For seven years (2009 - 2016) Cleo Barnett produced, curated, and facilitated over 300 events and public space interventions around the world including New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Thailand, Germany, and the United States. Alongside founding First Thursdays, co-founding All Fresco, and supporting the launch of Art Week Auckland, Cleo curated and produced music festivals, exhibitions, ad takeover campaigns, public space interventions, and cultural events.
Her social practice was sparked while getting her bachelors degrees in Political Science and International Business at The University of Auckland. She channeled her frustration and disenchantment of settler colonial capitalism woven into the fabric of societies around the world into community organizing. Cleo's practice was sustained and grounded by her desire to (re)connect with her homeland of Aotearoa (New Zealand), alongside a passion for mobilizing communities to reclaim public spaces and build community empowerment to activate civic engagement. All events during this period were free all ages events that were accessible, open to the public, and drug and alcohol-free.
