THE BACKSTORY
Cuba to New York to the Orana.
Art history, investment banking, Spanish art, publishing, dealing and galleries came before regional arts leadership.
THE REAL WORK
The ecosystem around the artist.
Grants, partnerships, audiences, advocacy, mentoring, spaces, networks and the thousand small things that turn artistic possibility into practice.
THE UNLIKELY PATH
Alicia did not arrive in regional arts by a straight line.
She was born in Cuba and grew up largely in New York City.
She studied Art History at Rutgers University, spent several years in investment banking, then went back to study a Masters in 17th-century Spanish Art at Syracuse University.
From there came a commercial arts publication, art dealing and gallery direction in New York.
Eventually Australia entered the picture. After Sydney, Alicia and her family moved west to the Orana.
Sometimes the best regional knowledge comes from someone who has seen several very different worlds — and knows none of them has the monopoly on good ideas.
THE WORK PEOPLE DO NOT ALWAYS SEE
Regional arts is not only what happens on the stage or hangs on the wall.
It is the phone call before the grant application.
The introduction between an artist and a partner.
The person who knows a venue, a funder, a producer, a council officer, another artist or the one bit of information that stops a project dying quietly in someone’s notebook.
Alicia spent fourteen years leading Orana Arts, advocating for artists and brokering opportunities through projects and strategic partnerships across a very large regional footprint.
That work included the small and practical — helping people shape grant ideas and understand pathways — and the ambitious: creating spaces, building international collaborations and connecting regional artists beyond the region.
Creative ecosystems are built from relationships before they are built from buildings.
MAKE THE THING REAL
This is the part of Alicia I have come to value most.
I am very good at saying, “What if we did this?”
Alicia is very good at asking what it would require, who needs to be involved, whether the opportunity actually exists and where the weak point is.
That does not always mean saying yes.
One of our recurring conversations has been about audiences: how regional communities discover creative work, why excellent events can still struggle to fill a room and why promotion alone cannot manufacture curiosity.
That tension is useful. I tend to push towards possibility. Alicia has a strong practical streak that asks whether the ecosystem around the idea can actually sustain it.
Making things happen is not the same as agreeing that every idea should happen.
BETTER TOGETHER
Our work started crossing over well beyond Orana Arts.
When I developed Better Together, Alicia came into the team as Creative Community Engagement Lead.
Her role was exactly what the name suggests: connecting regionally based artists and cultural organisations into a broader community project and helping facilitate collaborations.
That is one of the things I keep coming back to in this archive. The arts do not have to sit in their own little box labelled culture.
Artists belong in conversations about wellbeing, place, identity, young people, tourism, community development, education and belonging because creativity is already part of all of those things.
The creative person is not the decoration at the end of the project. They can be part of how the project thinks.
BEYOND THE ORGANISATION
The job title changed. The thread did not.
Alicia is now the former Executive Director of Orana Arts and continues her regional arts work through ARL – Creative Consultancy.
She was also among the regional arts leaders consulted in the development of Heartland, the NSW Government’s plan for regional arts, culture and creative industries for 2026–2035.
And our own conversations have kept moving: Creative to Purpose, artist development, regional storytelling and the emerging Made Out Here idea — not another arts organisation, but infrastructure that helps people discover, develop and connect regional creativity.
It makes sense that Alicia is in that conversation.
THE ECOSYSTEM
Because artists do not flourish alone.
They need each other.
They need audiences. Places. Money. Advice. Producers. Teachers. Administrators. Media. Mentors. Councils. Community. Someone to answer the email. Someone to remember the deadline. Someone willing to make the introduction.
That is why Alicia belongs in The Orana Woman.
Her story is a reminder that supporting creativity is itself creative work.
Sometimes making art possible is the art.
— Sharon