Skye Kunstelj

Undergraduate
Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor Art Theory

Subject Area: Theatre & Performance
Current Position: Program Producer at Performance Space

Discipline: Theatre & Performance

Where are you currently working?

I’m the Program Producer at Performance Space, a leading experimental arts organisation.

What does a typical day look like for you?

There is no typical day at my work and I love that. Sometimes my day can be quite administrative with lots of budget management, contracting, scheduling or applying for visas; while other days it can be really creative when programming and working with artists to help them realise their works.

The job gives me a really great platform to engage with artists whose work I’m interested in. I’m so grateful for that. At the moment I’m working on the 2016 Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art which is a two week festival produced by Performance Space and held at Carriageworks. As part of Liveworks I’m producing a bunch of really incredible artists including the Stiff Gins who will premiere the work they have been developing with the support of the UNSW Creative Practice Lab called Spirit of Things: The Sound of Objects. I’ve also been developing an inclusive audience access strategy for the festival which has been really rewarding.

How did your UNSW Arts degree shape your career?

In so many ways. I built a transferable set of skills that has unlimited applications. My degree taught me to have a critical understanding of art and performance and helped me to creatively think through any problem. I spent a lot of time in the Creative Practice Lab both through my performance coursework and my extracurricular activities (NUTS and Studio 4 - the theatre and comedy societies). The team there were instrumental in preparing me for the arts world.

What piece of advice would you give a current student?

Make the most of your time at university – access your support networks, volunteer whenever you can and get involved in as many activities as possible. Don’t underestimate the value of extracurricular activities, as daggy as they may seem! I learned so many more skills from this than I realised, especially about how to best work with volunteers and how to work on a tiny budget - probably the most useful skill to have when working with independent artists.

What was the most valuable thing you took away from your time at UNSW?

The relationships I formed at university have probably been the most valuable thing from my time at UNSW. So many strong creative collaborations were formed with people I met - both through my degree and in my extracurricular activities.

See more Theatre and Performance alumni profiles