Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• “Research project ‘Disability and the Performing Arts in Australia: The Last Avant Garde’ investigates the creative and aesthetic strategies of the Australian disability arts sector”
  A research project beginning in 2016, ‘Disability and the Performing Arts in Australia: The Last Avant Garde,’ investigated the creative and aesthetic strategies of the Australian disability arts sector. The project sought to map “disability arts practice across the nation” by examining “the role of artistic experimentation,” “co-design[ing] accessible strategies,” and raising “critical recognition, employment and funding opportunities for artists.” The project team describes themselves as a collective “of deaf and disabled and non-disabled researcher artists, performers, writers, arts managers and theatre makers.” The work was the result of a collaboration between Arts Access Victoria, University of Melbourne, and University of Sydney. The Australia Research Council provided funding for the research.
• “The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is launched”
  Following the spike in interest in the mid to late 2000s, significant steps were made towards the development of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). It came about as the result of discussions about alternatives of disability support arrangements from 2007 to 2011. This included National Disability Strategy 2010–2020. A trial phrase of the NDIS was launched in 2013, and the scheme was rolled out across the country from July 2016. The 2022 change of government, which saw the Labor party voted in for the first time in nine years, reflected voter concern for climate change and social policies. The new prime minister Anthony Albanese ordered an independent review of the NDIS. The NDIS Review report was published in 2023 and had a number of recommendations, including affording funding based on functional impairment rather than diagnosis, increasing support for children, a requirement that all providers be registered, and state governments providing supports through other services for people who do not meet NDIS criteria.
• “National Arts and Disability Strategy is launched in 2009”
  In 2009, the National Arts and Disability Strategy was agreed on by Australian Cultural Minister’s Council. The strategy sought to improve access and participation in the arts and identified four priority areas: barriers to access and participation, supporting the creative practice of artists with disability, developing audiences for disability arts practice, and strengthening policy and planning within governments.
• "Interview with Kath Duncan"
  Kath Duncan is a writer, a director, a provocateur, a visual artist, a comedian, a producer, a journalist, a radio broadcaster and disability advocate. Interview Summary Kath Duncan is an experienced and prominent figure in the disability arts community with a passion for experimental performance arts, having witnessed the beginnings of the disability arts movement in Australia and participated in its evolution. Her art is inherently political, shaped by her unique perspective as a congenital amputee. Kath firmly believes in the inherent creative revolutions and endless inspiration within all impairments. Kath highlights the ongoing struggles within the disability arts sector, including high unemployment rates for disabled individuals, systemic barriers, and the need for disabled leadership in arts organizations. While cherishing the milestones and transformative experiences she's had, Kath calls for significant systemic changes, emphasizing the importance of team playing and collective work to support and grow the disabled artist community.
• Arts Access SA
• Access2Arts
• “In 2014, the Australia Council introduces its first grant specifically for artists with disabilities”
  In 2014, the Australia Council introduces its first grant specifically for artists with disabilities. Then Australia Council CEO Tony Grybowski announced “the Artists with Disability Pilot Program; the Council’s Disability Action Plan for 2014-2016; and additional funding for Arts Access Australia to increase career development and employment opportunities for artists with disability.” The pilot program granted $300,000 to disabled artists to develop and present their work. Following this, the program was extended for another three years. The “million dollar investment” would “provide development grants of up to $25,000 and project grants of up to $50,000 for individuals and groups.” That same year, the Australia Council received its first ever grant application in Australian Sign Language (Auslan). However, in 2019, Australia Council ended its dedicated funding program for disabled artists and replaced it with the National Arts and Disability Awards.
• Arts In Action
• “The National Disability Strategy 2010–2020 is launched and, later, Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031”
  The Australian Government launched the National Disability Strategy 2010–2020 in 2011. All levels of government were involved in a united national approach to improving life for people with disabilities, their families and carers. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was an outcome of this process. In 2021, the Disability Strategy Advisory Council was established and the most recent iteration of the strategy, Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, outlines a vision for a more inclusive and accessible Australian society where all people with disability can fulfil their potential as equal members of the community.
• “Creative Australia releases reports on arts participation, including d/Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent artists and audiences”
  A series of reports about arts and disability in Australia published in the mid-to-late-2010s are summarised on the Creative Australia website. Sources for the summary include Connecting Australians: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey (June 2017), Making Art Work: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia (2017), Creating Pathways: Insights on support for artists with disability (2018), and Arts and Disability in Australia: Meeting of Cultural Ministers (2018). The overview of this research series demonstrates that disabled Australians’ participation in the arts had increased as access had grown, though equity for disabled artists, especially those with intersecting marginalised identities, continued to face barriers. It reports that work by disabled artists is innovative and transformative.
• "Interview with David Doyle"
  David Doyle is the Executive Director of DADAA and has spent over 30 years leading large-scale Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) and arts projects globally and in Western Australia, significantly contributing to the arts and disability sectors through his work with DADAA and his dedication to community wellbeing and access to arts and culture. Interview Summary David Doyle, who originally trained in printmaking and ceramics with a background in community arts, has worked extensively in community arts and cultural development with a focus on addressing social issues through the arts. His experience with a disability from a young age and a deep understanding of power dynamics and privilege have influenced his motivation and commitment to disability arts in Australia. David highlights the significance of the Disability Discrimination Act and NDIS in empowering artists with disabilities and notes the uneven distribution of resources for disability arts across Australia. As the leader of an arts organization, he values the transition of power to individual artists with disabilities, stressing the importance of equipping them with the skills and contacts needed to lead and redefine the sector.
• Tutti Arts
• Tutti Ensemble
• Gerard Goggin
• "Interview with Janice Florence"
  Janice Florence is a performing artist and disability advocate. She originally trained as a Teacher and Librarian. Janice has worked in Education and Libraries for many years and in disability advocacy for 20 years She has worked in Training and Consultation at Arts Access Vic for 12 years. Janice has been involved in theatre, dance and human movement for over 35 years. For 25 years she has been the Artistic Director of Weave Movement Theatre, comprising disabled and non-disabled performers. Weave has produced many devised original works often with respected performing artists as collaborators. She was the inaugural recipient of the Australia Council Awards for Disability Arts-Established Artist in 2019. Interview Summary Janice Florence is a veteran performer and Artistic Director of Weave Movement Theatre, which includes disabled performers. During the interview, Janice reflected on her extensive history with dance, both prior to and after acquiring her disability, highlighting the significance of political and personal themes, as well as the use of humour in her work. She discussed the ongoing challenges in securing accessible rehearsal and performance spaces, along with the complexities of funding and recognition within the Disability Arts scene in Australia. Janice also acknowledged the importance of Disability Arts historically and its potential for challenging societal expectations regarding disability.
• "DADAA Inc and Arts Access Australia (2012) public 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."
• “The Victorian Government commissions ‘Picture This: Increasing the Cultural Participation of People with a Disability in Victoria’”
  In 2008, ‘Picture This: Increasing the Cultural Participation of People with a Disability in Victoria’ was published. The report was commissioned by the Victorian Government, specifically the Victorian Office for Disability in partnership with Arts Victoria and Disability Services Division and written by Kim Dunphy and Petra Kuppers. It focussed on methods to increase participation by people with disability in the arts as artists and audience members.
• "Queensland Government releases Arts & Disability Plan 2024-2026"
  Reads, in part "The Queensland Government acknowledges the rights of people with disability to participate equally in the state’s cultural life and to have the opportunity to develop and use their creative, artistic and intellectual potential, as recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability."
• "Bree Hadley, Eddie Paterson, Madeleine Little, Kath Duncan (2024) How Disability Performance Travels in Australia: The Reality Under the Rhetoric. In Czymoch, Christiane, Maguire Rossier, Kate, & Schmidt, Yvonne (Eds.) How Does Disability Performance Travel?: Access, Art, and Internationalization. Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, pp. 62-76.”
  "The last three decades has witnessed the development of a distinct narrative about how disability performance has become a much celebrated component of the Australian theatre landscape. A central aspect of this narrative is the critical importance of festivals, events, and other industry initiatives that allow disabled performers to travel - both conceptually and corporeally - to meet and be mentored by other artists, and to present their work to new and more mainstream audiences, in new spaces and places, around the country, and around the world. In this chapter, we draw on historical data, collected as part of an AusStage ARC LIEF project designed to database information about disability drama, theatre, performance, and dance over the past 100 years, as well as the Last Avant Garde ARC Linkage project on disability performance in Australia, to unpack areas where the reality seems to challenge some of the dominant rhetoric."
• National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
• Disability and Arts Disadvantage and the Arts Australia (DADAA)
• Back to Back Theatre
• "Interview with Caroline Bowditch"
  Caroline Bowditch is an Australian artistic director, leader, performer, presenter, instructor, disability advocate and was the CEO of Arts Access Victoria. Interview Summary Caroline Bowditch, the CEO and Artistic Director of Arts Access Victoria, shared her journey as a performance artist and her experiences working within the Disability Arts community, highlighting her creative process and the challenges faced by disabled artists in Australia. Despite significant support and successful projects in the UK, she expressed concern over the limited progression and exposure of Disability Arts in Australia, noting a lack of ambition and opportunity deterring artists from aiming for larger, mainstream stages. Bowditch emphasized the importance of integrating access as a core component of artistic work and changing the aesthetic by including diverse bodies and perspectives. She also discussed tackling intersectionality within Disability Arts, reflecting on her own experiences as a visibly disabled and queer woman, and contemplating the future of Disability Arts, the desire for cultural equity, and the impact of potential shifts in societal barriers.
• "Bree Hadley (2017) Disability, Sustainability, Austerity: The Bolshy Divas Arts-Based Protests Against Policy Paradoxes. Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Journal 18 Spring. http://www.sustainablepractice.org."
  "In this short article, I want consider some of the ways theatrical artists, activists and advocates in Australia are tackling the paradoxical relationship between sustainability and austerity discourses, and, as a result, some changes this may be starting to produce in disabled people’s aesthetic prerogatives. For the last 30 years, artists, activists and scholars in Australia and beyond have avoided casting disability in terms of trauma, crisis, catastrophe and disaster. Accounts of the way disability theatre challenges stereotypes , as well as analysis of disability signifiers in screen, stage, and social performance , have expressed concern about deploying disability as a metaphor for disaster, or defining disabled people as monstrous, tragic, stoic, or inspirational, the way the medical model of disability traditionally defines us. Instead, modern disabled artists and the scholars who analyse them have advocated for work that deploys live art, performance art, and performative intervention in public space to challenge stereotypes, oppressive institutional systems, and other factors the social model of disability sees as the cause of disability oppression .In the last few years, though, there has been an increase in work that does associate disability with trauma, tragedy and disaster, in what seems to be a response to austerity, accountability and economic sustainability agendas that call for cuts to disability services spending to make our societies more sustainable going forward."
• "Arts and Disability: A research summary"
  Australia Council - Arts and Disability: A research summary, 2018 - reads, in part "The great art created by artists with disability, and participation of people with disability in the arts, are integral to the artistic and cultural life of Australia. This summary brings together findings from Australia Council research publications and a research overview compiled by the Meeting of Cultural Ministers to build the evidence base about disability and the arts."