios at Port Adelaide and in 2009 The Incinerator at Thebarton. Deidre's work was selected for the 2007 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition.

Dianne Longley is a visual arts lecturer at the Adelaide Centre for the Arts, a Helpmann partner school. She is a South Australian visual artist who works with a range of traditional and digital processes including printmaking, encaustic and oil painting, pokerwork on wooden panels, artist books, on-glaze porcelain and small-scale bronze casting. Her website provides information about photopolymer printmaking, her exhibitions, artist books, workshops and a news section on recent and upcoming events.

Eleanor Zecchin was a recipient of a Helpmann Academy grant in 2009 and also took part in the Ashington Mentorship Scheme with Melbourne artist Marise Maas. Her studio practice primarily consists of painting works that are motivated by an interest in documenting her everyday surrounds - particularly that of her natural environment. Eleanor is also now teaching Visual Art at Helpmann Academy partners the Adelaide College for the Arts and the South Australian School of Art.

Fleur Noble studied at Adelaide Central School of Art from 2002-2006, with her work selected for the 2007 Helpmann Graduate Exhibition. Since graduating, Fleur has been focused on developing her performance based visual language, creating a performance work that is currently touring Europe and the UK followed by a full national Australian tour in 2010.

Fran Callen travelled to India in 2007 as part of the Helpmann Academy's international residency program. Her drawings, paintings and mixed media works explore observations of human behavior. Fran also sketches obsessively at gigs, events and festivals capturing social interaction and body language within different subcultures, and cultures.

Gosia’s work interrogates the phenomenon of existence, attempting to archive a realisation of being - of being present, within space, time and language. Forming a registry of the everyday, she works not in an artist’s studio but in various private and public spaces where life goes on. Drawing is the basis of all her practice, extending towards performance, interactive situations, installation, sound and moving image – something Gosia refers to as cross-disciplinary drawing.

John Hart was featured in the 2000 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition. His work is motivated by a desire to make abstract images that collide painting and drawing with digital imaging technology. His practice relies on the construction of models, which are either digital prints, virtual images, found objects, photographs or small three dimensional sculptures.

A 2008 Honours graduate of the South Australian School of Art, Karen is a photographer, video and installation artist, arts manager and curator. From a rediscovered fascination with bubbles, through which she was returned to her childhood, Karen's work has grown to study objects and glimpses of moments that feed her nostalgia and idealised sense of past. Karen was curator of the 2010 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition.

Laura’s is a visual artist based in Adelaide, working across a diverse range of media from drawing to installation, media arts and community projects. Whilst studying and having graduated from a partner school, support from the Helpmann Academy has been key to the development of Laura’s practice.

Lee Salomone has been a mentor for the Helpmann Academy. Lee works across a range of media, including installation, photography, sculpture and works on paper. He makes use of nature and natural materials to better understand culture and conversely, he utilises culture and constructed elements to comprehend nature.

Luku has been a mentor for the Helpmann Academy. Part man, and part machine, Luku is kind of like Robocop, except that his prime directive is to make pictures, be they moving or unmoving.

Contemporary jeweller Meghan O'Rourke travelled to India in 2007 as part of the Helpmann Academy's international residency program. Meghan often combines traditional precious metals with the vivid colour palate of anodised titanium and aluminium. Her refined jewellery often explores the use of colours and patterns derived from the delicate structures found in nature and the decorative imagery of India.

Mei Sheong Wong had work on auction at the 2009 Maestros & Apprentices fundraising dinner. Her predominantly figurative work includes book art, text, print and mixed media.

Michelle Destefano is a deaf artist that enjoys a variety of art practices, include painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed medium in traditional art and graphic art (in particular for making her own adventure PC games).

Minnette Michael graduated from the Adelaide Centre for the Arts in 2007, majoring in jewellery. In 2008, she received an Ashington Mentorship with Adelaide jeweller Jane Bowden. When she’s not traveling around Asia or working at Urban Cow Studio, Minnette continues to make jewellery from her home studio.

Rob’s art practice in drawing and painting addresses the subjective, personal, and embodied nature of human experience. Episodic and autobiographic memory play a part, and are the legacy of migration informing reflections on a wider contemporary diaspora.

Sasha is interested in where and how people encounter artwork. In addition to more traditional modes of gallery exhibtion, she makes work for unlikely times and spaces including site specific interventions and participatory projects. Currently teaching Video Art at the Adelaide College of the Arts and Digital Media at Adelaide Central School of Art, Sasha was selected for the 2004 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition.

Sera Waters is an Adelaide-based practicing artist and arts writer whose work is often embroidered with dark meticulousness. Sera graduated with honours from the South Australian School of Art and has a Masters in Art History from the University of Adelaide. She currently lectures in Art History and Theory at Adelaide Central School of Art.

Sheila Whittam had work on auction at the 2009 Maestros & Apprentices fundraising dinner. She is a recent graduate of the Adelaide Central School of Art, who has consistently produced work that explores interior architectural space worked in mixed media on paper. She recently had an exhibition featuring an eight-metre work which follows a trajectory within the interior space of Carrick Hill in Adelaide.

Simone-Clare Hede was featured in the 2009 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition. Her art practice is divided into two parts; a diverse range of jewellery and home ware that is decorative, functional and affordable, as well as her exhibition work that is a mix of large hand-built vessels, slab built constructions and sculptures.

Stephanie James-Manttan is a ceramic artist who creates diverse sculptural porcelain objects that challenge light and balance. Her arts practice focuses on mastering the temperamental aspects of the material that can only be achieved by evolving techniques such as size, translucency and stability.