The Accessible Arts and Bundanon Trust Artist-In-Residence Program announces a creative and career development opportunity for five (5) artists with disability or who are d/Deaf from NSW and the ACT.

 Congratulations to the selected artists: Luke Abdallah, Mark Elliot, Julia Faragher, Bedelia Lowrenčev and Jeremy Lowrenčev.

For the last four years Accessible Arts has partnered with the Bundanon Trust to present an annual residency program for artists with disability. This prestigious program comprises a seven (7) day residency in at the renowned Bundanon Trust estate – a beautiful rural property near Nowra that was gifted to the Australian people by famous Australian artist Arthur Boyd. The estate now supports arts practice and engagement with the arts through residency, education, exhibition and performance programs.  

Due to the impact of the pandemic, the budget for this year’s residency program was raised through a community fundraising program and sponsored by Mable. The residencies will take place in September 2022. 

Accessible Arts CEO Liz Martin says “Artists with disability don’t always get the same opportunities as artists without disability due to a range of physical, financial and cultural barriers. This program is all about trying to level the playing field for professional artists with disability so they can take their creativity and their careers to the next level.” 

The Bundanon Trust Artist-in-Residence program is the largest of its kind in Australia, making it highly sought after by artists nationally. “The residencies have been important steppingstones in the careers of many successful Australian artists, and this is what makes our annual initiative an incredibly valuable creative and career development opportunity for artists with disability.” 

“We’d like to thank our program sponsor, Mable, and everyone who has contributed for their kindness and generosity. This support is going to make a huge difference in the lives of these five very talented artists.”  

Mable CEO and co-founder, Peter Scutt, says: “We are so proud to be partnering with Accessible Arts to support the prestigious Bundanon Trust Artist-in-Residence program. Here at Mable we are passionate about enabling unique and inclusive lives and programs such as these, which foster diversity and inclusion in the arts are so important both for the artists involved and for the wider community.” 

 

About the Artists

Jeremy & Bedelia Lowrenčev
Jeremy is a proud deaf artist from Western Sydney, who is determined to intertwine the Australian Deaf Culture with the Arts Culture. Realising the significant effect of playing one’s true self and owning your disability and identity, Jeremy strives for Deaf inclusion and representation in theatre, film and cultural events. 

Bedelia is a groovy, disabled performer, dancer, and theatre maker from Western Sydney. Currently, Bedelia is working crip time on her art at Griffin Theatre Company as part of the Griffin Studio and Incubator Theatre Fellowship. Specifically, she’s deconstructing her practice with other arts makers including Riana Head-Toussaint, DirtyFeet, We Are Here Dance Company, and The House That Dan Built.

Twins Jeremy and Bedelia are developing a new theatre work, ‘Collision‘, a deep dive into the intersection of Queerness and Disability and what it means to ricochet between the two. It is difference and togetherness through the micro and macro, from Bedelia and Jeremy’s ‘twin-dom’ to the culture and dynamics of entire communities. It’s Disabled, it’s Queer, it’s a confetti cannon of pride, and most of all, it is learning to own your own colliding supernova funk. 

Julia Faragher  

Julia is an artist, writer, photographer and filmmaker. She was recently awarded the Anne Edgeworth Emerging Writer’s Fellowship for 2022 from ACT Writers, completed a writing internship with ABC Sport and currently produces visual content for LoveOzYA. Julia lives with a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia.

Julia is working on her young adult manuscript, ‘Song of the Summer‘, which follows quiet and caring Kiva Hart as she struggles to accept her mother’s cancer diagnosis amongst the chaos of graduating high school and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.

Matt Elliott 

Matt Elliott is a practicing Artist living with Cerebral Palsy. As an abstract landscape painter he has a fascination with dream states, creating lucid mindscapes with a range of media that draw inspiration from the natural environment.

Matt has been an active member at Studio ARTES Northside since 1999 and has consistently exhibited in their annual exhibition program. Matt won first prize in the Disability Category of the Hawkesbury Agricultural Show Art Prize in 2021 and was selected for the Hill End Artist In Residency program in 2019. Matt had his first solo exhibition in February 2022 titled ‘Where I’d rather be’ at the Northern Beaches Creative Space.

Luke Abdallah
As a totally blind emerging artist from Sydney, Luke loves the process and tactility of painting. Often using his cane as the paintbrush in his signature ‘push and pull’ style, Luke’s beautiful artworks capture his energy and movement. He has developed his art practice at Studio Artes since 2009, exhibited in solo exhibitions and features in the documentary ‘A Guide Through Abstraction‘ which was nominated at the Focus on Ability Film Awards in 2019. He is currently preparing for his next solo exhibition, at Goodspace Gallery in Sydney. 

Luke seeks to grow his abstract action painting practice and create a new body of work by branching out into nature during his residency at Bundanon. He will explore the local flora and collect natural detritus to construct natural paint brushes and to create organic, sensory surfaces based on the flora, colours and sensations of the Bundanon landscape. 

Image Description: Five vertical columns with a headshot in each column, featuring: Matt Elliot, Bedelia Lowrenčev, Jeremy Lowrenčev, Luke Abdallah and Julia Faragher.

This program is proudly supported by Mable.