We’re excited to announce the eight successful applicants who will be undertaking paid internships as part of Ripple, the Disability and Culturally Diverse Internship Program for 2025 led by Accessible Arts and run in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia and a range of arts, cultural and screen organisations across NSW and the ACT.
Congratulations to Aisyah Sumito, Ava Lacoon, Daley Rangi, Katerina Asistin, Lina Ali, Soph Li Rong, Sufiya Naqvi and Taryn Lee on being selected. They will each be undertaking an exciting internship at one of our partnering cultural organisations, including the Art Gallery of NSW, UTP, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, APRA AMCOS, Powerhouse Museum, Campbelltown Arts Centre and the National Portrait Gallery.
“This is an exciting opportunity to gain valuable insights into the kinds of organisations and work available in the arts and cultural sector, whilst forming connections as emerging creative sector workers,” says Liz Martin, CEO of Accessible Arts.
“This is a significant program, and we’re confident that increasing the representation of arts workers who live at the intersection of disability and cultural diversity will result in many important outcomes for these communities and the creative sector,” says Lena Nahlous, CEO of Diversity Arts Australia.
Thanks to everyone who applied for this competitive program and congratulations again to the selected interns.
Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Internship Participants:
Aisyah Sumito – Internship at APRA AMCOS
Aisyah Sumito is a malay-anglo poet, sound artist, gallery technician and community organiser operating towards a provision of tools for collective liberation; which manifests in different ways from the dinner table, through the club and to the gallery. Their threads of research are woven slowly through contemporary and ancestral understandings of gender, disability justice, collective healing and embodied ritual. As an organiser they work to value the cultural context of any producers, musicians and artists that they play and work with. They perform under a few different monikers (such as aaqila or halalbutch), sometimes organise small solidarity fundraisers, write prolifically, experiment with sound and waft in other performative capacities.
Ava Lacoon – Internship at the Art Gallery of NSW
Ava Lacoon (she/they) is a Queer, Disabled, Crip, Anglo-Asian, (forever) emerging writer, curator and arts worker living on Sovereign Gadigal Land. Their practice is shaped by the expansive methodologies of Anti-colonial, Queer and Crip Studies and focuses on facilitating spaces that enable community connection and chase the horizon of potentiality. Ava recently Guest Edited ‘Hyphen’ – Artlink’s Warlati/ Summer (December 2024-March 2025) Issue. They won the Kudos Emerging Writer Award in 2024 for her work ‘gURLs NVR die on the Internet’ and have been published by Artlink, Memo and the National Gallery of Australia among others.
Daley Rangi – Internship at the Art Gallery of NSW
Daley Rangi (they/he/ia) is a shapeshifter, a Te Ātiawa Māori artist at large. Joyfully unpredictable, they generate antidisciplinary works investigating language and memory, speaking truth to power.
Katerina Asistin – Internship at Campbelltown Arts Centre
Katerina Asistin is a Filipino-Australian emerging artist based in Dharug/Western Sydney. Drawing from her upbringing in Mount Druitt, her practice focuses on the overlooked details of suburban life. Through oil painting, she captures familiar scenes—empty parking lots, street corners, and residential areas—evoking a sense of nostalgia and belonging. Through a quiet attention to overlooked suburban spaces, Asistin’s work reflects on how environments not only shape memory and identity but also create a deep sense of belonging and emotional connection to communities.
Lina Ali – Internship at UTP
Lina Ali is an Indian-Australian writer from Parramatta. She is currently completing her Honours thesis on postcolonial South Asian literature at the University of Sydney alongside completing a Bachelor of Islamic Studies at Charles Sturt University. Lina has been published with the Sydney Opera House, Meanjin Quarterly, SAARI Collective and SBS Voices. Her writing primarily explores the intersections between religion, culture, neurodiversity and gender.
Soph Li Rong – Internship at Powerhouse Museum
Soph Li Rong (they/them) is a Singaporean emerging creative living in so-called ‘Sydney’. They are currently studying Computer Science/Media Arts and interested in the intersection of technology, queerness and representations of the body. Their practice spans moving image, performance, writing and creative code.
Sufiya Naqvi – Internship at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Sufiya Naqvi is an Australian Pakistani filmmaker and content creator from Western Sydney. She is passionate about using filmmaking and media to create meaningful connections and produce work that compels inspirational and positive change. Recently, Sufiya was recognised as one of the “Honorable Mentions” in the Global Open Video Call (Kindness as a Common Ground) by Fine Acts and has experience working as a Production Assistant in the Play School production team during the Createability Internship in 2024. Sufiya is also an eager and curious learner, keen to bring life to projects that give visibility to underrepresented and diverse stories.
Taryn Lee – Internship at the National Portrait Gallery
Taryn Lee recently moved from Perth to Canberra, where they study Public Policy and Applied Data Analytics. On the side, they run a small art business selling hairclips, acrylic keychains, stickers and other items such as badges for the disability community. They’ve always loved visual arts – they were the kid who hung out in the art room at lunch. They believe that art is a powerful storytelling medium, and they are excited to help tell Australian stories at the National Portrait Gallery.
This program is supported by the Commonwealth Government Department of Social Services.