FUTURE FACER
Mentorship Program
A 12-Month Mentorship in Regenerative Leadership, Embodied Practice & Cultural Repair
March 21st, 2026
global cohort
Follow Your Curiosity Into Our Orbit!
UnitePlayPerform is an Australian arts health organisation enhancing wellbeing through creativity in a globally connected world.
We pioneer new pathways born at the intersection of art, health, science, wellbeing & spirituality
The portal to UnitePlayPerform 2026 Future Facer Virtual Mentorship Program is now open to our global family, with a limited number of spaces for our upcoming virtual cohort.
At the heart of UnitePlayPerform is a commitment to nurturing future leaders; people who lead with presence, creativity, and relational intelligence. Our mentorship is designed to activate future-facing leaders, artists, educators, and change agents who are ready to align values with vision, principles with action.
This is for those committed to regeneration, embodiment, and cultural repair, not just as ideas, but as lived, relational practices. We cultivate purpose-driven leadership grounded in presence, creativity, and systemic care.
Explore, expand, broaden and deepen within our 1 year long-form, interactive virtual program designed and guided by Australian Contemporary Artist (OFFERINGS), Founder of (UnitePlayPerform Arts Health Organisation, UPP Design Studio and The Nest Creative Spaces), Educator (UPP Method™️) Melissa Gilbert.
“Did you know this is a tax-deductible professional development program?
Plus, you can explore local and national grants, quick-response funding, and other opportunities to support your transformation.
Your growth just got even more accessible!”
Future Facer 12 Month Mentorship Program
From creatives and activists to mid-career professionals in transition, UPP provides mentorship that supports identity, agency, and direction. Our Future Facer Mentorship Program supports emerging leaders to clarify their vision, embody their values, and lead from a place of coherence, curiosity, and care. We grow the kind of leaders the future needs—relational, reflective, and regenerative.
What’s included?
Future Facer 12-month Mentorship Program
Starts in March 2026
Our flagship mentorship, the Future Facer Program, is a year-long journey structured around seasonal rhythms, archetypal energies, systems provocation and practise of the UPP Method™. It supports participants to integrate deep personal work with applied leadership practice. This is not a skills training, it is a process of remembering, re-patterning, and reclaiming one's place in the collective story.
Mentorship at UPP is relational, slow-paced, and emotionally attuned. Participants receive consistent rhythm, brave containers, creative prompts, and peer-to-peer support, all designed to move insight into action and leadership into embodiment.
Key features:
Bi-weekly live Playshop™ group sessions
Seasonal activations and archetypal explorations
Personalised reflection tools and somatic journaling
Applied embodiment practices using the LifeKit™ and Playkit™
Professional Development & Personal Transformation
UPP Founder, Artist and Educator ØFFËRÎNGS (Melissa Gilbert) has collaborated with global brands, cultural institutions, and aligned communities to empower individuals to access their own genius.
The 2026 Mentorship Program is the next evolution of this journey, blending hybrid professional development with deep personal exploration.
Melissa Gilbert
Melissa Gilbert is an award-winning contemporary artist, mentor, and keynote speaker working at the intersection of art, neuropsychology, systems change, and cultural leadership. Founder of UnitePlayPerform and The Nest, Australia’s largest creative community—she serves on the Symbiocene Institute advisory board and designs major systems-change platforms including Adapt NSW Forum and Purpose Conference. Her work is also grounded in deep research partnerships with international universities, supporting evidence-led program design and impact.
Who is your mentor?
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Melissa Gilbert
UnitePlayPerform
ØFFËRÎNGSMelissa Gilbert is an award-winning multidisciplinary Australian contemporary artist, educator, and experience designer. She is a descendant of the Mununjali Clan of the Yugambeh Nation in South East Queensland, with links to Quandamooka.
Described as “an exemplar of socially engaging art” (Australian Design Review), Gilbert is known for creating otherworldly, immersive environments as a “cultural disruptor” (Broadsheet). Her projects offer transformative experiences at the intersection of art, health, science, wellbeing, and spiritualism. Her latest venture, the arts health studio UnitePlayPerform, disarms, provokes, educates, and heals through socially engaging art, pedagogical play, design, and community culture creation.
As the art world recognizes her growing influence, Gilbert has been acknowledged as an emerging Australian artist to watch. In 2023, she was invited to create a collectible artwork for ‘Discovery’ at the Melbourne Design Fair, chosen by National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) curators Timothy Moore, Simone LeAmon, and Ewan McEoin (her artist proof sold). She received TMRRW award for her socially engaging art and cultural work and also serves a three years term as a critical voice on the panel of City of Sydney's cultural and creative sector.
Gilbert’s Playkit series was featured in the summer blockbuster exhibition Play Moves at the Museum of Brisbane (MOB), where her socially engaging artworks were praised as one of the top exhibitions of 2023 in Australia (Arts Hub). She has exhibited and performed commissioned works at leading Australian institutions, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Carriageworks, Cockatoo Island, Museum of Brisbane (MOB), and Rockhampton Museum of Art (RMOA).
Over the past decade, she has created ambitious multi faceted works in collaboration with major cultural and corporate giants, including Nike, EY, Google, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Hong Kong Design District, Sydney Contemporary, Vivid Festival, Pitch Festival, and the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), Melbourne Design Week, Melbourne Design Fair, Purpose Conference and more.
Gilbert continues to expand. leaning into research trips and response works abroad.
As well as her established creative career as an artist, Melissa is also the co-founder of The Nest Creative Space, where she has built and managed four permanent cultural spaces. These include The Nest 1.0 (2013, Sydney), housing 30+ creatives in a 1400sqm building; The Nest 2.0 (2018, Sydney), accommodating 90+ creatives in a 2000sqm space; The Nest 3.0 (2023, Brisbane), with 30+ creatives in a 700sqm venue; and The Nest 4.0 (2024, Eora), supporting 90+ creatives in a 2000sqm facility. Each space provides affordable, artist-run studios alongside galleries, photographic studios, workshop spaces, and cultural events, fostering vibrant creative communities.
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Mentoring Alchemy:
MULTI-COMPANY OWNER - GRASS ROOTS / INDEPENDENTLY FUNDED / ENTREPRENEUR
ARTIST
27 years
Professional Contemporary, Multidisciplinary, commercial, art establishments and public spaces.
ADVISOR
Panel for Cultural Creative Sector - City of Sydney
Symbiocene Institute - Symbiotec Founding contributor
MUSIC
25 years
International touring Dj, Singer, Producer, Artist.
Internationally acclaimed musician (Ginger and the Ghost, Ta-Ku, Indian Summer, Nancy Vice - Tv Rock, Dedmaus). International touring Performer, Experiential artist major festivals world wide).
METAPHYSICAL STUDIES
20 years - Divination, oracular studies, astrology, cosmology, mythology, folkloric practises, hermetic mystery teachings - tree of life, numerology, archetypes, colour therapy, Biofield tuning, crystal healing, mytho-somatics, Marina Abramovic Method.
CULTURAL LEADERSHIP
12 years
Founder / Designer / Creative Director - Nest Creative Space
(Eora, Meanjin).
INNOVATION, EMERGENT IDEAS, ART, HEALTH, SCIENCE, WELLBEING.
5 years
Founder - UnitePlayPerform
PSYCHOLOGY
4 years
Neuropsychology, Internal Family Systems, Polyvagal Theory, Applied Jungian Theory, Developed and Applied UPP METHOD™️ embodied application
SCHOLARSHIPS
Small Giants Academy
Bob Brown Foundation
Academy of Oracle Arts
“Melissa is becoming a trailblazing and much needed force for good across the purpose and impact sector. With a unique method behind her approach, simply put, there is nothing else quite like it out there. Her work and vision is transformative, and experiencing a part of her world in a profoundly moving and uplifting experience. We need more of this in our world.”
CLAIRE MALONEY, FOUNDER OF THE BRAVERY
Is this for you?
Are you curious about whether the Future Facer Mentorship Program with Melissa Gilbert is your next big step? Book a curiosity call to find out more.
Step into a year of play, purpose, and transformation with Melissa Gilbert and UnitePlayPerform!
UnitePlayPerform 2026 Future Facer Mentorship cohort is gathering.
Future Facer brings together emerging leaders, creatives, activists, and change-makers into a thoughtfully curated cohort guided by Melissa Gilbert. The program cultivates a brave container where trust, empathy, and collective intelligence can emerge.
This cohort-based approach strengthens agency, connection, and care, growing leaders who are reflective, collaborative, and equipped to contribute meaningfully to the communities and systems they are part of.
Outcomes of a Year-Long Mentorship with the UnitePlayPerform Future Facer Mentorship Program:
This mentorship is designed to support you in becoming a visionary leader and conscious creator, embodying UnitePlayPerform’s ethos of play, neuropsychology, modern and ancient ritual, and transformation.
Enhanced self-agency and inner coherence
Deep attunement to self, others, and environment
Clear, purpose-led decision-making
Advanced communication and relational intelligence
Healthier relational systems and boundary-making skills
Practices of deep listening and empathy (Dadirri)
Integration of embodied practices into everyday life
Development and applied use of your LifeKit™
Clarity through the UnitePlayPerform phases and rhythms
Innovative, empathy-led leadership capabilities
Cultivation of playfulness, creativity, and experimentation
Understanding of matriarchal and collective systems
Alignment with archetypal, seasonal, and cosmological principles
Energetic awareness, hygiene, and self-regulation
Capacity to meet challenges with guided and peer support
Introducing UnitePlayPerform Interactive Hybrid Professional Development Handbook
Physical & Digital Assets
This offering has been designed to complement our 2026 Year-Long Mentorship Program.
This interactive guide is designed to move with you throughout a full year-capturing your insights, mapping your ideas, and shaping your iterations into a solid foundation for you to catapult from our universe into the stratosphere.
UnitePlayPerform Interactive Hybrid Professional Development Handbook is not just a book - it's a living, breathing companion for your journey of growth, transformation, and innovation.
Rooted in UnitePlayPerform’s methodology that exists at the intersection of art, health, science, wellbeing & spirituality.
Live Playshops™
Bi-weekly facilitated group sessions offering guided exploration, embodied practice, and collective sense-making.
24-Hour Peer Container
An always-on brave space for peer support, reflection, and shared learning, held through principles of deep listening and relational care.
Digital LifeKit™ Portal
Lifetime access to recordings, embodiment practices, prompts, and resources supporting integration between live sessions.
Future Facer Hybrid Handbook
A multidimensional physical–digital companion for mapping insights, tracking transformation, and practicing embodied reflection over the year.
Heart Brand Book™
A personalised anchor capturing your values, purpose, language, and vision to guide future-facing decisions and leadership.
Human Culture Club Access
Ongoing inspiration through podcasts, interviews, and long-form content, with 20% alumni access included.
We invite space for possibility!
UnitePlayPerform Future Facers will gain access to their own genius through the UPP Method™️, pioneering new pathways that support self-leadership and limitless potential.
UnitePlayPerform 2026 Future Facer Mentorship cohort is gathering -
A welcoming space for ageless, timeless, genderless humans to share diverse perspectives and design new, emergent narratives.
UnitePlayPerform Future Facer Alumni
Experiential Program Design
12 months / 12 Values / UPP’s 12 Archetypes / 12 Astrological signs / Planetary alignments / Seasonal expressions
UnitePlayPerform Method™️
designed and developed by upp artist, founder and educator Melissa gilbert.
Disarm
Relax into the sacred safety of art
Focus: Softening our everyday armour and protections, opening up to our environment and opening up to our own experiences
HOW: GUIDED, SENSORY, RELAXING, SOOTHING, ENGAGING THE BODY AS A VESSEL
Disrupt
Shift old thought patterns and behaviours
Focus: Introducing tasks, creating tasks through invitation, challenge, risk and choice
HOW: SPONTANEITY, CHANGE, SAFE BUT NOT TOO SAFE, AGILE ACTIVATION
Unite
Engage intuition, collective intelligence and self-agency
Focus: Connection to others, listening, sharing, vulnerability, being part of something bigger than ourselves, oneness
HOW: COLLECTIVE TASKS, COLLECTIVE CEREMONY, RESPONSIBILITY AND CONTRIBUTION, SHARING, ACKNOWLEDGING, COMMITTING
Play
Activate expansive imagination
Focus: Curiosity, experimentation, improvisation choose your own adventure within a container
HOW: INVITING PARTICIPANTS TO GUIDE THEIR OWN WAY, ANCHORS, LIFELINES, SOFT STRUCTURES, OPEN TASKS, PRACTICE, REPETITION, INTUITION, SELF-GUIDANCE
Perform
Activate new ways through voicing, visualising, expressing, dancing, moving and making
Focus: Intentional practice, forecasting, visioning, enacting the future self within the future community
HOW: INTENTIONAL SIMULATED ENVIRONMENTS, VOICING, EXPRESSING, MOVING, DANCING, COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE
Transform
Commit, acknowledge and integrate new skills into real life experiences
Focus: Identify shifts, experiences and real time change, integration
HOW: MEANING MAKING, JOURNALLING, RESTING, PAUSING, REVIEWING, DAY DREAMING, CELEBRATING
Our Values
Supporting generative growth within a safe container.
Sparking potent purpose as a legacy leading onward.
Inspiring joy and self development through curiosity.
Exploring the freedom to walk with truth.
Motivating dynamic experimentation and creative invention.
Activating radical self expression through socially engaging experiences.
Empowering spirited strength through vulnerability.
Inviting limitless potential and possibility.
Pioneering new ideas with a novice approach.
Tuning into harmonies and rhythms of universal energy.
Honouring the human experience with confidence and celebration.
Cultivating empathy through humility.
Testimonials
“Melissa's impressive creative vision and her team's captivating performances were instrumental in the success of our event, and we are delighted to be partnering with her again for our upcoming Purpose Conference in November 2023.
We are particularly excited about the new interactive works that Melissa and her team will be creating for our 2023 event. These works will offer opportunities for our community of entrepreneurs, change makers, and social impact organizations to engage with participatory and socially engaging art. UnitePlayPerform's heart-led approaches and play design, as well as their use of storytelling to discuss larger societal and environmental topics, make them a perfect fit for Purpose Conference's mission.”
KATE HURST, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, PURPOSE CONFERENCE
As the Founder and Director of Purpose Conference, I had the pleasure of collaborating with Melissa, the Artist and Founder of UnitePlayPerform, as part of our 2022 conference. Our event brought together over 800 individuals to explore cutting-edge ideas in business, ethics, brand, ESG, and corporate responsibility. Melissa's contribution to the two-day event was nothing short of extraordinary, featuring captivating art installations, multiple performances, and an intimate artist talk.
As one conference participant eloquently put it, "Missy Gilbert is an explosion of energy and empowerment." We were fortunate to have Melissa share her talents with our community, and her contributions were a highlight of the conference.
SALLY HILL, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, PURPOSE CONFERENCE
“No safety edge - Melissa Gilbert excels in producing socially engaging art.
Gilbert strongly welcomes a pushing of boundaries in the art and design world, and celebrates the proliferation of self-taught artists who are hungry to take risks – and the design world is equally excited to lap them up.”
HELENA MORGAN, AUSTRALIAN DESIGN REVIEW
(REVIEW FOR MELBOURNE DESIGN FAIR)
“UnitePlayPerform shows how design can go above and beyond to tell a story. When art becomes tangible and interactive, an accessibility is unlocked. UPP's focus on neuroscience and awareness around mental health through engaging workshops is fundamental in sparking the conversations needed for positive change.”
EMILY MEDBURY, AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER, NICEFILM CO.
“Did you know this is a tax-deductible professional development program? Plus, you can explore local and national grants, quick-response funding, and other opportunities to support your transformation. Your growth just got even more accessible!”
WE INVITE YOU TO APPLY THROUGH OUR FUTURE FACER CURIOSITY QUESTIONNAIRE.