Art Unlimited is a professional and accessible studio for artists with a disability. The studio provides professional arts facilities and is staffed by practising artists. Artists attending the studio are given full autonomy over the nature and subject matter of their work. Our facilitators encourage experimentation with ideas and materials, which results in a diversity of art making processes and production.

The Studio was established around 1995 and amalgamated with St Laurence Community Services in Victoria a few years later. Art Unlimited began as a disability enterprise operating in silk-screen production. Over the years, the studio evolved to cater for the professional development of independent artists. This was a vision led by staff and artists at the studio.

Our artists range in age from their 20’s to 50’s. Most of our artists have an intellectual disability, but we also have people with physical disabilities working at the studio.

Art Unlimited currently caters for 38 participants. They range in frequency from half a day to five days a week. This depends on the individual’s choice and circumstance.

We look for people who are artist and/or wish to develop their skills as an artist; they want to work at Art Unlimited; they need to be happy to work with people in an integrated setting; they need to be aged between 18 – 64 yrs; and be willing to accept help and appropriate support with their artwork. People normally contact us, we meet with them and view their portfolio. With each applicant we look for artistic ability or tendencies. We then offer a trial period of a few weeks. If all goes well we offer them a place based on availability.

We have both supported employees through the Commonwealth funded Australian Disability Enterprise program as well as clients funded through day programs funding from the Victorian State Government. We also receive revenue from art sales.

We employ practicing Artists with a degree in fine art. They must have patience and a genuine respect toward people with a disability.

We recently had an exhibition in Sydney at Callan Park Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. This was a great opportunity to exhibit interstate and to a new audience. Such exhibitions are also valuable for networking and raising awareness about our studio and artists.

1. Attitudes to success

As our Artists do not receive an hourly rate of pay for their work (as most mainstream artists) and do not sell their work prolifically. We find it a challenge to measure their success against the financial KPIs we are working toward. Financial success is just one aspect and they are slowly working toward this. We see our artists developing their careers as artists and enjoying the benefits of exhibiting regularly within the Disability and mainstream arenas, attracting international interest and developing their individual artistic skills and social awareness. They are working toward their individual goals and we see this as being successful while understand the balance between attaining gainful employment and satisfying an individual’s creative passion – I think this has always been the plight of an artist having a disability or not. We are attempting to raise our profile by developing a stronger network within the arts industry locally, nationally and hopefully internationally. Improving our website, exhibiting more and looking at ways to attract funding.

2. Resources

The spectrum of key performance indicators (KPI) we are expected to achieve stretches our capacity to support the professional development and profile raising of our artists and studio to the art world. It is forever a balancing act but we have passionate staff, who give their own time to make the difference where possible. We are attempting to educate our disability service on how the arts industry operates and the importance of representing artists within this profession. We are also working through issues such as what ‘success’ means for an artists career and how this isn’t just measured through financial profit.

3. Marketing

Marketing artwork to the mainstream is always a challenge, as we do not want to compromise the artwork or the artists for a few extra dollars. It is very important to our studio that we give our artists full autonomy over their work. Our work is original and we feel it shows as our artists have very different styles. This means we have to find markets for their work rather than produce work to fit the market.

We seek mainstream exhibition opportunities for our artists on an on-going basis. One of our artists was recently selected for the Toyota Spirit Gallery exhibition award. We build relationships with alternative venues such as cafés to show and sell work. We also manage sales of artists work through our website.

We would like to see ourselves more financially independent and have the capacity to employ more staff and build on resources. We would like to have our own Gallery in a prominent position in Geelong giving us a space to use for our own artists but to also attract Outsider and mainstream artists nationally and internationally, curate shows that build awareness of Outsider art within the community. How we get there is the challenge. Raising our profile, developing a business plan, attracting funding.