Hayley West's socially engaged art practice relates to a lived awareness of death and memorial, working with sculpture, video, performance, and installation. Her practice spans over 20 years of research, exhibitions, and residencies internationally and nationally. Her current project DEAD AIR is a weekly, live radio show on community radio station 94.9MAINfm in Castlemaine, Central Victoria. DEAD AIR has been nominated twice as a finalist in the CBAA (Community Broadcasting Association of Australia) Awards: Best New Show 2022 & Excellence in Innovative Programming and Content 2023.

Public speaking, interviews and publications include: Lifting the Lid Festival, Goldfields Gothic Festival of Dark Ideas, Redesigning Deathcare Conference, Dying to Know Day, Goldfields Libraries, Castlemaine State Festival, La Trobe Art Institute, CARE Symposium, Melbourne Festival of Death and Dying, Emerging Writer’s Festival, Pecha Kucha; ABC Central Victoria, Life Matters Radio National, 3RRR, MAINfm, The Guardian, SMH, The Age; Peppermint magazine, Bendigo magazine.

Hayley has been a member of the Natural Death Advocacy Network since 2018, co-hosted Death Cafés (2014-22), a contributor to the Victorian arm of the Australian Home Funeral Alliance, and was previously a General Member of the Historical Castlemaine Cemetery Trust (2018-22). She has also just accepted the role of a General Member on the NDAN Committee, and as Vice President on the MAINfm Committee. She is a single mother to a teenager and staffy, currently works at La Trobe University Library and is embracing the newly discovered label of 'multipotentialite'.

phone: 0400287553

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insta: @the.departure 

website: thedeparture.com.au