Mariam Ella Arcilla (she/her) Living and working on Gadigal/Sydney
Pronounced: Mar-yum Ell-lah Ar-seel-yahA drawing of me by artist Hannah Smith, gifted as a surprise with a note to use this as a visual bio of the work I do. I’m wearing a batwing dress with purple and pink stockings, stamped with a metallic brooch, a necklace of coins, and a polka-dot coloured hat. I’m smiling, cheeks are blushed, arms in the air catching vibes.
My name is Mariam Ella Arcilla and I’m a Filipino-Singaporean arts & culture worker oscillating between community organising, writing, editing, project curating, digital strategy, and arts communications. Since 2006, I have managed galleries, artist-run collectives, publications, placemaking initiatives, and knowledge-trading projects. I also profile fascinating people for a range of publications and projects.
I was raised in a household of Filipino artists and creative cooks, so I spent my childhood making zines, selling treats from my family’s bakery, and helping my father mix paint. I immigrated to Australia in 1996 and today I work elastically with artists and organisations to turn radiant ideas into dialogues, programs, and resources.
Currently, I run Magenta House, a domestic gathering space and knowledge-trading platform that comes alive through workshops, talks, coworking sessions, test kitchens, soirées, an open-access library and a shop. I’m also the guest editor for Debris Magazine Issue 05 alongside Jazz Money. Previous to this, I have edited for fine print, 4A Papers, Runway Journal, and Brisbane Art & Design festival. I’m also a cultural researcher who profiles art, design and architecture. My texts are published in Running Dog, Art Guide, MeMo Review, Home of the Arts, Vault, Art Collector, Broadsheet, Neue Luxury, Scenestr, ACCLAIM, as well as on arts websites. As a UX writer, I’ve produced content for the food, tech, transport and government sectors as I like bouncing between dimensions.
I’ve held senior appointments at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Queensland Government, Arts Queensland, Museum of Brisbane, and STATION Australia. During this time, I led and co-designed strategies, programs, podcasts, and campaigns for exhibitions, partner institutions, festivals, digital infrastructures, and creative tech.
As an arts commentator, I have facilitated talks for Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Museum of Contemporary Art, Arts Queensland, and Verge Gallery, and have appeared on panels for ABC TV, Home of the Arts, QUT Art Museum, and Arts Northern Rivers. In 2023, I completed the Creative Leadership program at Creative Australia and was an arts mentor at Parramatta Artists Studios and Outer Space. In 2024 I’ve enrolled in semesters at the School for Poetic Computation (NY) and The GramOunce (UK) to explore new models for data healing, food cultures, and collectivising.
Every blue moon, I make art. I have presented work about food cosmogony and language incantations for Electrofringe Festival, Welcome Merchant, Saluhan, Firstdraft, Liquid Architecture and more.
For the TLDR on my collaborators and previous work appointments, click here.
The seed of my practice was first nurtured on Yugambeh/Kombumerri / Gold Coast and Meanjin / Brisbane lands. And this continues to be replenished on Gadigal/Sydney, with eternal gratitude to the knowledge systems cultivated by First Nations communities since the ancestral clock began ticking.
