Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• "Accessible Arts - ACE Arts Creativity Expression - Helen Meekosha, Leanne Dowse and Andrew Jakubowicz - Article: Exposing Mass Culture To Disability Issues - Iss15"
  Accessible Arts - ACE Arts Creativity Expression - Helen Meekosha, Leanne Dowse and Andrew Jakubowicz - Article: Exposing Mass Culture To Disability Issues - Iss15 -analysis of TV Series 'House Gang'
• "Accessible Arts - Annual Report 2006"
  Accessible Arts - Annual Report 2006 - About Accessible Arts, Chair’s report, Chief Executive Officer’s report, Accessible Arts’ people, Strategic Outcomes, Service, Arts programs, Training, Audience Development, Information and Public Relations
• "Accessible Arts - Arts and Disability Expo - Promotional Poster"
  Accessible Arts - Arts and Disability Expo - Promotional Poster
• "Accessible Arts - NSW Arts and Disability Partnership - Promotion Card"
  Accessible Arts - NSW Arts and Disability Partnership - Promotion Card - reads, in part "The NSW Government has committed $1.5 million to increase access to arts and cultural activities for people with a disability."
• "The Other Film Festival - Writing on Film and Disability"
  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 - Annual Report 2000-01"
  Australia Council Annual Report 2000-2001 - discusses letter from chair of council, corporate overview, year in review, financial statements, analysis of funding and grants for projects, initiatives, new work, programs, presentation and promotions including funding for music development, implementing the Commonwealth Disability Strategy by evaluating current and changing needs of people with disabilities in the arts sector and reflecting this in funding and policies, arts marketing and audience development and triennial grants to disability arts organisations in NSW, South Australia and Victoria
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 2004-05"
  Australia Council Annual Report 2004-2005 - discusses letter from chair of council, letter from CEO, corporate overview, year in review, goals, financial statements, analysis of funding analysis and grants list, including funding for key organisations, new work, presentation and promotion, audience participation (with publication “Access All Areas”), skills and arts development with Arts Access partnering with Helicon Dance to provide 10 workshops in Princess Alexandra hospital Mental Health Service to find out which arts the community members wanted to pursue with a reference group including the University of Queensland and funding for Back to Back theatre to perform Small Metal Objects, in collaboration with sound artist Hugh Covill, animator Rhian Hinkley, director/designer Bruce Gladwin to shed light on, provoke and transform society, and to position artistic creativity as an integral part of the nation’s agenda. Triennial funding to Arts Access Australia (formerly known as Disability in the Arts Disadvantage in the Arts Australia—DADAA)
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 2010-11"
  Australia Council Annual Report 2010-2011 – discusses year in review, letter from chairman, vision, list of council staff, message from the CEO, Strategic priorities, funding overview, statement of outcome, about the Australia Council including governance, boards, organisation, accountability, workplace; financial review and discussion of the Commonwealth Disability Strategy with a review of how the Disability Action Plan 2008–2010 addresses Australia Council roles of policy adviser, purchaser, provider and employer and how Council is committed to the National Arts and Disability Strategy adopted in October 2009 with ministers agreeing on four priority areas of action -addressing barriers, supporting practice, developing audiences and improving policy.
• Disability Arts History Australia Launch 2025 - 1 Page Information Sheet
• "Back to Back Theatre established"
  The theatre company Back to Back was established in 1987. They are a drama group comprising artists with intellectual disabilities who have since toured both nationally and internationally in mainstream Australian theatre.
• "Australia Council commissions a research study on people with disabilities' participation in arts activities"
  Australia Council commissioned a research study on the problems faced by people with disabilities attempting to participate in art activities (Australia Council Annual reports 1979/1980 and 1980/1981).
• "Weave Movement Theatre formed"
  Weave Movement Theatre was formed in 1997 following a series of workshops (organised by Arts Access) led by Adam Benjamin, director of CandoCo, a world-renowned inclusive dance company. Janice Florence was asked to facilitate classes prior to the workshops.
• "Dr G. Yunupingu plays keyboards, guitar and percussion on Yothu Yindi's 'Treaty'"
  Geoffery Gurrumul Yunupingu, an indigenous Australian from the Gumati Clan on Echo Island, was a blind musician, singer and song writer. As a child taught himself to play a guitar "upside down". He started as a guitarist, key board player and percussionist for the pop/rock band Yothu Yindi who had the international hit "Treaty" in 1991.
• "Making the arts work for everyone: a resource and information kit about arts and disabilities produced in 1995"
  Arts Access Victoria and Australia Council published 'Making the Arts Work for Everyone: A Resource and Information Kit about Arts and Disabilities' in 1995.
• "National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness Report launched in 1993"
  The National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness Report was launched 20th October, 1993. This led to deinstitutionalisation.
• "The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust begins operations in 1954"
  The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust began operations in 1954. The key role of the trust was to support the arts in Australia leading to the independent companies of: Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet Foundation, National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), and Bell Shakespeare Company. At this time there was little involvement of people with disabilities in the arts.
• "Founder of the Victorian Association of Braille Writers and the Association for the Advancement of the Blind publishes her memoirs"
  In 1947, “Memoirs of Tilly Aston: Australia's Blind Poet Author and Philanthropist” was published. “Memoirs of Tilly Aston” is an autobiography by Mathilda Ann Aston who was the first blind person in Australia to go to university. Aston founded the Victorian Association of Braille Writers and the Association for the Advancement of the Blind.
• "The Australian Council for the Arts established in 1968"
  The Australian Council for the Arts was established in 1968. This came after a push during the late 1960s for better support of the arts in Australia. The Council replaced the Elizabethan Trust as Australia’s main arts body, although the Trust continued to receive funding from State governments. The Council was later given statutory authority in 1975 and called Australia Council. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam is recognised as a key political supporter of the arts. The election of Whitlam (serving from December 1972 to November 1975) gave unprecedented and considerable attention and funding to an arts policy which would establish an Australian cultural identity raising international awareness. The Australian Council for the Arts received an unprecedented $14 million in funding in the 1973/74 budget. This was “more than double the allocation the bodies out of which it evolved had received the year before. The Council’s allocation was increased by a further 50 per cent in the 1974/75 Budget."
• “Assistance to Composers Advisory Board created by the Commonwealth government.”
  In 1967, the Commonwealth government created the Assistance to Composers Advisory Board with an aim to advise on funding needs for music composition and promotion of Australian composers. The Board was to judge work based on “musical distinction or excellence of its kind, and on the promotion of Australian composers both in Australia and abroad”. The Board’s functions were later absorbed by the Australia Council.
• "The Australia Council establishes the Community Arts Committee in 1973 and the Community Arts Board in 1978"
  The Australia Council established the Community Arts Committee in 1973 and the Community Arts Board in 1978. The purpose of the latter was to encourage wider participation in the arts, especially for groups with little social capital. The Board was “the first funding body to identify the community arts phenomenon and respond with definition and policy." This occurred under the directorship of Rosalie Bower, the first director of the Community Arts Board, who wrote in a paper entitled 'The Case for a Community Arts Centre': “The activities within a centre should be accessible to children, aged people, the physically handicapped, ethnic groups and those whose time is severely restricted by work and family ties. The activities supplied by the centre should be conducted free from competitive elements which otherwise might discourage people from participation, and they must be inexpensive and accessible at almost any time. They must not pre-suppose education or income levels which would cut them off from any section of the community.'" (Australia Council 1979/1980 Annual Report, page 32)
• “The Deaf Film Society creates the documentary ‘Our World’.”
  In 1970, the Deaf Film Society created a documentary called ‘Our World’ on the lived experience of people who were d/Deaf. The Adult Deaf Society assisted with the project.
• “Australia Council praises NSW Theatre of the Deaf and provides some funding to the Deaf theatres throughout the 1970s”
  The 1976/77 Australia Council annual report stated: "The NSW Theatre of the Deaf is a significant achievement. The only funded organisation in Australia working in nonverbal theatre, its production of King Lear received widespread praise. This company is now accepted as operating in a legitimate area of theatre rather than performing mime works for the deaf. This offers wide scope for innovation." The Council’s 1977/78 annual report recorded that it granted funding to the NSW Theatre of the Deaf “towards salaries of artistic director, deaf director, and tutors’ fees in 1978” for $25,000; the “presentation of theatre pieces (mime, clowning, puppetry) in public performance” for $2,500, and “towards costs of a production in 1978” for $4,000. It also awarded $1,980 to Queensland Theatre of the Deaf “towards the cost of transporting company to Sydney for seminar with NSW Theatre of the Deaf”. Drama Resource Centre (Victoria) received $2,840 “to develop student theatre at Victoria School for Deaf Children” and $630 went to Children’s Activities Time Society (Western Australia) for the “cost of deaf mime artist, Rae Gibson, to undertake four week visit to Melbourne and Sydney to work with deaf artists”. The following annual report for 1978/79 recorded that the Council granted $25,000 to the NSW Theatre of the Deaf “towards salaries of artistic director, administrator and tutors” in 1979. The Council also awarded $1,800 to the Queensland Theatre of the Deaf towards a salary for Geoffrey Rush to work with the company in 1979. The 1979/1980 Australia Council annual report mentions funding “provided for a playwright-in-residence at the NSW Theatre of the Deaf.”
• “Les Murray's poetry is influenced by his autism”
  In 1974, Les Murray wrote a poem about autism, ‘Portrait of the Autist as a New World Driver’. Over the decades since, autism has continued to be a theme, as recognised by Amanda Tink.
• “Disabled actors perform at Melbourne Concert Hall”
  In 1982, 50 “handicapped” actors (though none were named in the media) were involved in Access Arts’ ‘Theorem’ at the Melbourne Concert Hall, an example of inclusive arts practice. The performance received broad public attention.
• “The inaugural National Braille Music Camp takes place”
  In 1986, Ian Cooper was one of the creators of the first National Braille Music Camp, which continues annually.