Profile

Penne Thornton is a multidisciplinary creative producer and research fellow working across performance, exhibitions, public programming, artist development and community engagement.
Penne has a research focus on collaborative, place-based practice and is an advocate for social justice and equity in the arts.





Image by Leiko Manalang-Frequin



Email
pennethornton(at)gmail.com


Select Projects

>A People’s Guide to (North) Geelong
>Duwa
>Anything & Everything
>WiCLA


Platform Arts Projects

Performance
>Death Warmed Up
>Texture of Absence
>Paradise Lots
>Slip
>The Director
>Bodies of Water
>Maps of the Heart
>Pictures and Ghosts

Artist Development

>Neighbourhood LAB
>infinity ensemble
>金山 婆 Gold Mountain Wife
 

Publications

> Rising Lines
> Collective Mothering
> Collective Mothering Vol 2


Research

> Making Histories:Young People as Visual Historians of Changing Cities (Deakin University and RMIT ARC  Discovery Project)

A People’s Guide to (North) Geelong

Exhibition

Artists
Penne Thornton,Yuhui Ng Rodriguez, Laura Alice
Ray Osborne, Nicholas S Robinson, Ashlee Phillips, Arlo Furze, Isaac Thomas Robinson, Olivia Ferrie, Rihanna Mercieca, Bryce Anthony Ma

Platform Arts, Djilang/Geelong

Supported by 
City of Greater Geelong, Indie School
The Good Neighbourhood Project

Images by Penne Thornton
2025
Collaborative research and digital arts project


A People’s Guide to (North) Geelong is a collaborative intergenerational project based in Geelong’s inner north in regional Victoria. Eight young people are engaged as honorary artists and explore place through in-depth conversations and walks with local and senior residents. 

Presented as a 3 channel audio and video exhibition and installation and public art activation.

Exhibitions: 
Platform Arts 2026
Gallery Commons 2026
Geelong Design Week 2026

 I acknowledge the life systems of land, river, sea and atmosphere and the Waddawurrung people’s as the First People’s on whose sacred Country I live. This land was never ceded. I give respect to all First Nations people’s, their elders and rising generations