How do you go from pursuing a creative passion for art to co-founding a major Sydney art precinct and leading the art program for an international airport?

It all started with a visual arts degree for Sydney based art and culture strategist and curator Kelly Robson.

“My formal training was in the visual arts and over the course of my career I have applied the skills I learned in different ways and built on them, from curating exhibitions and running studio programs to creative project management and cultural strategy. I’ve worn many hats over the years, which gives me a multifaceted view to the projects I work on – but art has always been front and centre.

I now work predominately in the creation of artwork for the built environment. I think it’s so important to inject art into everyday places so that it’s accessible to more people who wouldn’t ordinarily engage with it. It doesn’t need to be confined to gallery spaces.” she told DASSH.

Her Masters of Visual Art from the University of Sydney has taken her places she never foresaw as a student.

“Studying art taught me that you have to understand the rules in order to break them and be innovative. To step outside of the conventional you have to first understand what that is.

“The best art breaks the mould with an awareness of, and respect for what has come before it.” she said.

Kelly’s career unfolded over time and pursuing her passion was at the heart of every success.

“I have never had a career game plan and certainly in the art industry it’s next to impossible to have one as there is no typical pathway,” she said.

“That’s what makes people nervous about embarking upon an Arts degree.

“It was during my degree that I realised I was far more interested in the enabling part and figuring out how to make things happen behind the scenes,” she said.

“I never really had that drive to be the artist in the spotlight. But I’ve always been drawn to the power art has to communicate, tell important stories and bring people together.”

The world has changed since Kelly did her creative arts degree, and these days there are even more pathways for graduates – even if they’re not immediately obvious.

“We better understand now that the arts aren’t a siloed industry. They play a critical role across multiple industries,” she said.

“For example, art being used in hospitals to alleviate fear felt by patients going through major procedures and also promote recovery.

“I recently came across a brief calling for artists to create artworkfor children’s wards which I thought was a really brilliant initiative.

“The idea that these artworks will engage and comfort children on their way through what might seem like really scary procedures,” she said.

And she says seeing that cross-industry implementation of art is really inspiring and exciting.

“Take where I am now for example, part of the team delivering the new Western Sydney International Airport that opens in 2026.

“My role there as Senior Manager, Art and Design, and the inclusion of an art and place program as a key portfolio, is I think really testament to how important art is now considered in the development of major infrastructure projects.

Kelly says creative thinkers in general are now being woven into the development of major projects at all stages from strategy to implementation.

“It’s for their ability to  collaborate, creatively ideate and think critically, which is what artists are trained in,” she said. Invaluable skills when you’re working in the public domain, where a large part of the job is problem solving and there are multiple points of view to consider. 

A creative arts degree did more than steer Kelly towards a job – it formed the basis of relationships and a community that she has relied on ever since she graduated.

“On a practical level, it introduced me to many weird (in the best ways possible) and wonderful people who I would later go onto work with at various stages in my early career,” she said.

“The relationships I formed and maintained from that period of my life have continued to support me professionally.

“It’s been really motivating to see many of my peers from those days achieving success now in their creative endeavours, whether they’ve gone on to be artists, (or art enablers) curators or art facilitators or administrators.”

Her advice to students contemplating a creative arts degree is to start with the beginning in mind – not the end – but she acknowledges that can be scary.

“I would say try not to start at the end point, at an imagined outcome, because industries change so fast and goal posts are always moving,” she said. You can start out broad with an arts degree before deciding what you specialise in. Go step by step and master one thing at a time. Eventually, you’ll be able to bring those things together in a way that’s uniquely you, and that becomes your offering to the world.

“Although it sounds really cheesy, the people with great careers are people who are passionate about what they do.

“In any career, there’s lots of hard work and parts you don’t enjoy, but the thing that will keep you going back every day is the belief what you are doing has purpose and is benefitting the community.

“If the arts is what ignites that spark for you, then I would say it would be a far greater risk not to pursue it.”