Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• Disabled Persons Regional Council
• "Interview with Asphyxia"
  Asphyxia is an artist, author, activist and performer who has founded Amplio, a music app for Deaf and hard of hearing people. She also provides free online Auslan lessons and online art courses. Interview Summary Asphyxia is a Deaf artist whose journey into the arts started with a deep love for ballet, but after facing discrimination due to her Deafness, she pivoted to a successful career in circus performance and later puppetry, which embraced her Deafness and signing skills. Her work in performance art led her to write and illustrate the Awards-winning art-journal book, Future Girl, which explores Deaf identity and environmental issues. She has now moved into music, creating an app that makes music accessible and writing music designed with Deaf and hard of hearing audiences in mind. Although not sure about the major milestones in disability arts history in Australia, she considers her art to be both political and personal, often tackling issues related to her identity as a Deaf person and the aesthetics of disability equipment. While Asphyxia identifies as a Deaf artist, above all, she sees herself as an artist whose work appeals to the mainstream while celebrating Deafness and diversity.
• "Arts in Action Annual Report 2003"
  Arts in Action Annual Report 2003, describing the organisation’s work, including preparation for the 2004 High Beam Festival, an artistic program including visual arts workshops, music club, and choir, and assistance with preparation of funding proposals, informational and referral, networking, advocacy.
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2001"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2001 - Management Committee, Aims and Objectives, President's Report, Director's Report, Exhibitions Program, Studio Report, Financials - reads, in part "Since 1984 the organisation has run a visual arts studio program where people with an intellectual disability have the opportunity to work in a community based setting, using high quality art materials, and to receive advice and assistance from practising contemporary artists."
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2002"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2002 - Management Committee, Aims and Objectives, President's Report, Director's Report, Studio Manager's Report, Exhibitions Report, Lifedrawing at RMIT, Financials - reads, in part “Since 1984 the organisation has run a visual arts studio program where people with an intellectual disability have the opportunity to work in a community-based setting, using high quality art materials, and to receive advice and assistance from practising contemporary artists.”
• "Tutti Arts - Annual Giving Promotional Flyer"
  Tutti Arts - Annual Giving Promotional Flyer2016 - Reads, in part, “Please help support disabled artists develop their artistic talents, earn income and feel pride like The Sisters of Invention. With your assistance, Tutti can provide more opportunities for artists to create, develop and exhibit their own work. It costs over $1 million a year to run our diverse art form programs. The possibilities of how your donation will help are endless.”
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 1975-76"
  Australia Council Annual Report 1975-76 discusses membership, the year in review, National theatre of the Deaf from New York show and directors development program assisting Theatre of the Deaf, programs including salary and costs for Arts Access (Vic), Salaries, equipment and materials for program of multi-arts activities to Adult Deaf Society, Braille Book of the Year Award and funding program of entertainment for the old, sick and handicapped in homes.
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 1976-77"
  Australia Council Annual Report 1976-77 discusses membership, the year in review including NSW Theatre of the Deaf as the only funded organisation working in nonverbal theatre with production of “King Lear”, and grants paid by Australia Council including Salaries, travel and costs for NSW Theatre of the Deaf and Braille Book of the Year Award, funding the program of entertainment for the old, sick and handicapped in homes, programs including salary and costs for Arts Access Society (Victoria) and performances by Arts Access Society and Arts Council of Australia (Victoria).
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 1978-79"
  Australia Council Annual Report 1978-79 discusses membership, members of boards, senior staff list, principals and precautions of grants, grant lists, programs including funding for multi arts camps for handicapped children, salaries and travel for NSW and QLD Theatre of the Deaf, and presentation and production costs for Braille and Talking Book Award for 1979.
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 1983-84"
  Australia Council Annual Report 1983-84 - discusses main activities of Council and its eight Boards, and includes financial statements and lists of grants made including artist fees, performances for handicapped, production of radio material for blind, and activities for Theatre of the Deaf.
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 1985-86"
  Australia Council Annual Report 1985-86 - discusses functions and objectives, structures, process and membership of Council, Council Committees and members, Board Members, Assessment panels, staff lists, organisation chart, main activities of Council and its Boards, and includes financial statements and lists of grants made including grants for programs, workshops, tuition and skill development for disabled people in community arts, grant for Theatre of the Deaf Playwright, travel/study grant, Braille Book of the Year award and establishing audio visual gallery accessible to deaf and blind.
• Asphyxia
• "Royal Commission on Human Relationships"
  In 1977, the Royal Commission on Human Relationships noted the legal and human rights of handicapped children and adults.
• "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)
• “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 1985 New Directions Report is released”
  People with disabilities and their families participated in the review for the first time as part of a comprehensive consultation process. The resulting report ‘New directions: report of the Handicapped Programs Review’ was released in 1985. It indicated the need for change in disability policy culture of how people with a disability rights and capacities to realise their individual capacities for development.
• “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.
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 1990"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 1990 - includes Aims and Objectives, President's Report, Program Director's Report Exhibition Program 1990, What do you think of Arts Project?, Financial Reports, Acknowledgements and Thanks - reads, in part "Arts Project Australia began in 1974 as an arts-based advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities"
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 1991"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 1991 - includes Aims and Objectives, President's Report, Program Director's Report, 1991 Exhibition Report, Scenes from the Studio Workshop, Financial Reports, Acknowledgements and Thanks - reads, in part "Arts Project Australia began in 1974 as an arts based advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities. A major reason for the formation of "the Art Project" (as it was then known) was the insight on the part of its members that many people who have an intellectual disability displayed aptitude and talent in the visual arts, and that the flexible conventions of these arts forms could provide access to a variety of means of expression and communication, even when more common forms, particularly linguistic, were difficult for them to utilise."
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 1997"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 1997 - Management Committee, Aims and Objectives, President's Report, Director's Report, Studio Workshop Program, Exhibitions, Financial Statements Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement, Income and Expenditure Summary, Statement of Cash Flows, Notes to Statement of Cash Flows, Notes to and Forming Part of the Financial Accounts, Statement to Members, Audit Statement to Members - reads, in part "Arts Project Australia, had its beginnings in 1974. But it was not until 1984 that our first studio workshop was establish.ed, with the aid of a grant from the Commonwealth Schools Commission. Since 1984 the studio workshop programme has physically developed in fairly well-defined cycles of five to six years. Up until 1986 the programme operated in hard to find halls tucked in behind houses or a convent building."
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2003"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2003 - President’s Report, Director’s Report, Studio Manager’s Report, Exhibitions Report, Financials – reads, in part “Arts Project Australia was founded in 1974. It had the express purpose of exhibiting the art work of people with an intellectual disability in a manner that accords them the same dignity and respect as other artists.”
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2004"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2004 - President’s Report, Director’s Report, Studio Manager’s Report, Exhibitions Report, Financials - reads, in part “Arts Project Australia was founded in 1974. It had the express purpose of exhibiting the art work of people with an intellectual disability in a manner that accords therr1 the same dignity and respect as other artists.”
• "Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2005"
  Arts Project Australia - Annual Report 2005 - Board and staff, supporters,about arts project australia, president's report, director's report, studio manager's report, exhibitions report, financial reports - reads, in part "Arts Project Australia was founded in 1974 as an organisation dedicated to supporting people with disabilities to become practitioners in the visual arts and to promote their work as integral to the broad spectrum of contemporary arts practice"
• "Janice Rieger, Jasmien Herssens, Megan Strickfaden, Marianella Chamorro-Koc, Bree Hadley (2019) Vis-ability Exhibition."
  "The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD, 2016) foregrounds the importance of cultural participation to realise human rights for people with disabilities. The creative industries play a critical role in supporting and shaping these social attitudes towards inclusion. Through the theoretical foundation of Design for All (EIDD Stockholm Declaration, 2004) new engagement processes involving a transdisciplinary team from Australia and around the world converged at QUT to co-design more equitable and collaborative forms of knowledge and practice around inclusion. International universities, the EU Commission and the European Institute for Design & Disability collaborated and presented Design for All for the first time in Australia, positioning QUT leadership in this field and as the first non-European member of EIDD-DfA. Co-design methods were employed through, Vis-ability workshops, Making Visible workshops, tactile artefacts and audio description work in the VisAbility Exhibition. Innovative practice was through the Inclusive Film Screening and Wondrous Googles technologies. An innovative model of engagement was created through the DfA Week program and events across sectors. Knowledge was disseminated through academic articles."
• "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."