Express Media and Voiceworks are incredibly excited to announce that Magenta Sheridan has been appointed Express media’s new General Manager! 

Magenta (she/her) is an arts manager, producer, and editor, who was previously the Creative Producer at Express Media.

Magenta currently sits on the board of Going Down Swinging, where she was previously the Managing Editor. She has worked in administration and operations at Next Wave and The University of Melbourne, and has tutored for Express Media, facilitating creative writing workshops for young people across Melbourne, including for the Hachette Australia Young Writers Prize and State Library Victoria Story Camp. Magenta sat on the Voiceworks Editorial Committee in 2018 and 2019 and won the Melbourne Writers Festival Creative Writing Prize in 2017. Magenta is passionate about centring and advocating for emerging and experimental writers, editors and artists.

We are incredibly thrilled to have Magenta move into this new role within the organisation, and sat down for a chat to learn a little bit more about how this transition happened!

 

What part about being the Express Media GM/CEO are you most excited about?

I’m most excited about the opportunity to help steer an organisation and community I care deeply about through a time of exciting and necessary change in our industry. I’m also feeling very lucky to continue to work with the amazing Express Media staff, Board and Voiceworks Editorial Committee. What a bunch of awesome humans!

 

What has your own arts career journey looked like so far, did you ever picture yourself as a CEO? 

My arts career has been a bit of a windy path but, at the risk of sounding very corny, Express Media has been a constant throughout. I would say my arts career properly began when I joined the Voiceworks Editorial Committee and began an internship at Going Down Swinging in the second half of 2017. Since then, I’ve worked in several different roles including editing for print and online, producing live and digital events, arts administration and operations, and teaching creative writing to kids across the state. Moving from the Creative Producer role into the CEO / General Manager at Express Media is a daunting (big shoes to fill!) but incredibly exciting step for me. I can’t say I ever really pictured it until recently, but it feels like the right step to be taking!

 

Any advice to young arts workers wanting to apply for positions like this in the future? 

Trust yourself and your experience. It’s not often that young arts workers receive formal training; so much of what I’ve learnt has been from opportunities here and there and from times when things didn’t go to plan. So, my advice would be to truly acknowledge the skills and experience you do have and to always draw from that.

 

Are you a writer/artist yourself? What do you like to create, and what do you like to read?

Yes! I mostly write short stories and sometimes create comics. If you’ve been keeping up with the Express Media eNews, you may have noticed that I’m a huge fan of comics. There’s something about them that makes my brain very happy, so I continue to chase that feeling. I’ve been deeply (perhaps embarrassingly) obsessed with Sailor Moon recently.

 

We’re excited to see where Magenta leads us as we head into 2023!