01 / Purpose
Mission
To create space for diasporic, culturally diverse, Indigenous and grassroots creative practices through contemporary art, exhibitions, projects and exchange.
Who we are
ABOUT PRESENT ASCENDANTS
Digital Creative + Cultural Platform
Present Ascendants is a digital creative and cultural platform bringing together diasporic, culturally diverse, Indigenous and grassroots artists through contemporary art, exhibitions and exchange.
We’re building relationships, creating connections and seeing what can grow from them.
At the centre of the platform is the idea of Present Ascendance - recognising that we are shaped by what came before us, active in shaping the present, and part of what others will inherit.
Culture and identity are not always carried forward in a straight line. They can be maintained, fragmented, questioned, reconnected, transformed and created anew.
Present Ascendants creates space for these stories, practices and experiences to be seen, shared and brought into conversation.
02 / Direction
Vision
A creative landscape where diasporic, culturally diverse, Indigenous and grassroots artists are visible, connected and able to shape what comes next.
What guides us
Our core values
01
Cultural respect
We respect the distinct cultures, histories, knowledge and lived experiences peoples carry.
02
Creativity
We value creative practice as a way to express, question, remember and imagine.
03
Connection
We create space for artists, communities and ideas to connect across cultures and places.
04
Reciprocity
We build relationships through mutual respect, exchange and shared value.
05
Community
We believe meaningful creative work grows through relationships, participation and shared experience.
How we work
Our approach
We begin with the artist and the work.
Each artist brings their own story, identity, culture and experience. We create space for those differences while opening opportunities for connection and exchange.
Dialogue & exchange
Connecting across places
Connection doesn’t have to depend on being in the same place.
Present Ascendants uses digital space to bring artists and creative practices from different places into conversation - creating opportunities for exchange and connection across borders.
Leadership
Founder
MAÏA CALCI
Founder + Creative Director
Maïa is a visual artist, recording artist, music producer and arts educator with more than a decade of experience across creative practice, secondary education, programme development and cultural engagement.
She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts), with a minor in Music Studies, and a Graduate Diploma in Education from Queensland University of Technology.
Her professional experience spans arts curriculum and programme development, exhibitions, community engagement and partnerships with artists, cultural practitioners and organisations. Her work has included leading Visual Art, Media Arts and First Nations Cultural Arts education and developing culturally responsive programmes connecting creative practice, culture, Country, identity and community.
Of mixed Calabrian and Coloured South African heritage, with Indigenous Khoisan roots, and raised within a multicultural family, her experiences of diaspora, cultural fragmentation and reconnection have shaped an ongoing exploration of identity, belonging and lineage. Researching her family history and returning to South Africa deepened these questions around what we inherit, what becomes disconnected or transformed, and what we choose to carry forward.
Living and working in multicultural Australia further shaped her interest in how cultures can exist alongside one another without always meaningfully connecting, and in the possibilities that emerge when different cultural perspectives meet through creative practice.
These personal and professional experiences helped give rise to Present Ascendance - an awareness of what has shaped us, our agency in the present, and our responsibility for what we contribute and carry forward.
Present Ascendants is emerging from these foundations - creating space for artists across cultures and places to connect through contemporary creative practice and exchange.