M16 ARTSPACE in Griffith has today (November 9) announced the appointment of Emerson Radisich as executive director.

Radisich moved to Canberra from Melbourne in December, 2020, to become exhibitions and promotions coordinator at M16 Artspace. Following retiring director Jas Hugonnet’s departure to Victoria this year, he has acted in the position of executive director for five months before this confirmation.

He was welcomed by the chair of the M16 board, Vasiliki Nihas, as “a new, high-calibre executive director hailing from Melbourne’s edgy street art scene” who had, she added, “already begun making a characteristically quiet, thoughtful impact on the local Canberra arts scene”.

While in Melbourne, Radisich completed a master of art curatorship at the University of Melbourne, where he researched public, performance-based art festivals, also working as a tutor and at the university’s Ian Potter Centre.

There he was also a founding member of Taby, a digital art gallery focusing on limited edition print exhibitions while also working as assistant curator at Backwoods Gallery.

Originally from NZ, Radisich worked in artist-run spaces and public galleries including the Adam Gallery, Wellington, the Auckland Art Gallery, and Mouthfull, Wellington, and he is already planning a NZ exchange/artist residency for M16Artspace.

Radisich is joined by M16 studio artist, James Lieutenant, in the office, with a brief to handle the organisation’s marketing, public affairs and administrative responsibilities.

Radisich and Lieutenant, Nihas said, would make a formidable team as they steered “a thriving M16Artspace through its next exciting phase” that would include its part in the long-planned Kingston Foreshore Arts Precinct.

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