After a yawning summer break, Lemonade is back for 2025. Stretching into this new year, I’m excited to be welcoming new faces and perspectives to Lemonade’s Advisory. 

Dr Melinda Mann is a Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman based in Rockhampton, Queensland. She has been the First Nations Art Officer at the Rockhampton Museum of Art since 2021, focusing on audience engagement, Indigenous programming and governance. Melinda is also an academic and researcher at Central Queensland University. Melinda will fill the new role of First Nations Advisor.

Carrie McCarthy⎯widely known by her handle @culturalflanerie⎯is a Meanjin (Brisbane)-based writer, curator and arts administrator, and the Collection Manager at Griffith University Art Museum. She is the co-editor of ‘Deborah Kelly: Creation’ (Brisbane: Griffith University Art Museum, 2022), and was editorial assistant on the multi-award-winning ‘Richard Bell Reader’ publications for Documenta and Tate London (Brisbane: Griffith University Art Museum, 2022 and 2023). Her writing has been included in various publications such as Art Almanac, Artlines, The Big Smoke, Lemonade: Letters to Art, Mamamia, andVault Magazine. Carrie joins Kit Kriewaldt as Editorial Advisor.

Sarah Thomson is an artsworker and curator living on Butchulla Country. She is currently the Director of Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, leading a passionate team to deliver contemporary art exhibitions and contextually engaged programming in regional Queensland. Hannah Williamson is a curator based in South East Queensland. She is currently the curator at City of Moreton Bay where she curates the exhibition program for Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, Redcliffe Art Gallery and Pine Rivers Art Gallery. Sarah and Hannah join Jonathan McBurnie as Regional Ambassadors.

Also new to Lemonade is Felix Cehak as mentor for emerging writers. In this role, Felix joins Emma McClean. My enduring thanks to Rosie Bird who keeps Lemonade’s website up and running.

I also extend my warmest thanks to outgoing Advisors Michelle Vine, Access and Inclusion; Louise Martin-Chew, Editorial;  Elliott Bledsoe, Marketing; and Madeline Brewer, Regional Ambassador. Thank you for the warmth and generosity of your expertise, your enthusiasm and encouragement, your collegiality and commitment to celebrating Queensland art. You have shaped and spurred Lemonade and I am so grateful to have worked with you.

The year ahead feels rich with possibilities. I am so looking forward to working with new writers, discovering and deepening my knowledge of regional practices, and hearing more from you, the readers. 

Warmest always, Louise

They’re just silly artists
With nothing better to do
They teach all day
They work half the night
The kids are in bed and fed
The homework’s done
Bills paid
Nice-to-do-things

They have degrees these artists
Can you believe!
From art schools in our universities
Some Masters and PHDs
Nice-things-to-do
WHAT DO THEY DO?
They are just silly artists with nothing better to do

We have real degrees
We are professionals
We run these universities
Not like those silly artists
How silly is that
WHAT?
Really, they have degrees, how could that be?
Clever, creative, innovative with rigor
Are you talking about ME!

The university has a gallery you know
One of the premier institutions in our state
Showcasing commitment and excellence
For everyone to see

They have outstanding exhibitions, that make you think

Oh!
Sorry
HAD

Don’t worry those silly artists won’t be shown
When the world is watching us in eight years-time, in 2032

What will visitors do in our little town
A cultural desert
With everything shutting down
Will they frown on our narrow views
But I guess, they are just silly tourists with nothing better to do
That is right just nice-things-to-do

Editor’s note: Mona Ryder’s poem responds to QUT’s plans to cut all 2025 QUT Art Museum planning amid extensive budget cuts to the museum. Read more about the decision via NAVA. A petition to overturn the decision may be read and signed on Change.org.

For the second year running, Lemonade is excited to be planning coverage of eight Graduate Exhibitions across the sunshine state.

Lemonade Grad Show reviews promise fascinating insights into hyper-emerging trends and artists to watch. They are almost exclusively the first time exhibiting artists have been reviewed, critiqued, or written about. And they offer QLD-based artists unique national reach.

We are seeking funds to make this extended coverage possible. 100% of funds raised go directly to writers.

Become a Patreon or Email Lemonade to make a one-off contribution.