Designed in honour of TNA founding board members Simon Abrahams (Chair) and Alice Nash (Deputy Chair), this bursary encourages and enables a break-through independent artist or producer to continue adding their voice to the Australian performing arts sector. TNA acknowledges that these vital contributions are often a result of many unpaid hours engaging with the broader performing arts sector.

We are thrilled to announce that the 2022 SMASH bursary will be awarded to Samantha Martin.

Samantha is an independent creative producer and arts worker with a decade-spanning career across cultural festivals, technical production, public art, independent film and screen, circus arts, and community development. Following a fateful start as a venue manager at her local Fringe World Festival, she has gone on to work across Australia and the UK with a dedicated focus on accessibility, inclusion and community care. She has been recognised for her work in founding grassroots, social impact cultural projects including the chronically ill and disability-led circus company Get Well Soon, Safer Venues WA, Melbourne Fringe’s 2018 Venue of the Year ‘Camp Conscious Collective’, and The Invisible Illness Project. A recent graduate of NIDA’s Masters of Cultural Leadership, Samantha’s research is grounded in accessibility and inclusion arts models, which she champions through her advocacy and emerging creative producer practice.

This award acknowledges the many unpaid hours she spends, not only in her own producing work, but in the pursuit of a fairer sector for independent artists living with chronic pain, illness, and disability. We hope it might inspire her to keep up her work and continue her valuable work as an advocate, producer and emerging leader.