Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• "The Other Film Festival - Writing on Film and Disability - Online"
  The Other Film Festival Writing on Film and Disability - includes ‘Mind’s Eye” Re-envisioning Mental Health in the Arts’ by Adolfo Aranjues; ‘I know it shouldn’t matter, but do you think I’m pretty’ by Naomi Chainey; ‘The Other Film Festival – Disability, Comedy & Subverting Expectations’ by Alastair Baldwin; ‘Filmdis Q&A with Dominick Evans’ by Jax Jacki Brown
• “Australia Council - Disability Action Plan 2017–19”
  The website reads “Our current Disability Action Plan 2017–19 sets out actions in detail, building on the achievements of our previous DAP and stretching us further across our three goals of accessibility, leadership and arts practice.”
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 2020-21"
  Australia Council - Annual Report 2020-21 - reads, in part "• We awarded two new prestigious National Arts and Disability Awards on the International Day of People with Disability in December 2020, to Emily Crockford and Gaelle Mellis. The Council partnered with Arts Access Australia (AAA) on our 2020 Arts and Disability Awards supporting the Arts Access Australia’s National Leadership Award to recipient Abbie Madden.", and "Research underway includes analysis of data from the Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated (ACSPRI) national study on social inequality, analysis of access and equity in the online sphere and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Partnership exploring the evolution of Disability Arts in Australia."
• "The Other Film Festival launched in 2004"
  In 2004, Australia’s first international disability film festival, The Other Film Festival, was launched at the Melbourne Museum. In 2022, Screen Australia began providing funding for festival.
• "The first Arts Activated conference takes place"
  Accessible Arts NSW started biennial Arts Activated conferences in 2007 "to inform, connect and activate people and organisations involved with Australia’s arts and disability sector" https://aarts.net.au/arts-activate/
• "The report Shut Out: The Experience of People with Disabilities and their Families in Australia is published in 2009"
  In 2009, Shut Out: The Experience of People with Disabilities and their Families in Australia was published. This report was commissioned by the Australian Government as part of the National Disability Strategy. It was prepared by the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council.
• "Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons adopted in 1975"
  The 1960s and 1970s saw major changes in people’s attitudes towards disability. Stemming from the growth of the human rights movement and the introduction of normalisation theory internationally, Australia signed key human rights declarations of people with disabilities, the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (adopted in 1975). The Declaration argued that disabled people deserve to live lives “as normal and full as possible”.
• “The Mouth and Foot Painting Artists starts in Australia in 1971”
  The Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (MFPA) started in Australia in 1971. The roots of the international organisation of mouth and food painting artists go back to the 1950s in Europe.
• “The Broughton Art Society is founded in 1965”
  The Broughton Art Society was established in 1965 by Ian Broughton (as The Arts Society for the Handicapped). Broughton, who had muscular dystrophy, was a resident at The Home for Incurables. BAS offers community-based art classes to adults living with disability.
• “Crossroad Arts (Queensland) founded in 1996”
  Crossroad Arts (Queensland) was founded in 1996 by Steve Mayer-Miller. "Crossroad Arts collaboratively develops opportunities for people who experience a disability, to access and participate in the arts".
• “The first Focus on Ability film festival held in 2009”
  In 2009, the first Focus on Ability film festival was started by the CEO of NOVA Employment, Martin Wren. (NOVA is a Sydney-based disability employment service.) FOA holds events in Australia’s major cities and welcomes entries in open categories as well as a schools category and international section.
• “The Asia-Pacific Wataboshi festival comes to Brisbane”
  Hosted by Arts Access Qld, in 2003, the Asia-Pacific Wataboshi festival was brought to Brisbane with the aim to raise the profile of disability arts. David Helfgott was the ambassador.
• "A contemporary visual arts exhibition, Connected 2008, is presented in 2008"
  In 2008, Arts Access Victoria produced Connected 2008, a contemporary visual arts exhibition attracting over 400 entries from artists with a disability across Victoria.
• “Access Arts establishes the SAFE Grant”
  In 2007, Access Arts established the SAFE Grant – Sacred Angel Funding Empowerment. It is a one-off grant for $1,000 to “emerging and professional artists with disability living in Queensland. It is designed to fund the costs (up to $1,000) of attending conferences, training courses, events or mentoring to help enhance an artist’s professional career.” The SAFE grant was established by Peter Vance, whose wife Marilyn passed away from angiosarcoma. In 2019, Choice, Passion, Life (CPL) “committed to upholding the legacy of Peter and Marilyn for an additional 10 years”.
• “Access Arts Achievement Award inaugurated in 2014”
  Access Arts announced a $10,000 Achievement Award in 2013 and first awarded the grant in 2014 to actor Doug Robins. Other recipients since then have included writers, musicians, visual artists, theatre makers, and multi-disciplinary artists. The funding goes to a Queensland artist with disability to “create, develop, present, produce, exhibit and/or tour their work.” Access Arts describe it as “a game-changing opportunity for Queensland artists, arts workers and producers to extend the life of an existing work or create a new one!”
• Theatre performance ‘Take Up Thy Bed & Walk’ integrates ‘aesthetic access’”
  The 2012 performance ‘Take Up Thy Bed & Walk’ designed by Gaelle Mellis and produced by Vitalstatistix proved that accessibility measures could be aesthetic. As Creative Australia describes it “is credited as Australia’s first performance work incorporating ‘aesthetic access’. It embedded the performer’s physicality and communication styles – and those of potential audiences – at the centre of the creative process. The work integrated audio description, captioning, sign language and interactivity uniquely into the core of the work.” Gaelle Mellis has said of the performance that “aesthetic access can be used in ways that add layer, texture, meaning and richness to a work. Art, at its simplest, is primarily about communication. Aesthetic access, at its simplest, is a form of communication that communicates to everyone.”
• “Sydney Film Festival launches Screenability program in 2017”
  Sydney Film Festival launched its Screenability program in 2017. The international program was intended to offer a platform for screen practitioners with disability. Sofya Gollan was Screenability’s inaugural programmer and remained in the role until 2021.
• “Perth International Arts Festival partners with DADAA to promote the inclusion of Deaf and disabled artists”
  As the Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF), Wendy Martin enabled first significant inclusion of Deaf and disabled artists. This inclusion was driven by a partnership (2016-19) between PIAF and DADAA (Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts, WA).
• “Off The List Records (VIC) established in 2020”
  Off The List Records (VIC) was established in 2020. Their Facebook page describes them as “an access-friendly and disability-led record label, working within the DIY, experimental and indie music scenes in and around Naarm.”
• "Janice Rieger and Megan Strickfaden(2019) “Dis/ordered assemblages of disability in museums.” In The Routledge Handbook of Disability Art, Culture, and Media, edited by Bree Hadley and Donna McDonald, 48–61. London & New York: Routledge."
  "Museums are spaces of power and care. They are institutions that present assemblages (Deleuze & Guattari 2002), which are reconstructions and representations of history and societal values, and thus are partial realities that curate human existence. These assemblages cannot ever represent the totality of human existence because it is never possible to do so, and yet these assemblages are embedded with power because choices are made about what ought or ought not be represented within museums (Ott 2013; Bennet 2017). The nature of partial realities is that, at their centre, these are still representations that tell stories of what one would imagine to be the most significant events related to a place (nation, city), with a particular focus on a societal event or issue (war, art, sports, nature, human rights, etc.) and peoples (e.g. immigrants, migrants, First Nations or Indigenous peoples, etc.). Persons attending museums rely on the expertise of historians, curators, archivists, conservators, and exhibition designers to present materials within the museum that focus upon and represent societal values. Most museum visitors are not aware of the power that museums hold, although more and more museum visitors push against narratives which they do not feel to be adequate representations of the places, events, issues, and peoples of society (Hooper-Greenhill 1992, 2000; Anderson 2004; Janes 2009, 2010). Where there is power, there is also care. Historians, curators, archivists, conservators, and exhibition designers take great care in how they assemble materials within museums."
• "DADAA Inc and Arts Access Australia (2012) Art Works: Employment in the Arts for People with Disability.  http://www.dadaa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Art-Works-Full-Report-Web.pdf"
  Reads, in part "This document provides a short overview of the full Art Works report, which captures the results from national research into employment levels, barriers and strategies around employment in the arts for people with disability. The report was produced in response to one of the key focus areas of the National Arts and Disability Strategy, released in 2009."
• "Una Rey (2022) Art and sensoria: Whose disability? ArtLink, 42(2), pp.8–11."
  "SENSORIA: Access & Agency is ArtLink’s effort to affect this swell by providing a platform for divergent perspectives and nuanced articulations of being an artist. Whatever the prevailing conditions. It also invites a discussion within contemporary art discourse that is not driven by fear (of getting it wrong, of ‘the other’, of adding injury to trauma). Art is our place of intersectionality: if you’re reading ArtLink, you’re already on the margins, and quite possibly on the spectrum."
• "New South Wales disability fact pack for arts and cultural organisations - DADAA National Network and Australia Council (1998)"
  Disability fact pack for arts and cultural organisations in New South Wales
• "South Australia : disability fact pack for arts and cultural organisations - DADAA National Network and Australia Council (1998)"
  Disability fact pack for arts and cultural organisations in South Australia
• "Northern Territory : disability fact pack for arts and cultural organisations - DADAA National Network and Australia Council (1998)"
  Disability fact pack for arts and cultural organisations in the Northern Territory