Midsumma Matters: How do the Arts Strengthen LGBTQIA+ Voices in the Global South?

Luz Elena Aranda is a bisexual artivist. She studied Dramatic Literature at UNAM and Ethnology at ENAH, in addition to a technical career in Production in Media and Communication at the Ansel Adams Photography School.

She is the General Director of Las Reinas Chulas Cabaret and Human Rights AC and Director of the International Cabaret Festival. She has worked in different organizations, including ProDesarrollo, Finanzas and Microempresa (where she developed the theatre component for the Methodology for the Incorporation of the Gender Approach in the Mexican Microfinance Institutions MEGIM), Faces and Voices FDS AC (where she created the campaign against poverty I look, I know, I act), and Oxfam Mexico, where she was a consultant for the project Building an integrated approach to inequality: indigenous peoples, rural populations and women victims of violence in Mexico.

She obtained the Leadership Scholarship from the MacArthur Foundation through the Mexican Society for Women's Rights AC (SEMILLAS) and the recognition "Women investing in women" by the same institution. She is part of Generation 54 of the Global Women in Management program: Advancing Women's Economic Opportunities sponsored by CEDPA and EXXON MOBIL.

Karen Bryant is currently the CEO of Midsumma, and has contributed to the arts nationally for over 35 years with extensive experience and networks built as a performer, writer, director, artistic director, programmer, artistic consultant, venue manager and in policy development and funding assessment. She has been in this role with Midsumma for five years and was named by Deloittes within 50 top LGBTQ leaders nationally in 2020/21 and is a current peer assessor for the Australia Council for the Arts. She was Associate Director (Deputy CEO) and Head of Programming at the Adelaide Festival Centre where she had responsibility for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, OzAsia and Adelaide International Guitar Festival as well as a year-long program of theatre, visual arts, dance and music, and responsibility for the management of five venues. As well as Chief Executive at Adelaide Festival of Arts, she previously worked in various capacities with a range of arts organisations including Magpie Theatre Company (writer, director and associate director), Vitalstatistix Theatre Company (Director), CIRKIDZ (Artistic Director), and The State Theatre Company of SA (Director/Physical Theatre Coordinator).

At a national level - she served on Theatre Board and the Youth Panel Advisory Committee of the Australia Council for the Arts, chaired the Loud National Youth Arts and Media Festival Committee for the Commonwealth Government, chaired the National committee for the JUMP arts mentorship program, and has been a member of the National Executive of the Australian Performing Arts Centres Association and a Board Director for Festivals Adelaide.

Professor Daniel X. Harris (they/he) is a transgender playwright, dramaturg, videographer, performance poet and research professor based at RMIT University in Melbourne.

Dan has an MFA and BFA in playwriting/screenwriting from New York University, is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and is the founder of Creative Agency Research Lab, a transdisciplinary community of artists, educators, researchers and activists dedicated to sustainable social change. 

www.creativeresearchhub.com   

Daniel Santangeli is Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Footscray Community Arts, Australia's leading community-engaged arts precinct. Most recently, Daniel was Chair for Outer Urban Projects from 2019 to 2022, a performing arts company working with young people in Melbourne's Northern Suburbs – having been a board member for 8 years.

Prior to his time at Footscray Community Arts, Daniel was Program Manager at Midsumma Festival (2016 – 2019), and previously a producer at Next Wave (2012 – 2016). In 2023, Daniel was one of 24 CEOs participating in the Social Impact Leadership Australia Program, supported by the Sidney Myer Fund and Myer Foundation, Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Daniel has previously participated in Creative Australia and Leadership Victoria leadership programs. He frequently guest hosts Richard Watts’ Smart Arts program on Triple R.