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Arts Activated Conference 2012
Desire and Destination
30 – 31 October 2012
The Concourse, Sydney
409 Victoria Avenue Chatswood NSW
The third Arts Activated Conference presents an interactive exploration of access to the Arts as a practical outcome of Australian cultural life. Artists and advocates, practitioners and producers, arts administrators and policy-makers will connect, debate and influence the vision of full social inclusion in all areas of the Arts nationwide.
Keynote Speakers
Kiruna Stamell
UK based actor, dancer and stand-up comedian
Originally born in Sydney but now based overseas, Kiruna’s long list of credits in film, television and theatre come from many destinations across the globe including the UK, Europe and back in her native Oz.
In 1999, while still studying at UNSW, Kiruna got her first professional gig, making her début in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. A move to England soon followed where she studied Shakespearean and Jacobean Theatre at LAMDA.
Continuing her interest in contemporary dance, Kiruna has recently performed in Stockholm in Perfect/Come Join My Picnic. She is noticeably recognisable as an actor from Ricky Gervais' sitcom, 'Life's Too Short', the BBC's dramas 'Heart and Soul' & 'EastEnders' and ‘Cast Offs’ for SBS and Channel 4 (UK).
Kiruna is known as a fiercely intelligent, hilariously funny, loyal and forthright individual and a thoroughly engaging and entertaining speaker, passionate about the performing arts and the influence her dwarfism has had on her career.
Read an interview of the artist.
Petra Kuppers
US based academic, community artist and disability culture activist
Currently the Artistic Director of The Olimpias Performance Research Series and Associate Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Petra also teaches on the low residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College.
Her academic book publications include Disability and Contemporary Performance: Bodies on Edge (2003), The Scar of Visibility: Medical Performances and Contemporary Art (2007), Community Performance: An Introduction (2007), and Disability Culture and Community Performance: Find a Strange and Twisted Shape (2011), a book that charts many Olimpias performance experiments.
A poetry/cross-genre book, Cripple Poetics: A Love Story, with Neil Marcus and Lisa Steichmann, appeared with Homofactus Press in 2008. Her edited work includes, most recently, Somatic Engagement, an collection of artists on the poetics, politics and publics of embodiment (2011).
Currently, she is at work on experiments in fictocritical writing in response to conversations about disability culture, Aboriginal survivance and art practice, experienced during a fellowship at the Australian National University in 2010. Material from this series has appeared in Performance Paradigm and Antipodes. Petra is looking forward to connecting again with many of her Australian friends during Arts Activated, and to dance, move, sing, write and laugh together.
Theme
The theme Desire and Destination invites everyone to consider and explore our past experience of inclusive practices in the arts and our future aspirations in the field of arts and disability, to narrow the gap between dreams and reality.
- How does art shape desire and make inclusive destinations possible?
- How do arts venues, producers and organisations with a desire to be accessible reach their destination?
- How is technology changing art making from an unfulfillable desire into a realistic destination for people with disability?
- What destination awaits artists who publicly disclose their disability and why do some desire not to?
- There’s a growing desire for a stronger arts/disability culture in Australia, what might that destination look like?
- How does a person-centred approach fulfil art participation desires and develop destinations?
Call for Proposals : Invitation to Present
Accessible Arts is calling for proposals for papers, performances or workshops that address the 2012 Arts Activated Conference theme and topics. Other topic ideas are welcome, but all proposals must clearly show how they address the conference theme. Submissions can be in in written, audio or video formats. All submissions need to:
- be a maximum of 500 words or 3 minutes
- be in an accessible format (eg. written in plain English, audio content translated, visual content described)
- describe how the proposal addresses the conference theme
- outline what you will do and how long it will take
- consider the relevant access needs of conference delegates with cognitive, sensory, psychiatric and physical disabilities
- include a 100 word biography and a head shot image in jpg file format
- include a 50 word description of the presentation for publicity use.
Proposals from people with disability or those that involve people with disability are encouraged. All proposals must be received by Accessible Arts by close of business Monday 16 April 2012.
Download the guidelines and submission form
Who should attend?
• Artists with and without a disability • Arts workers • People with disability • Disability service providers • Policy makers • Funding bodies • Major cultural institutions and venues • Festival organisers and volunteers • Cultural development officers and gallery staff from local government • Anyone interested in arts and disability
Background
Hosted by Accessible Arts, the Arts Activated National Conference is a biennial event that develops strong links between the arts and disability sectors. In 2010 Arts Activated included international keynote speakers and attracted 350 delegates from Australia and overseas. Presentations from a range of speakers, including audio, visual and written versions, were documented on the Accessible Arts website, centralising information on current arts and disability practice. Arts Activated continues to raise awareness of accessibility and inclusive practices, facilitating greater linkages and enabling ongoing collaborations between the arts and disability sectors on a national level.
“We found the conference valuable not only as a source of information about what is going on locally, nationwide and internationally but also as a forum for discussion, and as a stimulus to re-articulate our vision for the future of the arts within our organisation.”
Sunshine Paper Studio, Pymble NSW
Arts Activated 2010 deligate
Further information
For more information contact Amanda Tink, Conference Convenor, Accessible Arts, tel: +61 2 9251 6499 ext 106 or atink@aarts.net.au
