Exhibits,

Farewelling Director, Channon Goodwin

Bus Projects’ outgoing Director, Channon Goodwin. Photograph: Tom Ross.

After a decade of deep and invested work, our Director, Channon Goodwin will be leaving Bus Projects to take up a PhD position at RMIT University, further pursuing his research into artist-led forms of organisation-building and collectivist practice. Channon has made a profound contribution to Bus Projects and leaves behind an exceptional legacy of sector leadership, advocacy and artistic excellence.

Channon joined Bus Projects in 2012 at a time of significant change for the organisation. Between 2012-2021, Channon led Bus Projects through an ambitious period of organisational growth, significantly expanding our artistic program, consolidating our operational capacity through multi-year funding for the first time, and expanding our staffing structure with the establishment of 3 part-time roles, including a Director and two Curators.

In 2019, and in collaboration with Bus Projects’ curators Nina Mulhall and Kathryne Honey, Channon led the organisation’s relocation to Collingwood Yards, a new, permanent and affordable home for artists and independent arts organisations, situated in the former Collingwood Technical School campus. Through this move, we achieved our long-held goal of eliminating the fee-to-exhibit model, allowing us to invest more resources into artists than ever before.

Remaining committed to collectivist and collaborative practice and forms of artist-led organisation-building, Channon is embarking on a PhD at RMIT University. His research will focus on artist-led approaches to new forms of social and economic organisation in the visual arts sector. He will also continue to develop Composite Moving Image Agency & Media Bank, a new organisation dedicated to supporting artists’ moving image practices through exhibition, research, education and distribution.

Nella Themelios, Chair of the Bus Projects Board, said of Channon’s deep impact on the organisation:

“Channon has made a profound contribution to Bus Projects, presiding over a decade of consistent organisational growth. He has worked alongside more than 1000 artists to present over 700 exhibitions, while securing substantial operational and project funding leading to significant organisational achievements, such as the removal of the fee-to-exhibit model.

He has championed artists’ creative agency within our programs, the recognition of art as a common good, and advocated for recognition of the value of artist-run organisations through the founding of the All Conference network. In addition to his work at Bus Projects, Channon has contributed extensively to the arts sector as an advocate and a generous collaborator. We are so thrilled for Channon to be starting a new chapter in his career and wish him every success in the future.”