Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• “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.
• "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."
• “Screen Australia commissions the reports ‘Seeing Ourselves’ (2016) and ‘Seeing Ourselves 2’ (2023)”
  In 2016, Screen Australia commissioned a report "Seeing ourselves: Reflections on diversity in Australian TV drama". The report highlighted the lack of characters on TV with a disability. When characters with a disability were part of the story they were played by actors without a disability and were portrayed as either unemployed or retired. Screen Australia commissioned a follow-up report in 2023 called "Seeing Ourselves 2 - Diversity, equity and inclusion in Australian TV drama". This report shows that, while diversity is a global conversation and there is an increase of disability representation, it remained significantly lower than the actual disabled population.
• “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.
• “Office of the Arts releases 'Creative Australia – National Cultural Policy' (2013) , is critiqued for its reference to 'tolerance' of disabled people”
  The national cultural policy ‘Creative Australia’ was published in 2013. It was critiqued for its lack of disability arts funding and its reference to 'tolerating' disabled people. As Arts Hub reported, “By now you will have heard that the National Cultural Policy offers little for Australians with a disability. Not only is there no funding for the National Arts and Disability Strategy, but instead, the policy calls for a culture of tolerance towards people with a disability.”