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How NIDA’s MFA (Cultural Leadership) is helping Merindah Donnelly change the arts sector for the better

The BlakDance Executive Producer and Co-CEO says studying and analysing different forms of cultural leadership at NIDA has had significant professional benefits.

29 Aug 2025 11:12

Richard Watts

‘GARABARI’ by Joel Bray Dance was supported by BlakDance through the BlakForm program. Three First Nations dancers perform a floor-based section of movement in a photograph illustrating a story about NIDA's MFA (Cultural Leadership) program.

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‘GARABARI’ by Joel Bray Dance was supported by BlakDance through the BlakForm program. Photo: Jeff Busby.

Having already transitioned from a dance career to working as a senior arts administrator, Wiradjuri woman Merindah Donnelly, the Co-CEO and Executive Producer of peak body BlakDance, knew she wanted to further her education, but found that none of the tertiary institutions approaching her were quite the right fit.

‘I really wanted to focus on [a course] that meant something to me,’ Donnelly tells ArtsHub.

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts

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