Jodee Mundy Collaborations is an independent creative producing company formed in 2012, in response to the multiple collaborations and partnerships established and continuing to develop with artists, diverse communities, organisations and funders.
Artistic Director Jodee Mundy OAM is committed to producing high quality theatre works, public events, installations and artistic interventions, bringing together diverse cross sections of the community who may not regularly encounter one another.
Jodee was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2020 for her service to the Performing Arts. Jodee is the Recipient of two Green Room Awards: Innovative Theatre Award in 2000 and the other for Innovation in Experiential Theatre 2017. In 2019, her work was nominated for 4 Green Room Awards for Writing, Best Production, Best Visual design and Best direction. In 2019, she was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Visual/ Physical Production and also, a podcast she collaborated on was nominated for a Whickers Award for Best radio play. Her artistic aim is for audiences to witness works that challenge and inspire them to acknowledge: the value of live performance and community and the ability for the art to redefine and skew the notions of inclusiveness. Her work ultimately points to a future ‘beyond inclusion’, where diversity is inherently valuable to the art. Rather than a point of difference, it is considered a point of commonality.
Jodee Mundy OAM is an interdisciplinary artist and creative director. Committed to producing high quality theatre works, public events, installations, festivals and artistic interventions, her works bring together diverse cross sections of the community who may not regularly encounter one another. Jodee is a Coda (Child of Deaf adults) the only person who hears as everyone in her immediate family is Deaf. Her native language is Auslan and English is her second language. In 2019, Jodee was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and is having ongoing treatment for the rest of her life. She has recently begun to identify as a disabled artist.
Her early work includes: Pigeonhole (White Night Melbourne) and When Claude Met Roxy (Brisbane Festival). She directed for Snuff Puppets, performed with Strange Fruit and co- founded Deaf Arts Network (Arts Access Victoria). In the UK, she worked with Deafinitely Theatre, Graeae Theatre and BBC TV. A company member of Polyglot Theatre since 2007, performing in We Built This City, Tangle, Paper Planet, Ants and Bellbird, touring worldwide.
In 2012, Jodee formed, Jodee Mundy Collaborations, an independent creative producing company formed in response to the dynamic collaborations she had established with artists, diverse communities, organisations and funders. Awarded the Australia Council Structured Mentorship in Community Partnerships, in 2014, Jodee’s works have attracted significant support.
Her works include: ‘Imagined Touch’, created with Deafblind performers, culminating into a live show, installation, research report and documentary. Premiering at Arts House and then at Sydney Festival, this toured to the UK last November, presented as part of Spill Festival of Performance, at the Barbican Centre. With sell out seasons and reviews to critical acclaim, Imagined Touch received a Green Room Award for Innovation in Experiential Theatre.
Another work, ‘A Sanctuary in the City’, was an installation created with primary carers attracting over two thousand of the general public to reflect on how people can care for themselves better. Commissioned by City of Melbourne.
In 2018, Jodee premiered a solo multimedia performance called ‘Personal’ which premiered at Arts House exploring her experience as the only hearing person in her Deaf family. Presented in Auslan and English, Personal presented at the Sydney Opera House, toured nine venues in regional Victoria and to Darwin Festival. Personal was nominated for a UK Whickers Award 2018, four Green Room Awards for Production, Writing, Direction and Design and for a Helpmanns Award for Best Visual or Physical Production in 2019.
In 2018, Jodee was artist in residence at La Boite Theatre and Artist in Residence at Arts Centre Melbourne in 2019. Jodee now works as the Head of Festival and Events for the City of Darebin. She is the inaugural and founding Director of FUSE, an exciting and new contemporary arts festival which premiered in 2020 and runs twice a year each Autumn and Spring.
In 2020, the Tarrawarra Museum of Art and Victoria Together commissioned Jodee to create a short film called, “Killing Time” featuring her partner and two small children, exploring their time during the pandemic as they lived through the six lock down periods in Melbourne. It is a colourful, intense and dynamic film and creatively captioned.
She has been a peer assessor for the Australia Council, for Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne and for the City of Darebin and sits on a number of advisory panels.
Jodee trained at Ecole De Mime Corporeal Dramatiquein London, in Animateuring at the VCA, in Solo Arts Practice at Victoria University and in Interpreting and Translation of British Sign Language at the University of Central Lancashire. She is a Fellow of the Future Leaders program at the Centre of Sustainable Leadership. Jodee received the 2019 Scholarship to study a Masters in Fine Art- Cultural Leadership at NIDA.
In 2020, Jodee was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Australia Day 2020 Honours List. She was recognised with this national honour for her Service to the Performing Arts.