ACCESSIBLE ARTS NEWS
A new position at Accessible Arts will oversee all aspects of annual fundraising activities including developing and implementing the annual fundraising strategy, writing grant applications and building relationships with potential funders to raise funds for the emerging area of arts and disability.
A panel of five speakers from NSW, Australia are presenting the session ‘Access to Museums: Inclusive Approaches to Attract Visitors with Disability,' at the second International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, to be held at the University of Queensland in July 2009.
The 56th Sydney Film Festival in partnership with Accessible Arts will trial a new method of captioning for people who are deaf or who have a hearing impairment, at this year's festival. An audio described screening will also be included as part of the Accessible Cinema program. 
Sydney Film Festival is inviting Sydneysiders to get off their couch and experience the real deal from 3-14 June 2009.
In partnership with the Bundanon Trust, Accessible Arts is providing an artist in residency opportunity for a NSW artist with a disability.
Accessible Arts, National Disability Services and Sydney Opera House will host an information session relating to implementation of the Companion Card in NSW for Affiliates and potential Affiliates of the program.
Accessible Arts has partnered with the Sydney Writers’ Festival to provide an Auslan interpreter for special event, International Voices on Saturday 23 May at 7:00pm.
Those not acquainted with Matt Laffan may have read of his death recently and it is sad indeed. Matt provided comment on a number of Accessible Arts' projects.
ARTS ACTIVATED CONFERENCE 2010
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Nobuyuki Tsujii, a twenty year old pianist from Japan, has won the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Nobuyuki, who has been blind since birth, was awarded tie for first with Haochen Zhang from China, for the Nancy Lee and Perry R Bass Gold Medal.
ARTS & DISABILITY SECTOR NEWS
Catherine Branch graduated last spring from Rice University in Houston, TX as a flute performance major. Since then she has been traveling as a research fellow of the Thomas J Watson Foundation, exploring the role of art in disability advocacy around the world. A concert performance of music that reflects her findings will be presented at the Sydney Conservatorium on 26 June 2009.
International focus: EastEnders is to feature for the first time a character who uses a wheelchair as part of a series of measures by the BBC to raise the profile of actors and performers who have disabilities.
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery is currently exhibiting works by Dion Beasley, a young artist with a disability from Central Australia.
A national consultation which will inform future directions for the work of Regional Arts Australia is being held in Bathurst on Tuesday 30 June 2009.