Who is sarah?

2018 Frankie Good Stuff Awards Video Category Winner

2018 Frankie Good Stuff Awards Video Category Winner

Hello

Sarah Firth is an award-winning comic artist, graphic recorder, writer and animator based in Melbourne.

In 2019 Sarah will work on her debut graphic novel thanks to a grant from the Creators Fund program. She is on the lookout for the right publisher for the book - so if you are interested please contact her.

Over the years, some of Sarah’s notable creative achievements have been; in 2006 Sarah was named one of Australia’s top 25 artists aged 25 and under in the 25/25 show by Art & Australia Magazine. In 2007 she received a commission and residency with Carriageworks, followed by a commission from Experimenta Media Arts in 2010.

In 2012 she was awarded the Talking Difference Fellowship at the Immigration Museum, and her animated documentary won a People’s Choice Award in the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival. In 2017 she was in the Yogyakarta Biennale in Indonesia, the Lakes International Comic Festival in the UK and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

In 2018 she received a Frankie Magazine Good Stuff Award, was a finalist in the Incinerator Art Award for Social Change, and her graphic essay on complexity was listed in The Conversation's ten of the best literary comics in Australia. She was also appointed deputy chair on the board of directors for the Cultural Development Network.

In 2019 the anthology Sarah was part of, Neither Here Nor Hair was awarded a Silver Ledger at The Ledger Awards.

Sarah has created a fat stack of self-published comics and zines which are available online. In 2019 she has new being published with Affirm Press, Allen & Unwin, Abrams Books and Picador Australia. Available at most bookshops and online.

Some of my clients

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To be a graphic recorder you need to be great at listening

To be a graphic recorder you need to be great at listening

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The purpose of the association is to advocate for the essential role of arts and cultural expression in the development of creative, healthy, engaged and sustainable communities and support local government cultural development staff and others to assist and resource local communities to make and express their own culture.

SPEAKER

2018

2017

2012 - 2016

  • An Inkpot of Fate Tasmanian Writers Festival

  • Graphic Recording Panel Stanley Awards

  • Human Rights Arts & Film Festival Award Winners Panel

  • Face to Face Project Launch

Films & Animations

2018

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2008 - 2010

Talking art and money on the Starving Artist Podcast

Talking art and money on the Starving Artist Podcast

Publications

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2010 - 2013

MEDIA & INTERVIEWS

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2007 - 2011

 

CURRICULUM VITAE

 

Education

2018: Visual Practice Workshop, systems thinking and professional development with Presencing Institute, Melbourne

2014: EuViz, graphic recording and facilitation training forum, through the International Forum Of Visual Practitioners, Berlin

2011 - 2014: Graphic recording and facilitation training with the difference at PwC, KPMG U-Collaborate and the ASE at Capgemini

2012: 13 week Graduate Animation Intensive at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

2006: Second exchange to Kyoto Seika University, Japan

2005: Scholarship and exchange to LASALLE SIA College of the Arts, Singapore

2004: First exchange to Kyoto Seika University, Japan

2003 – 2006: Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours at the Australian National University, Canberra

 

workshop, teaching, facilitation & festival experience

2016: Carbon Arts Garden of Earthly Delights interactive environmental pledge project at the Castlemaine State Festival

2014 - 2016: Graphic Recording training workshops

2014: Jervis Bay School comic workshop with the ACT Children & Young People Commissioner

2014: IWDA Annual Reflection two-day strategic planning workshop

2013: Australian Red Cross, Australian Volunteers In Development Program, Annual Reflection, two-day strategic planning workshop

2012: Cultural Comic Workshops with the Imagina Museum and the Arquetopia Foundation, in Puebla, Mexico with students ages 6 - 15yrs

2012: Talking Difference Workshops with the Immigration Museum Fellowship with primary school students aged 10 – 12yrs

2012: Bondi Pavilion Animation Classes series of three-day animation intensive workshops with children and teenagers aged 10 – 16yrs

2010-2011: Face to Face comic drawing workshops with the Cultural Council in Springvale and local primary school groups of children aged 5 – 12yrs

 

Selected awards, Grants, commissions and residencies

2019: Neither Here Nor Hair awarded Silver Ledger, at The Ledger Awards

2018: Grant from the Creators Fund program for the research and development of a graphic novel.

2018: Finalist in the Incinerator Art Award: Art For Social Change 2018

2018: Winner of the Frankie Magazine Good Stuff Awards in the Video category, for my animation

2018: Comic collection Short Shorts finalist in the Ledger Awards

2017: Krack! Studio Residency, Jogjakarta, Indonesia with The Comic Art Workshop

2016: HEADSHOTS - official selection of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival

2016: PLAN poster Civil Society Innovation Award

2015: First Prize winner at the BrunswickArts Show

2015: The Comic Art Workshop Residency

2014: Winner at the SquishFace Studio Coaster Show

2013: Wake Up, (mini-comic) nominated for the Ledger Awards

2013: Crafting Pathways, a documentary about the Wellsprings For Women Inc. Centre, funded by the Margaret Lawrence Bequest

2012: Gentlemen, Please! was selected as a finalist in the Peninsula Short Film Festival, Rosebud, VIC

2012: People’s Choice Award Face to Face: Children’s Stories, in the Australian Shorts section of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival ACMI, VIC

2012: Arquetopia Artist in Residency in Oaxaca and Puebla, Mexico

2012: Chantilly Studios Artist in Residency, Nicholson Building, Melbourne

2011: Awarded the Talking Difference Fellowship at the Immigration Museum, Melbourne, VIC

2010-2011: Artist in residency with the Cultural Council in Springvale VIC as part of their Face to Face project

2010: SELF animation, selected as a finalist in the National Youth Portrait Prize, the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

2010: Commissioned to make a drawing machine by Experimenta Media Arts, Melbourne

2009: CAPO Grant, Canberra

2009: Winner of the CCAS Copy Cat Show, Manuka CCAS Gallery, Canberra

2009: Solander Gallery Art Prize, Tuggeranong RYA, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra

2009: Y-Fronts in the Wind, finalist in Canberra Short Film Festival, DENDY Short Seasons and winner of Best Screenplay made for Lights! Canberra! Action! 

2007: Commission - drawing machine for Performing Objects and Machines, Carriage Works Sydney

2006: Selected for 25/25: Australia’s top 25 artists aged 25 and under, sponsored and selected by Art & Australia in collaboration with Noise, Sydney

2006: Awarded exhibitions at The Front Gallery, The Hive and The Grammar School Gallery through the Emerging Artist’s Scheme

2006: Awarded the LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts Singapore Scholarship, Singapore

2006: Awarded the ANU Nigel Thompson Travelling Scholarship, Canberra

 

Selected group exhibitions, Fairs, performances and festival screenings

2018: Incinerator Art Award: Art For Social Change 2018

2018: The Other Art Fair, F*EMS (Females For Equality Making Stuff) Artist Collective

2018: Inner Atmospheres, Perth International Comic Festival

2017: Yogyakarta Biennale, The Comic Art Workshop

2017: Lakes International Comic Art Festival

2017: Indigenous Literacy Foundation Silent Auction, Penguin Random House, North Sydney

2017: National Gallery of Victoria, Australian Zine Showcase at the Melbourne Art Book Fair

2017: GUTTERS Perth Fringe Festival

2016 - 2018: Festival of The Photocopier, Melbourne Town Hall

2015: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Zine Fair

2015: SUPERGRAPH Melbourne Exhibition Centre

2014: 40x40 Show, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy, Melbourne

2014: Crafting Pathways screened at the Wellsprings 20th Anniversary, Dandenong, Melbourne

2014: The Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts Postcard Show, St Kilda, Melbourne

2013: Crafting Pathways screened at the End of the Line Festival, Belgrave, Melbourne

2013: Los errores en México screened at the YOU ARE HERE Festival, Canberra

2013: Face to Face: Children’s Stories in the Long Shorts Screening at the Shadow Electric at the Abbotsford Convent

2012: Illuminations, Jitter Festival, Bondi Pavilion, Contemporary Australian Animation

2012: Face to Face: Children’s Stories in the Australian Shorts section of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival ACMI            

2012: Face to Face: Children’s Stories, Bondi Pavilion Festival Sydney, SOHO Shorts in London and the Human Rights Festival in Melbourne

2011: Face to Face: Children’s Stories, 7th RENDERYARD Film Festival, in La Rioja, Spain, GENERATION NEXT at NOVA Cinema, Melbourne.

2011: RE: http://regarding.com.au/artwork/ a 7 month online gallery project

2010: Reflex – the mechanical poetry of kinetic sculpture, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney CBD

2010: For my sister, Blank Space Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney

2010: Reflex – the mechanical poetry of kinetic sculpture, M16 Artspace, Fyshwick, Canberra

2010: Akin to, The Front Gallery, Lyneham, Canberra

2008: Tableaux Attic, M16 Artspace, Fyshwick, Canberra

2008: Red Shoes presents: Tableaux Vivants, Peepshow, The Front Galley, Canberra

2007: Nico & Claudette, The Fringe Festival Canberra

2007: Performing Objects and Machines, Carriage Works, Sydney

2006: 25/25: Australia’s top 25 artists aged 25 and under, Art on Bourke, Surry Hills

2006: UrbaNONurban, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore

 

Solo exhibitions

2015: HEADSHOTS BrunswickArts

2011: Attraction, Red Gallery, North Fitzroy, Melbourne

2008: Drawn, CGS Gallery, Red Hill, Canberra

2007: Can I Kiss You? Photospace Gallery, ANU, Canberra