Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• “Auslan features intermittently on Australian television throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s”
  Auslan appeared intermittently on Australian television throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. Ana Maria Belo has curated a video compilation of scenes featuring Auslan. Belo calls it “a very brief history lesson on Deaf Actors on Australian Television before Social Media.” As she explains, “this is not a complete list of performances, but a nod to the actors who blazed a mighty trail for those of us who attempt to follow.”
• “Melbourne venue guides published in the 1990s”
  Arts Access Victoria published the ‘Melbourne Venue Guide: A Description of Access for People with Disabilities to Some of Melbourne's Major Entertainment Venues’ in 1992. They published an updated guide in 1998: ‘The Vic Venue Guide: A Guide to Access and Facilities at Over 75 Victorian Entertainment, Sporting and Cultural Venues’. This updated guide was produced in conjunction with VicHealth and supported by Arts Victoria. The guide provided information about where to make bookings, parking and public transport, facilities and access for disabled patrons, and seating.
• “The national tour of the exhibition BodySuits results in commissions and new opportunities for artists”
  A visual arts exhibition, BodySuits, toured nationally between 1997 and 1999. It was curated by Jane Trengove. This resulted in commissions and new opportunities for artists. Arts Access Victoria published a catalogue for the exhibition in 1997; the exhibition showed in Melbourne from 5 July - 2 August 1997 at 200 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (a location now known as Gertrude Contemporary).
• “Australian Caption Centre opened in 1982”
  The Australian Caption Centre was opened 13 September, 1982. A tour took place at the Australian Caption Centre in Sydney in the 1990s; the video (now available on YouTube) explains how the Centre worked. In 2005, the Centre sold its commercial operations including the captioning services to Red Bee Media and formed Media Access Australia.
• “Incite Arts (NT) established in 1998”
  What would become Incite Arts (Northern Territory) was established in 1998, known at that time as the Alice Springs Youth Arts Group (ASYAG). “ASYAG was formed as a response to a locally identified need for a vehicle to express young people’s stories in a valid contemporary cultural context.” In 2004, the organisation adopted the name InCite Youth Arts Inc and was incorporated as a not-for-profit. The following year, they became the host and auspice of Arts Access Central Australia (AACA), an arts and disability committee. The organisation’s name was revised once again in 2013, becoming Incite Arts.
• “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.
• "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.
• "Arts Access Victoria established in 1973 and provides valuable resources and conferences throughout the decades"
  In 1973, Judy Morton successfully applied for funding to start a 6-month pilot program and Arts Access Victoria was established the following year. However, due to lack of government funding and despite public appeal, programs were suspended in 1977. Fortunately, operation resumed in 1979 and AAV was formally constituted with a small School Commission fund as Arts Access Society Inc. Arts Access Victoria had both organisational and financial growth in the mid to late 1980s. This led to a diversification of arts projects and the beginning of long-term artistic programs which remain as the core programs of AAV. Arts workshops also began in regional Victoria during this time. In 1988, Arts Access was approached to run a national conference focusing on the arts and disability. Two years later, they convened P-art-ICIPATE '90 and subsequently published ‘P-art-ICIPATE '90: a conference report’. They also published ‘Inner Words Outer Spaces’, edited by Bev Roberts (1995), ‘Arts Alive: An Information Leaflet about the Ways the Arts Can Work for Older People’ (1995), ‘Accessible Theatresports’ (1996), and Bev Roberts's ‘Work Guide: How to Establish an Artist in Community Project’ (1996). In 1998, Arts Access (Victoria) assumed responsibility for its own financial management and administration. In 1999, Arts Access Victoria presented Verve!, a national symposium on arts and disability.
• “Arts Project Australia is founded in 1974”
  In 1974, Myra Hilgendorf OAM founded Arts Project Australia, an organisation whose aim is for artists with an intellectual disability to have their work presented in a professional manner. In 1984, Arts Project moved to Hawthorn, Melbourne and started a studio workshop program. The organisation became an Incorporated Association in 1986. In 1994, Arts Project Australia artists exhibited their work internationally. Exhibitions occurred at MADMuseé and Centre d’Art Differencié in Belgium. Artist Julian Martin was selected for the Moët & Chandon Touring Exhibition. Arts Project published an education/slide kit in 1994 called ‘Between the Lines: Visual Arts and Intellectual Disability’. The organisation first published ‘Outline: News from Arts Project Australia’ in 1996. Arts Project Australia was recognised by the National Gallery of Australia in 2013 for having international significance.
• “Tutti Arts is founded in Adelaide by Pat Rix in 1997”
  Tutti Arts was founded in Adelaide by Pat Rix in 1997. Initially a choir of people with and without disabilities, it quickly added a focus on visual arts. Tutti has since expanded to offer programs in dance, screen, music, acting, and visual arts, and its choir continues. Programs are on offer in Brighton, Port Adelaide, and in the Barossa Valley, for adults as well as kids and youth. Tutti has performed both nationally and internationally, and has taken part in significant co-productions. Tutti Arts and KickstARt 2 Choir presented Up and Away for the KickstART Festival in Vancouver, Canada in 2004. Tutti’s international performance of 'Between the Worlds' in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2007) was remounted as a coproduction with Interact Center for the Performing and Visual Arts. Tutti returned to Minneapolis in 2009 to perform ‘Northern Lights, Southern Cross,’ which they first performed in 2007 for Adelaide Fringe. It was a collaboration with Interact, which brought together Aboriginal, Native American and Disabled Artists from the Northern and Southern hemispheres “to explore personal, racial and environmental trauma.” In 2009, Tutti Ensemble performed with the State Opera of South Australia to present ‘The Shouting Fence’.
• “Inaugural High Beam festival in 1998”
  High Beam was a biennial community-based disability arts festival. It was a joint initiative of SPARC Disability Foundation and Arts In Action (through the direction of Tony Doyle). (Arts in Action later became Arts Access SA.) The 10-day event was the first of its kind in the Southern hemisphere, attracting around 20,000 people at each festival. The festival showcased theatre, dance, comedy, and music. Some celebrity artists included Adam Hills and David Helfgott. The inaugural festival (1998) invited Swedish Disability Theatre Company Mooms Teatern to perform; the company also conducted workshops with a disability-led Australian theatre company, No Strings Attached. This first festival was also the site of Tutti's first public performance as a choir.
• “Access Arts commissions a multi-arts project, Peter Vance performs the song ‘Welcome to My Day’ at the 1999 Wataboshi Festival in Japan”
  Peter Vance was asked by Access Arts to team up with Ant McKenna to compose a song. He then performed ‘Welcome to My Day’ at the 5th Asia Pacific Wataboshi Music Festival in Japan in 1999. Access Arts sent disposable cameras out to members across Queensland; each story became a collage in the State Library foyer as a day-in-the-life of each artist.
• “Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts, Australia (DADAA), based in Western Australia, is established in 1994”
  The National Participate Conference, hosted by Arts Access Victoria in 1990, set the scene for the emergence of the DADAA network. This came after several years of conversations among Western Australian artists about starting an organisation; the organisation was officially established in 1994. “In 1986, a small group of artists with disability met to discuss starting their own WA-based arts organisation. It is from this meeting that DADAA slowly grew, from a pilot project it became an organisation in its own right in 1994: taking the name Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts, Australia – DADAA.”
• “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".
• “Fusion Theatre established in 1997”
  Fusion Theatre (Victoria) was established in 1997. "Since its beginnings as a drama group, Fusion has expanded into two main performance ensembles that make up the company. The ensemble members collaborate with professional theatre makers, guest performing artists and designers, to devise theatre performances based on the stories, imagination and ideas of all participants." Fusion Theatre’s ongoing association with Deakin University's Faculty of Arts and Education means that each year, Deakin’s theatre and drama students work with Fusion as artists, performers, assistants, and theatre technicians. Some alumni continue to be involved with the company.
• “Salubrious Productions (QLD) established in 1999”
  Salubrious Productions (Queensland) was established in 1999. Salubrious is an agency for disabled artists, representing musicians, writers and composers, theatre performers and actors, visual artists, and technicians in the creative industries. The agency continues operation today. Their website describes them as follows: “Salubrious Productions is a Brisbane-based entertainment and production agency. We represent a core of more than 200 diverse acts and artists and draw further from a large network of professional artists throughout Queensland and Australia.”
• “House Gang debuts on SBS”
  In 1996, a comedy television series debuted on SBS called ‘House Gang’ featuring three actors with intellectual disabilities.
• “Arts Access Australia established”
  Arts Access Australia was established in 1992 as a national body for arts and disability with funding support from the Australian Council for the Arts.
• “Disabled actor and writer Heather Rose stars in ‘Dance Me to My Song’ (1998)”
  The 1998 film ‘Dance Me to My Song’ stars Heather Rose, who also co-wrote the film. It is about a woman with cerebral palsy, whose carer resents the job. The dramatic tension rises when the two women both take an interest in the same man. The Rolf de Heer-directed film is significant for casting a disabled actor at a time when authentic disability representation was rare, not to mention Rose’s contribution to the screenplay. ‘Dance Me to My Song’ was selected to feature in the Cannes International Film Festival in May 1998. The documentary ‘Heather Rose Goes to Cannes’ (1998, Christopher Corin) follows Rose’s journey from Adelaide to Cannes.
• "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.