About
Margot Politis is a vibrant and impassioned artist and Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) practitioner, with over 20 years of experience in arts leadership, curation, events and program management, directing, producing, and Community Engagement. She has recently stepped down from a ten-year tenure as Artistic Director of Sydney’s Milk Crate Theatre – an arts organisation working with people with varied and complex lived experiences including homelessness, mental health diagnoses, disability and trauma – and before this, served as Accessibility Director for 8 years at Shopfront Arts Co-op.
Her work is recognised internationally for implementing best practice in the production of stunning original performance works, ambitious cultural programming, and social impact.
Margot’s multidisciplinary work spans theatre, film, movement, immersive performance, installation, visual arts, set and costume design, and building. She works closely with artists and performers in her impactful co-design of theatre sets in non-traditional spaces, and accessible costuming that is tailored to individual sensory needs. These processes are informed by her own lived experience of mental health and addiction recovery; and an extensive career of co-developing core working methodologies with communities that balance Trauma-Informed Care and Strengths-Based Practice. Margot has recently joined dance organisation Dirty Feet as a member of their Board of Directors.
BIOGRAPHY
Margot Politis is an impassioned artist and leader in Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) best practice, whose focus is to advocate and make space for the expression of people who do not have neurotypical access to professional arts practice. For over 20 years, Margot has worked as a performer, director, choreographer, film director, and devisor of interdisciplinary and immersive performance works comprising theatre, movement, light, sound and set design. She proudly identifies as living in mental health and addiction recovery.
Margot began her career performing with Adelaide’s Restless Dance Theatre in 2004, after graduating from the Flinders University Drama Centre. After moving to Sydney she worked until 2015 as the Accessibility Director at Shopfront Arts Co-op; establishing and directing the Bodylines and Harness Ensembles of young people with disability. Independently Margot has worked and studied with various inclusive companies and artists in Australia, the USA and the UK. In 2016 she premiered her independent work, The Forest Unyielding, part of a 2 year multi-faceted project addressing mental health and addiction. In 2019/20 Margot was awarded residencies with Ausdance NSW and the Inner West Council to develop her independent work, Temperance, about her recovery from alcoholism as viewed through her Greek heritage.
Margot was appointed Artistic Director of Milk Crate Theatre in 2018, designing and directing the company’s major productions Natural Order (2019), Tiny Universe (2021) with Natalie Rose / Shopfront Arts Co-op, MCT: A Retrospective (2022) and anniversary exhibition EMERGENCE (2023), DUST (2022), SOLACE (2023) with David Clarkson / Box of Birds. In 2024 she co-directed Milk Crate’s second co-production with Natalie Rose / Shopfront Arts Harness Ensemble, Hello, Are You Still There? and for her final work with Milk Crate Theatre, facilitated the 2025 Developing Artis Program, which presented at the Sydney Opera House Centre for Creativity.
Margot's current career focus is in set and spatial design, building, aesthetics, space, DIY and ASMR for experiential accessibility of performers and audiences.
CVs
COMPANIES I WORK WITH
Milk Crate Theatre effects social change through the power of performance. We provide opportunities for people whose voices are under-represented in mainstream discourses to engage in artistic practice, sharing bold and resonant stories that build empathy and break down barriers. Our community of Collaborative Artists are generally living with, have experienced or are at risk of homelessness; living with mental health or disability support needs; have experienced domestic violence, or come from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. With a deep and genuine Community Arts and Cultural Development ethos, and employment of Sydney’s most exciting and community-versed contemporary artists, we make dynamic and impactful performance work that integrates film, sound, movement and aesthetic to achieve high level outcome in the expression of integral social justice subject matter.
Shopfront Arts Co-op is the home of youth arts. We stand as Sydney’s only cross-art form organisation led by and dedicated to the artistry of young people. For over four decades, Shopfront has amplified the voices of young people. Supported by practising, professional artists, our members make bold and ambitious works of creative expression. We champion acts of artistic bravery. We are acknowledged for this bravery through awards, recognition and support of arts bodies, and by the thousands of people who have at one time or another in the last four decades considered Shopfront to be their second home. Being a member of Shopfront means you are part of something. Our co-operative is an inclusive community of artists sharing a common goal of making great art (and having a lot of fun along the way).
DirtyFeet is a not-for-profit contemporary organisation dedicated to nurturing creativity among emerging artists with and without disabilities. Through our programs, including The Right Foot, we provide contemporary dance workshops that offer young people a transformative experience. These workshops serve as a vital opportunity for participants to develop their skills in contemporary dance, build confidence, enhance their theatrical abilities, and learn the importance of teamwork and collaboration. Led by professional artists with and without disabilities, The Right Foot is a nurturing environment where individuals of all abilities can explore their creativity and express themselves through movement.