Bio | My Site 1

Dr Vic McEwan is an internationally recognised artist, researcher, and the artistic director of The Cad Factory, a multi-award-winning organisation known for its cross-sector, socially engaged artistic projects. Since co-founding The Cad Factory in 2004, McEwan has built a substantial reputation for leading large-scale, complex, and interdisciplinary projects that involve partnerships with stakeholders such as government departments, community organisations, health services, and environmental sectors. Vic's artistic practice explores sound, photography, video, installation, sculpture and performance, often examining the transformative potential of arts and cultural practices in contributing to social and well-being outcomes. He was one of the first contemporary artist to have a solo exhibition, Haunting, at The National Museum of Australia, which toured nationally from 2019-2022. His work has been exhibited in numerous national and international galleries, art centres and site-specific locations. He has twice been invited to participate in the Tate Exchange program (UK) (2017 and 2020) and from 2020-2022 he was the invited Curator of the Tamworth Textiles Triennial ‘Tensions 2020’, which also toured nationally.

Vic often works at the intersection of art, science, and community engagement. In 2023 he completed his PhD, bridging disciplinary boundaries by becoming the first artist accepted into the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. His research, conducted during the clinical examination and treatment of patients suffering from facial nerve paralysis, earned him the Faculty of Medicine and Health Thesis Excellence Award, and the Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Science 2023 Distinctive Australian Work Prize. Vic’s PhD took an innovative, boundary-crossing approach, not only by enrolling as an artist in a medical faculty, but also by requesting that his thesis be examined by two scholars from different disciplines- one a surgeon from the field of medicine, and the other from the arts and humanities.

In testament to Vic’s commitment and ability to synthesise multiple perspective into a cohesive voice, his thesis was awarded without corrections from either examiner. His medical examiner, Dr Koen Ingels, commented “This is an extraordinary initiative which has been worked out in a magnificent way. This inclusion of socially engaged arts practice in the clinic is visionary. Research of this kind will contribute to better clinical outcomes.” While his art examiner Professor Michael Balfour remarked “This is outstanding work, and full credit to McEwan and the supervisory team for producing such a careful, critical, and artful thesis. These elements rarely come together with such distinction and integrity.” As part of his PhD, Vic also produced an examinable exhibition of 15 artworks. Penny Grist, Curator at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, in her 2022 review in About Face the National Portrait Gallery Magazine, commented “The empathy and ethos of care underpinning McEwan’s approach was profoundly realised. I found in this exhibition a reason to seek a fundamental shift in the values and definitions of portraiture away from representing what we look like and closer to representing how we relate to each other and simply how life feels.….”

Vic’s PhD not only introduced a new philosophy of socially engaged arts practice as a form of care, operationalising Levinasian ethics to profoundly address patient suffering, but also demonstrated the potential for socially engaged art to positively impact clinical experiences. His work tackled longstanding critiques of arts and health found in the literature, advancing the understanding of socially engaged practice as both a methodology and an output with tangible benefits for patients.

Vic’s has twice been the recipient of the Australian Distinctive Work Prize by the Council of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) (2023 and 2018). His Honours project, exploring the adverse effects of sound levels within hospitals, earned him the University medal and the Executive Deans Award for Academic Excellence from Charles Sturt University. His PhD research was recognized initially through the awarding of the RTP Scholarship and the Deans Merit Award Top Up Scholarship and then with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Thesis Excellence Award. He was also the 2023 recipient of the Regional Arts Australia National Fellowship, and the inaugural recipient of the Create NSW Regional Fellowship Award in 2015.

Vic contributes to multiple sectors as a board member of Music NSW, the Peak body for Music in NSW, and as a member of the executive of the Arts and Health Network NSW/ACT. He was a paid contributor and co-author of a new $2.4 million curatorial strategy for Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney and provided advice on the upcoming update of the NSW Health and the Arts Framework. Additionally, McEwan co-founded The CASE Incubator Studio, a national hub for the development of socially engaged art practices, currently forming a national and international program of activity.

Vic receives frequent invitations from national and international universities, cultural institutions, industry partners, and community groups, all of whom recognise the applied outcomes of his creative, philosophical, and ethical artistic practice and research methodologies. He has delivered over 14 paid keynote presentations, 19 invited international presentations, and 64 invited national presentations.