Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• "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.
• Jim Catts
• Graham Berry
• "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)
• "Commonwealth of Australia (2024) Equity: the Arts and Disability Associated Plan"
  "Equity: the Arts and Disability Associated Plan (the Plan) was released on 14 November 2024. The Plan is a four-year roadmap of activities to build the foundations for equity for artists, arts workers and audiences with disability across Australia, with an $8.1 million investment in actions to drive change."
• Madeleine Little
• Barbara Doherty
• “Arts Access Victoria EASE Entertainment Access Service Newsletter Summer 1994-1995"
  Arts Access Victoria EASE Entertainment Access Service Newsletter Summer 1994-1995 - Playhouse Access Policy, venue profile, CUB Malthouse, improved wheelchair seating at Melbourne Theatre Company Fairfax Theatre
• "Bree Hadley (2022) Disability and the Arts, Creative, and Cultural Industries in Australia. Australian Academy of Humanities"
  "This week saw the release of Ensuring Occupations are Responsive to People with Disabilities, a landmark report by the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. As part of the Academy of Humanities’ support for the project, Professor Bree Hadley provided a study of disability in the arts, creative, and cultural industries for the project, and Professor Gerard Goggin was a member of the Expert Reference Group. In this week’s Five-Minute Friday Read, they explain why disability training needs fundamental reform now."
• "Australia Council - Annual Report 1994-95"
  Australia Council Annual Report 1994-95- discusses functions, organisation chart, year in review, work to overcome inequities experienced by artists with disabilities with a review of arts and disabilities developing into an action plan by 1997, artform development, main activities of Council and its Boards, and includes financial statements and lists of grants made including grants for programs, projects, creative development of organisations and an international cultural exchange program.
• "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."
• "Australia Council for the Arts (2022) Australia Council releases Towards Equity: a research overview of diversity in Australian arts."
  Reads, in part "The Australia Council for the Arts have released their critical new report Towards Equity: A research overview of diversity in Australia’s arts and cultural sector. This overview gathers published and unpublished data and research on representation within the arts and cultural sector in Australia."
• Undercover Artist Festival
• "Accessible Arts - Into the Light 1994 - The Major Cultural Function for the World Assembly"
  Accessible Arts - Into the Light 1994 - The Major Cultural Function for the World Assembly - reads, in part "Self determination is of critical significance if stereotypes are to be challenged. Into the Light wil highlight the creative expression of people with and without disablities working together as equals, to explore new artistic dimensions. Pioneering new concepts in dance, theatre and music this performance event will illustrate how creative interaction changes opinion and expands opportunities."
• "Interview with Morwenna Collett"
  Morwenna is a leader, consultant and facilitator in the arts, government, not-for-profit and university sectors and is passionate about helping arts and cultural organisations to include everyone in their work. Interview Summary Morwenna Collett is a consultant in diversity, access and inclusion and during the interview discusses her vast experience in the disability arts sector including time in the Australia Council where she played a key role in creating the first targeted funding program for artists with disabilities. Morwenna notes that while disability arts is gaining some awareness with mainstream audiences, there are still issues regarding how people think about the quality of art created by artists with disabilities. Morwenna highlights the NDIS as a significant milestone for disability arts in Australia, though she believes that there is much more potential for arts organizations to engage with it. Morwenna also emphasizes that the decision for artists to identify with their disability is a personal choice and it is becoming increasingly safe to disclose this identity, demonstrating progress toward inclusion in the arts.
• Chris Brophy
• "Arts Project Australia - Direct Line Exhibition 1994 - Programme/Catalogue"
  Arts Project Australia - Direct Line Exhibition 1994 - Prrogram/Catalogue - list of artists and works
• "Arts Project Australia - Working Art Exhibition 1994 - Promotional Flyer"
  Arts Project Australia - Working Art Exhibition 1994 - Promotional Flyer - reads, in part "Arts Project Australa is pleased to inivte you to working art the official launch - of the supported employment program"
• “Advocates fight for accessible public transport”
  In 1994, Maurice Corcoran (a wheelchair user) lodged a complaint about the South Australian government ordering 50 new buses that were not accessible. The Australian Human Rights Commission successfully negotiated for all new buses to be fitted with ramps. Then, in 1999, a protest about the lack of public transport options for people with disability saw Citizens for Accessible Public Transport block traffic in Sydney’s city centre.
• Jedda Belham
• Jedda Bellham
• Victoria Arts Centre Trust
• Tasneem Allie
• Samantha Marsh
• Karen Brooks