NEWS

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SkillUp - Youth Arts Program Coordinator appointed

 

East Gippsland Art Gallery is thrilled to announce Lee Nickless as our SkillUp: Youth Arts Program Coordinator.

 

Lee is an artist, educator, and community arts leader with strong ties to East Gippsland and a genuine passion for working with young people through the arts. For more than a decade, Lee has been creating and delivering arts education programs that help young people build confidence, reconnect with learning, and discover their creative voice.

 

Lee founded The Stables School of Art, which later became part of Community College East Gippsland, developing hands-on visual arts courses from Certificate I through to Diploma level. Lee has also worked as a Visual Arts educator at Advance TAFE (now TAFE Gippsland), designing arts programs — always with a focus on access, encouragement, and real creative outcomes.

Alongside teaching, Lee continues to work as a professional artist, mentor and project director, including major creative projects such as Lakes Lights and the East Gippsland Winter Festival. He brings lived creative practice into everything he does and is deeply committed to creating opportunities for local young people to see themselves as artists, collaborators and valued contributors to our region’s creative life.

 

We’re so excited to have Lee on board and can’t wait to see the energy, care, and creativity he brings to SkillUp: Youth Arts and to the young people he’ll be working with.

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👉🏽 We’re now taking Expressions of Interest for SkillUp: Youth Arts, launching in 2026. Get in touch with the Gallery or click the link to find out more and download an EOI form HERE.