People

Donna Orazio is Chair of Everybody NOW! and is passionate about the power of the arts to build connection, foster belonging and strengthen communities.

Working across the arts and education sectors, she brings extensive experience in governance, strategy and partnerships, underpinned by a belief that creativity can connect, challenge and transform. Donna is deeply committed to supporting Everybody NOW!’s vision and long-term sustainability, helping create opportunities for artists, communities and collaborators to thrive. She is committed to helping the organisation grow with intention and integrity, while continuing to deepen its impact locally, nationally and internationally.

Donna is inspired by the unique “Everybody NOW! way” – a creative kinship grounded in optimism, trust and shared purpose and is proud to support an organisation that contributes to a more connected, compassionate and hopeful society.

Tara is a Lawyer and Commercial Counsel who runs her own business, Hastings Consultancy. She is currently a Director of Aquis Park, home of the Gold Coast Turf Club and Event Centre and General Counsel and Board Secretary to Racing Queensland.

Luke Harriman is the General Manager of Performing Arts Connections Australia (PAC Australia), the national peak body that supports performing arts creators and presenters. Over the last two decades, he has worked in various roles such as programming, producing, management, tour development, and not-for-profit boards, with organizations such as Brisbane Powerhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane City Council, and Flipside Circus. Luke is committed to bringing people together, building effective teams, and nurturing new opportunities for the sector. Previously, he was the Manager of Gympie Venues and Events and worked as the Creative Broker for Queensland’s centre of contemporary touring, arTour.

Dr. Kuljit Singh,  (a GP on the Gold Coast), is a strong advocate for social prescribing (connecting people back into community activities/resources/groups to improve their health and wellbeing). She  believes it is the solution to our crises of social isolation, loneliness and chronic medical conditions (physical and mental), and knows that connecting communities through various art-forms is one mode of doing just this!

Her mission is being accomplished by her presence in various Boards with the same aligned vision of improving the biopsychosocial wellbeing of individuals and society at large through preventative, lifestyle interventions like social prescriptions. She is the national chair for RACGP Social Prescribing SIG, primary care expert panel chair for ASPIRE, Board Director for ASLM and City of Gold Coast 2032 Sports and Health Strategy Advisory Group Member.

Having participated in EverybodyNow’s Commonwealth Games Festival & KidsWhoRock, she has seen firsthand the power of connection and the magic that this team can bring to any stage and community! 

Andy is a highly experienced finance specialist with a range of clients across industries. He provides businesses with CFO services and project-based consultancy. His background as a financial director and general manager for a number of creative and digital agencies makes him well placed to understand the unique strategic challenges faced by these organisations.

He provides financial planning & consultancy, P&L and cash flow forecasting, budgeting, product & service, pricing & margin analysis, implementation of new finance processes and systems, building business cases for new investment opportunities and resource management and operations. Andy lives and runs his business from Elanora, on the Gold Coast.

Ian Pidd is a freelance director of theatre and festivals and Co-Director of Everybody NOW. His work tends to be musical, accessible, playful and genre hopping, and is regularly seen throughout Australia and in Europe, US and Asia.
Ian co-created and co-directed Passenger with Jessica Wilson, a work in which an audience experience a contemporary western revenge tragedy from within a bus moving, which had a hit season in Melbourne, London’s Greenwich and Docklands Festival and at Sydney’s Art And About. He directed Sam Halmarack and JOF’s ecstatic participatory music work We Are Lightning which garnered a Green Room nomination and toured the UK in winning a Judges Choice award at Dublin Fringe.

Ian was project director on Polyglot’s First On The Ladder project and, the 2021 Green Room Award Winning work Big Day In, where musicians performed outside locked-down aged care homes. He was the Artistic Director of Back To Back Theatre and project Director for Snuff Puppets and Men Of Steel. He has had a long involvement in large scale music festivals and was the Arts Programmer at The Falls for over a decade.

Ian is a Churchill Fellow and was the inaugural recipient of Melbourne Fringe’s Living Legend Award.

Kate Baggerson is a highly experienced executive leader in the arts and cultural sector, having worked across a range of arts organisations, not-for-profits and community cultural development initiatives Australia wide.

She is the Co-Founder, Executive Director and Board Director of Australian Arts Organisation Everybody NOW, where she has strategically guided the company through a highly successful period of growth since formation in 2015, reaching over 85,000 people in 250 communities across Australia.

Kate has a passion for community placemaking, social impact and telling stories that make us who we are, and who we can become, through participatory and immersive creative experiences where audiences, artists and communities are co-creators.

This passion has formed much of her professional career, having led, directed, created, and produced many large-scale arts projects across theatre, dance, music and community-engaged arts practice.

She has worked for leading national arts organisations such as; Salamanca Arts Centre Hobart, MONA FOMA Festival, Tasmanian Regional Arts, Woodford Folk Festival, Garma Festival, HOTA Home of the Arts, and Bleach* Festival.

As Associate Director of Bleach* Festival (2016 – 2018) on the Gold Coast, she oversaw many large-scale, site specific projects with significant community participation and complex stakeholder relations. In her role she guided the festival programming and production teams to see the smooth and successful delivery of festival program.

At Woodford Folk Festival, Australia’s largest festival of its kind, Kate was a senior staff member for several years, involved in the programming and developing and producing the festival’s large-scale commissions including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, presented to crowds of 18,000 and involving casts of 2000 people.

She is experienced working cross-culturally and in a variety of community contexts. Kate is a strong communicator and strategic thinker recognised for her ability to bring diverse groups of people together around a shared purpose, and to raise the resources and partnerships required to deliver those shared aspirations.

Bec Reid is an Australian based performer, producer, director, choreographer and engagement specialist.

Bec encourages people to see their world in new ways through highly physical, participatory, practical, collaborative and celebratory actions. For 20 years, Bec has passionately worked in the space where professional artists and communities of interest meet; collaborating with communities and artists nationally and internationally.

Together with Tristan Meecham, Bec leads All The Queens Men, and is a founding Director of Everybody NOW! with Kate Baggerson and Ian Pidd. She also regularly collaborates with acclaimed artists Madeline Flynn and Tim Humphrey.

In 2017-18, Bec was a Fellowship recipient from the Australia Council for the Arts.

Bec has continually served on arts boards and regularly mentors young and emerging artists formally and informally. Bec’s true loves are Staffordshire Bull Terriers Italo Disco, Ceilidhs and dancing.

Pru Wilson is an experienced producer, choreographer, dancer, director, photographer, videographer, adjudicator, dance convenor and stage manager.  Over the past 14 years Pru has worked in Melbourne and London before returning to the Gold Coast in late 2017.

Pru joined Everybody NOW! as a project producer in 2021, hitting the road for You Should Be Dancing Rockhampton and The Inaugural Annual Dance Affair Cairns. In 2022 she was formally appointed as Everybody NOW!’s Company Producer where dived straight into overseeing major new works, such as Those Who Rock presented by HOTA Home of the Arts, Roller Coaster as Company in Residence at Bleach Festival, and Everybody NOW’s national slam poetry program for seniors, Gran Slam.

She is also Producer with the Gold Coast Eisteddfod as well as runs her own photography and freelance choreography business. Some of her recent performing arts credits include: Producer Supercell Contemporary of Contemporary Dance – Makers Program, Gold Palm Theatre award recipient for her choreography on St. Hilda’s Musical – Matilda 2021, Performer ‘How To Spell Love’ – Brisbane Festival 2020 & QLD poetry festival 2019, Performer and collaborator on Matilda Award winning ‘Inside Out’ contemporary dance work by Tammy Zarb and Co – Bleach Festival 2019, Artist creating ‘Circular World’, Rage Against The Virus – HOTA 2020.

Stephanie Pickett is an experienced Marketing and Communications professional with over a decade specialising in arts, culture, and music.

She has delivered bold campaigns as part of dynamic marketing teams at HOTA, Home of the Arts and La Boite Theatre Company, as well as the leading the marketing, strategy and entrepreneurship of her own music project, Ella Fence, where she merges her love for music and marketing to connect with fans and build a unique brand.

With a Bachelor of Popular Music and a Master’s in Marketing & PR, she’s as sharp with strategy as she is with creativity.

Her passion for the arts and live performance keeps her on her toes, always thinking of new ways to engage and excite audiences, crafting exciting digital content, building unique brands and communicating with purpose.

Chrissy Keepence is a multi-disciplinary creative with over two decades of experience in event management, community building, and arts engagement including recently as Front of House Manager and Festival Administrator for the Gold Coast’s Bleach Festival and Big City Lights.

She is also a passionate Swing Dancer, Vintage Stylist and a driving force in her the family-run charity, Beauties Feeling Fabulous, who deliver year-round pamper days for women living with a cancer diagnosis.

With a background that spans luxury brand events, high-profile festivals, and unique cultural experiences, Chrissy approaches every project with a formula of hard work, integrity, and community focus.

Her strategic thinking, creative vision, and leadership skills have shaped her reputation as a results-driven, people-centred professional, with an unwavering commitment to creating meaningful connections within the community.

Chrissy first joined Everybody NOW! as a performer with Everybody NOW! in 2015 and in what she is calling a ‘full circle moment’ is joining the company in anticipation for their 10-year anniversary in 2025.