Founded in July 1999, Test Pattern‘s values are art, tenacity, democracy.

For 25 years Test Pattern has worked all over Australia with artists, for-purpose organisations and government bodies to develop the ideas, the platforms and the places where creative practices lead public agendas.

This work has taken many forms: from small facilitated projects and events, to masterplan-level urban and regional cultural strategies and place development, as well as advocacy consortia and impactful government relations strategies that achieve substantial policy change –

  • Creative places: strategies and projects for urban and regional councils; facilitating and writing the inaugural ten-year strategy for the Kingston Arts Precinct, launched by the ACT Minister for the Arts with an unprecedented 40-year funding commitment;
  • Policy and strategy: developing, validating and assessing arts and cultural policies and organisational strategies, including a long-term strategic advisory relationship with Diversity Arts Australia;
  • Industry advisory: trusted confidential advice and strategic facilitation for boards and CEOs in the arts, design, festivals, publishing, broadcasting, screen, architecture, planning and academic sectors;
  • Creative professional development: from recruitment services, executive coaching and one-on-one activities, to critical thinking sessions such as Salons and Newsrooms, to single- or multi-day creative professional development sessions and organisation-wide programs – plus a set of resources now widely adopted as industry standard;
  • Advocacy and public value: from bespoke government and public relations strategies, the facilitation of sector- and region-based consortia in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, central Melbourne and Melbourne’s west, and the national pandemic-era roundtables, to Australia’s first arts advocacy training program at NAVA that attracted global participation. Test Pattern has strengthened the voices of thousands of artists and arts leaders to achieve lasting change.

It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed since mapping out a freelance scope, brainstorming a name with dear friends, and designing an endlessly contemporary identity with explicit throwbacks. Test patterns demonstrate the formal, technical and imaginative capacities of programs currently in development. There’s so much more good work to be done together.