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Newsletter :: October 2007
Image: Mark Bekir
This issue features the latest on the Speak Up consultations, Western Sydney Outreach Program exhibition and AART.BOXX 2007.
Accessible Arts News
Image: Speak Up consultations
Speak Up Consultations Online
Accessible Arts has undertaken a series of Speak Up consultation sessions in local communities around metropolitan NSW. The summaries of these transcripts are now available on our website so that those who couldn't attend a session can read discussions and provide feedback in response to results. We are currently seeking funding to undertake Speak Up sessions with Indigenous communities and in regional areas across NSW in 2008. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Alison McLaren by phone 02 9251 6499 (ext. 4) or email amclaren@aarts.net.au. For further information click here.
New Directions for the Arts
Labour acknowledges the need for an Arts and Disability strategy. With the words "A successful and sustainable arts policy is underpinned by the principles of access, participation, education, excellence and innovation" the Labour Party's Shadow Minister for the Arts launched the release of the ‘New Directions for the Arts' Paper recently. In particular the document highlights the development of an Arts and Disability Strategy with the Australia Council for the Arts. Accessible Arts commends the leadership shown in this paper and looks forward to how it will benefit artists with a disability in NSW. Accessible Arts also calls on the federal liberal party to disclose their vision for arts and disability. Labour's vision for the arts read more.
Audience Development Tip
ArtStart has recently launched their new website for their online youth festival and program of events (ArtStart website not live yet). This new website has been developed in line with Web Accessibility Guidelines otherwise known as W3C (www.w3.org). By providing access to the online festival people with a disability in metropolitan and regional NSW are able to access the festival from their room or home no matter where they are, or what time of day it is. Online initiatives are fantastic in enabling access for people with profound disabilities to your event including webstreaming of performances. For further information on web access, contact Alison McLaren by phone 02 9251 6499 (ext. 4) or email amclaren@aarts.net.au.
Image: Western Sydney Outreach program
participants
Western Sydney: Outreach Workshops exhibition
The Outreach Workshops have now been completed! Various disability services across Western Sydney took part in the successful program documenting the places they inhabit with digital stills cameras and mini disc recorders. Come along and see the result of these workshops in the My Space, My Place multimedia exhibition at Powerhouse Youth Theatre, Fairfield from October 24th to November 7th. For more information contact Alison at arichardson@aarts.net.au or 9251 6499 (ext 112).
To let you know AARTS + Powerhouse Museum have joined forces to present the Special Access Kit at the Making Links conference in October. Looks to be a great conference for community orgs and those interested in electronic media, the internet and Web 2.0 / Opensource stuff.
AART.BOXX 2007
The quality of submissions to AART.BOXX 07 was a testament to the diversity and creativity of young Australian artists (under 25) with a disability. We received 85 applications with over 200 works to choose from. Artists from ROOMIES art group informed the selection process, together with Accessible Arts staff. Works selected include, sculpture, painting, photography and even a gangster film! The AART.BOXX exhibition will be held in the Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House 21-22 November 2007. Entry is FREE. For further information contact Josie Cavallaro on (02) 8002 2353 ext 3 or email jcavallaro@aarts.net.au
Sector News
Mental Health Week Art Exhibition: "Express!"
Urban Arts Base is presenting an exhibition of artworks made by people with mental health issues to celebrate their artistic skills and mental health recovery. Participating artists currently attend art workshops at Urban Arts Base, ECHO Community Center, Junction House, Creative Youth Initiatives and the Eastern Suburbs Aftercare. The opening night is Tuesday the 9th October 5:30 to 6:30 at the Waverley Library in Bondi Junction - everyone is welcome. Any questions, please contact Emma or Byron on (02) 9328 3014. Information about UAB and this exhibition can also be found on our website at www.myspace.com/uabways.
Image: My Space, My Place
My Space, My Place
sliced bread attraction has been working for the last 18 months on the My Space, My Place project. Over 50 participants from various disability services across Western Sydney have worked with professional artists learning skills in photography, sound, music, puppetry, design and performance. The final stage of the project is a large-scale performance and Accessible Arts multimedia exhibition which will be held at Powerhouse Youth Theatre, Fairfield from October 24th- October 26th. For more information please contact Alison on 0410 152 341 or alison@slicedbreadattraction.org.au.
Image: Susan "Myriad of Moods"
Myriad of Moods
Artist Susan Turner said that she became interested in painting pictures after being involved in her rehabilitation at "The Junction" Mental Rehab Centre in Nowra. Susan has had paranoid schizophrenia for 25 years whilst being able to hold down a complex and technically demanding full time job in the Lands Department for 17 of those years. Following her medical retirement 6 years ago the symptoms of illness have improved and, now aged 48, Susan occupies her time with many arts and crafts, with the illness falling into the background in her life.
Susan's painting, entitled "Myriad of Moods" contains art done during recent different moods and won 3rd prize in the June 2007 Shoalhaven Mental Health Fellowship Annual Art Competition. Susan says that although we all experience a myriad of moods, those of us with a mental illness can feel these moods in an extreme way and it can therefore interfere with our daily functioning. For example, if Susan feels depressed, as we all do from time to time, the feeling can linger for days and be overwhelming. One problem that Susan says she has with her mental health is the lack of ability to quickly "move on" from a negative event or feeling, as she tends to hold on to it for too long. Medication helps but it only goes so far. Susan says that painting depictions of her moods helps resolve her feelings and is therapeutic. Susan says thank you to "The Junction" for being a catalyst to express herself in an art form and hopes to develop her art more as time goes on. Website www.mentalhealth.asn.au
High Beam Turns 10
High Beam Global - Australia's international celebration of arts and disability turns 10 at Adelaide Fringe 08. Coinciding with the Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Australian Performing Arts Market. To be part of the fun, it's time now to register your shows, exhibitions and forums about, by and/or involve people with disabilities or make their events highly accessible for people with disabilities. To register visit: www.artsaccess-sa.org.au. To ensure inclusion within the High Beam Global program, you should also register you events with the Adelaide Fringe http://www.adelaidefringe.com. Applications close: 19 Oct 07, no late entries will be considered.
Regional Focus
Image: Joanna and Scott
Scott Kenney is dancing again.
With new dance partner, Joanna on board and having both just returned from a filming trip in Sydney, they are back with a new choreography. Their work will form part of a film commissioned by the NSW Dept of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (DADHC) and will be launched in early November as part of the 2007 celebrations for International Day of People with a Disability. If you want to see them perform live and in the flesh they will be at the Awakenings Festival (Horsham, Victoria, October 12th-21st), showcasing a Modern Ballet piece, as well as a Jive and Modern Waltz. Not to be missed!
International Focus
Keys To The Studio program from Canada
Original music from people diagnosed with developmental and intellectual disabilities is virtually absent in the world of the arts. To begin filling this void, the new music program Keys To The Studio supported by the Canada Council for Arts, has been designed specifically for this group of emerging musicians. Keys To The Studio gives emerging musicians the opportunity to collaborate with professional musicians and music directors in one-to-one sessions, rehearsals with bands made up of peers, workshops, recordings, public jam sessions and concert performances. The pilot project runs this fall (September 24 to December 14, 2007) and in the spring (January 15 to April 11, 2008) at the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre in Parkdale, Toronto. www.keystothestudio.com You can also check them out on Facebook.