Future Shapers – Melbourne's greatest innovators, trailblazers and community builders

Time Out is celebrating the individuals and organisations making lasting change in the city's arts, civics, sustainability, food and drink, and community and culture sectors.

So, what is a Future Shaper?

We joined forces with these esteemed experts to help us find Melbourne's innovators and visionaries.

Advertising

Sustainability

Linh Do

Linh Do reckons that terrifying people with the cold hard facts of the climate crisis isn’t always the best way to affect change.

Ninna Larsen, Reground

Not to be stereotypical, but there's a reason Melbourne is considered the coffee capital of Australia. But what to do with all the grounds?

Katy Barfield

How do we stop so much perfectly good food ending up in landfill? Katy Barfield has at least some of the answer.

Hugh Butcher, VECO

The Victorian Energy Collaboration (VECO) is the largest-ever emissions reduction project undertaken by a local government in Australia.

Arts

Seb Chan, ACMI

In early 2021, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) reopened its doors after a $40 million facelift. ACMI has always been a powerhouse of a museum...

Tamasein Holyman, Secret Squirrel Productions

Tamasein Holyman couldn't have picked a worse time to return to Australia from the UK with big dreams of working in theatre than 2009. Given...

George Hartley, Bluethumb

When Bluethumb was founded, traditional galleries were unimpressed with the idea of an online space to buy and sell Australian art. “I would say they...

Matthew Lutton, Malthouse Theatre

The world of theatre is changing – at least according to Matthew Lutton. “There’s a change happening in theatre companies themselves having...

Atong Atem

Atong Atem is a South Sudanese visual artist and writer who was born in Ethiopia and migrated to Australia as a child. Her work explores the experiences of...

Antony Hamilton, Chunky Move

So you think you can dance. You know what, it doesn’t even matter what you think, because Chunky Move’s artistic director Antony Hamilton thinks...

Advertising

Community and culture

Carly Findlay

Carly Findlay has been busy. The writer, speaker and self-described appearance activist works part-time as Melbourne Fringe Festival’s access and...

Sarah Moran, Girl Geek Academy

Sarah Moran has been coding since she was five years old, but as she went through high school, she noticed something strange. “I found myself being the...

Carly Findlay

Carly Findlay has been busy. The writer, speaker and self-described appearance activist works part-time as Melbourne Fringe Festival’s access and...

Carly Findlay

Carly Findlay has been busy. The writer, speaker and self-described appearance activist works part-time as Melbourne Fringe Festival’s access and...

Sarah Moran, Girl Geek Academy

Sarah Moran has been coding since she was five years old, but as she went through high school, she noticed something strange. “I found myself being the...

Micah Scott, Minus18

According to Micah Scott, CEO of youth-driven LGBTQIA+ charity Minus18, the general perception is that things are getting better for queer young people in the...

Meriki Onus

Meriki Onus wants everyone to do the work, as she has. Over the past decade, the Gunai and Gunditjmara activist has made a name for herself as someone who is...

Ali Halkic, Bully Zero

Content advisory: This article discusses suicide. Twelve years ago, Ali Halkic and his wife, Dina, went through the worst thing a parent can...

Food and drink

Hana Assafiri, Moroccan Soup Bar

Hana Assafiri OAM counts herself lucky that the Melbourne community embraced Moroccan Soup Bar the way it did – after all, it was risky opening...

Bruce Pascoe

Bruce Pascoe has become a household name for his 2014 bestseller Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?, a non-fiction book that explores and...

Shannon Martinez, Smith & Daughters

Do you love beef bourguignon? Blood sausage? A juicy, perfect steak? Then you are Shannon Martinez's ideal customer. The chef and owner of the entirely...

Marcus Godinho, FareShare

The story of FareShare started with pies, but these days CEO Marcus Godinho advises us the sausage rolls are the real winners. “The agencies love the...

Uncle Dave Wandin

When’s the last time you tried finger lime? Perhaps dotted on your oyster at a non-Indigenous fine diner? OK, here’s a harder one: how about...

Miranda Sharp, Melbourne Farmers Markets

You likely think of farmers markets as a bit of a conduit – something that helps connect food producers to consumers. In recent times, however,...

Civic

Luz Restrepo, Migrant Women in Business

When Luz Restrepo arrived in Melbourne from Colombia in 2010 as a political asylum seeker, she felt isolated. She had no Australian connections, little money...

Kon Karapanagiotidis, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Kon Karapanagiotidis has been thinking a lot about the future lately. A future in which he is no longer needed as CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, the...

Alan Crabbe, Pozible

It's hard to remember a time before crowdfunding when it was almost impossible to directly support artists without going to a gig or an exhibition. That...

Laura Thompson and Sarah Sheridan, Clothing the Gaps

You might be surprised to learn that Aboriginal-owned and led apparel brand Clothing the Gaps has only been operating for two years. The team...

Rebecca Scott and Kate Berrelle, STREAT

Rebecca Scott and Kate Berrelle founded social enterprise STREAT to help give young people experiencing disadvantage a way to find employment in the...

Rebecca Tapp, Dr Gus Hervey and Tané Hunter, Future Crunch

Future Crunch is all about championing human progress across science and tech and want to share the good news with you. "We’re a think tank with a simple...

Focus on the future

Here's what the future looks like, according to experts

Remix is about new and exciting ways to experience things – art, museum shows, movies, TV, music, gaming and much much more. More than 50...

Paid content

Here's what the future looks like, according to experts

Remix is about new and exciting ways to experience things – art, museum shows, movies, TV, music, gaming and much much more. More than 50...

Paid content