My name is Sophie Ambler (she/her) and I am an experimental arts producer and maker living on Kaurna Country (Adelaide).
I have well and truly done my 10,000 hours across all types of event roles in Australia and overseas, including Adelaide Fringe, Darwin Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Falls Festival, New Annual, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage and The Unconformity. These special projects encompass DIY parties, corporate events, music festivals and live experiments.
Alongside this, I make my own boundary-pushing events, like hit variety show The Shitshow Cabaret, immersive comedy Standing Room Only, site-specific youth art exhibition Project: Art House, and experimental club night ZZZZ. I am proud that my creative direction has seeded emerging performance careers, interdisciplinary collaborations, and threshold audience moments. It has also led to commissions from festivals and major funding bodies.
I was born and raised in Nipaluna (Hobart), just as the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere opened its doors. My ten years of experience working across most departments at the Museum of Old & New Art includes The Gala, Forest Congress, Mona Foma and Dark Mofo. It has prepared me for anything from commissioning outfits for a Rihanna impersonator from Brazil to marshalling 15,000 people to a ceremonial burn.
Since then, working independently, I produce and project manage the major participatory artwork waynapuni pools, in which Aboriginal students worked over nine months with Tasmanian artist and industrial designer Benjamin Paul to transform car wrecks into functional saunas, spas and steam rooms, and host bathing ceremonies for the public.
As a producer, I am most excited by projects that allow me to be holistic, relational, experimental and in service to the underdog.
As an artist, I continue to make left-of-field experiences, including co-founding AFAB arts collective, WHEAT; touring with live art duo, Pony Express; hitting the decks as a DJ; and establishing my own contemporary arts practice.
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