Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Skilled facilitator developing and delivering engaging and meaningful education and public programs onsite and online at a national cultural institution. Passionate about accessible arts programming for people with a disability. Developed and deliver three programs for people living with Dementia, as well as a wellbeing initiative based around 'slow looking'. Strategic and creative thinker. Experienced writer.
Responsibilities: • Facilitate engaging onsite and online learning experiences and public programs for school students, families and lifelong learners that encourage participation, curiosity, and connection. • Write materials for children and their carers to search for portraits, look closely and respond creatively. • Write online resources for primary and secondary teachers. • Mentor others in the team and share my facilitation skills to develop capacity and confidence. • Work collaboratively with staff across the NPG, for example Curatorial and the editing and design team, to deliver programs and printed material. • Contribute ideas and reflective feedback to support continuous improvement of programs. Achievements: • Worked with Dementia Australia to develop and deliver a successful weekly program for people living with the disease and their carers/support workers. • Developed a fortnightly Dementia program for people with Younger Onset Dementia, as well as a monthly public program. • Developed a public wellbeing program based on ‘slow looking’ at a portrait called Art Break. • Developed and delivered engaging programs for artists with intellectual disabilities. • As a member of the NPG’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan, I lobbied to improve accessibility to the NPG and published Visual Stories on the website to help people prepare for their visit. ‘Thank you National Portrait Gallery for offering this immersive experience last Saturday [Slow Art Day 2025]. Cate Lyons was a wonderful guide, so knowledgeable and welcoming. She encouraged us all to think way beyond what we would normally do when walking around, looking at portraits. She affirmed our comments and made us feel as though all we said was really worthwhile! Great for our self-confidence. It’s amazing how much we get out of looking at a portrait when we just stop and take some time.’ Marika
• Provided welcoming, person-centred interactions that helped every visitor feel included and at home in the Gallery. • Tailored information and orientation to individual needs, introducing visitors to exhibitions, programs, gallery spaces, and amenities. • Lead public tours that brought artworks, stories and ideas to life for diverse audiences. Encouraged close looking and conversation to create meaningful connections with the collection and exhibitions. • Supported positive and inclusive visitor journeys.
Copywriting: • Proximity Legal Corporate Plan 2021–25 • Award-winning Canberra Tourism application for Parliament House, 2020 • Anzac Day commemorative coins for The Australian, 2015 • Commemorative coins issued by the Australian Mint on Sir John Monash, the planets, 50 years of Playschool, 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, and the 25th Anniversary of the Mabo Decision • Online content for Canberra businesses • Marketing material for Earlybird Events, 2012–2016 • Range of printed materials for UNICEF and the UNDP in Turkey, 2008–2010. Editing and proofreading: • Report for the University of Canberra, 2022 • Brochures for the Canberra Symphony Orchestra promoting its yearly concerts in 2017, 2018 and 2019 • Annual Report for the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy from 2012–13 to 2014–15. General editing as required • Book on Australian literature published in the former GDR for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, UNSW Canberra, 2015. Websites: • Edited extensive copy for new website for Proximity Legal, 2022 • Rewrote website for Safe Work Australia October 2017–March 2018 • Microsites for the Office for Women, and the Department of Communications and the Arts • Developed and wrote a new website for Earlybird Events, 2012. ‘Thank you so much for your total awesomeness! This project was nothing without you. I’m not sure the Agency realises that people come to a website for content, so sometimes it’s a really unappreciated talent. But I think you’ve played a massive role in shifting the culture of the Agency and getting content owners to really think about their users.’ Ingrid Kimber, Stakeholder Engagement | Assistant Director, Policy and Services, Safe Work Australia
Responsibilities: • Project managed and wrote a new microsite for victims and witnesses to help them navigate the criminal justice system. Reorganised information, rewrote existing content, wrote video scripts, developed information architecture, and liaised with high-level departmental stakeholders. • Wrote speeches for members of the executive, and media stories for the launch of the microsite on 26 February 2019. • Liaised with a consultancy firm contracted to carry out a research and segmentation analysis of the target audiences and prosecutors. • Coordinated regular teleconferences with website stakeholders then updated and circulated an action plan that detailed tasks and timing. • Wrote case studies and press releases for the external website. • Edited, proofread and wrote case studies for the 2017–18 and 2018–19 Annual Reports. • Edited the 2017–22 and 2018–23 Corporate Plans. Achievements: • The Assistant Director for our area and key stakeholders passed on their thanks for writing high quality content for the new microsite. In particular, they were pleased with how it explained the legal system in plain English, and for the critical thinking I did in reorganising and consolidating information to make the site user friendly. • Feedback from the Commonwealth Audit Committee Chair on the 2017–18 Annual Report praised its ‘readability’, particularly the case studies, which he said he had enjoyed reading. He said it was ‘by far the best Annual Report of the CDPP’, and recommended we submit it for the Annual Report Awards. • Developed strong working relationships with CDPP lawyers, executive staff and the Director. • Started a new series of case studies for the intranet called ‘Case Closed’ that profiled major cases prosecuted by CDPP lawyers.
Responsibilities: • Consistently published engaging and informative content on the website to encourage good cyber security practice for target audiences. • Published and emailed alerts to subscribers when serious new cyber threats were identified and promoted them on Facebook. • Part of the team that developed campaigns for SSO Week 2017, Christmas 2017 and the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. This work included writing original stories, commissioning images, writing posts for Facebook and Twitter, writing a press release for the Minister to launch SSO Week, and publishing material each day of the campaigns. • Developed content strategy, including new ideas to further develop and distribute engaging content. Achievements: • Over the eight months I worked on SSO: o the alerts service grew at an average rate of 15%, equating to 125 new subscribers per month o the Facebook audience grew consistently at a rate of 7% to nearly 23,000 people • The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation decided to partner with Stay Smart Online and publish our campaign stories and social media posts, because it was impressed with the material we were developing. • Created a new Q&A format for writing alerts that standardised what, and how, information was presented to make them easier to scan, so users quickly knew what the threat was and what action to take.
Responsibilities: · Wrote, edited, proofread and coordinated the publication of reports, newsletters and websites for a range of clients, including federal government departments, corporates and universities. Achievements: ‘I worked with Cate over many years at MA@D Communication. Cate is a gifted writer and thinker who added great value to our business and to our business offering. Undoubtedly her skills were critical in winning some of the most interesting projects we undertook such as Cate scripting, interviewing, recording and editing interviews for Austrade around the country, attending regular Comcover seminars and interpreting the content in newsletters and other national industry communication materials and giving MA@D’s own communication real cut through amongst competitors.’ Judy Waters, Judy Waters Consulting