Cay-Leigh Bartnicke is a marine scientist, curator, artist and speaker with a deep love for the ocean. Specialising in science communication, her mission is making complex ocean sciences and the natural world accessible and meaningful to the public through creative projects.
Currently available for freelance projects, consulting, speaking engagements and art commissions.
Cay-Leigh’s career has focused heavily on project delivery working in collaboration with science institutions, museums, government agencies, galleries, non-profits, and startups. Currently, she works in project delivery in the Saving our Species (SoS) program, NSW Government's flagship threatened species conservation program.
Her career sits at the intersection of conservation and creativity bringing together research, storytelling and public engagement to spark curiosity in the Australian community for the natural world. As a scuba diver and underwater photographer for 15 years, her travels down below and across the world shape both her perspective and practice. With a decade of fine arts training, Cay-Leigh’s drawing and diving merged into curating exhibitions for the Australian National Maritime Museum as their resident marine scientist and Assistant Curator specialising in Ocean Science & Technology.
Combining the forces of science and art, Cay-Leigh has paved a unique career recognised by National Geographic Wear ANZ as a youth ocean changemaker, and as one of Piping Hot’s Heroes for the Ocean.
Curator
Cay-Leigh’s exhibitions have forefronted multi-disclipinary artists, designers, technological innovations, museum collection items and Indigenous knowledge to share stories of the ocean and those serving to protect, conserve and restore it.
Exhibitions currently on tour:
— ‘Bidhiinja - Restoring our oyster reefs’ (2024-26), now on permanent display at Murrook Cultural Centre.
— ‘Valerie Taylor - An underwater life’ now on tour as a travelling exhibition in NSW and WA (2026-27).
Past exhibitions:
— ‘Valerie Taylor - An underwater life’ (2023-24) co-lead curator, Australian National Maritime Museum
— ‘Regeneration Ocean’ (2023-24) lead curator, Australian National Maritime Museum
— ‘Shaped by the sea’ (2022) curatorial assist, Australian National Maritime Museum
— ‘One Ocean - Our Future’ (2021) curatorial assist, Australian National Maritime Museum
Artist & Underwater Photographer
Specialising in watercolour, Cay-Leigh’s artworks depict her underwater experiences, interpreting her own underwater photography or manifesting her future encounters with paint and paper. Available for art commissions.
Speaker
Writer
Cay-Leigh’s speaking engagements can be seen in person at events such as the Ocean Lovers Festival or online in webinars and educational content. She passionately supports the next generation of scientists via mentoring university students, upskilling interns and speaking as an industry expert to encourage careers in STEM to over 1500 students so far. Get in touch for speaking engagements.
Cay-Leigh’s writing has been featured in Signals magazine and is an adept content writer for exhibitions, articles, webpages, social media, script and speech writing. Through all mediums she shows her flair for communicating complex ocean sciences with joy, curiosity and holds the interconnectedness of the parallel issues of human rights, accessibility, sustainability and the circular economy.
