Accessible Arts North Coast has identified a need for more disability awareness and access training in the arts context for our region to improve access for all. To this end Accessible Arts NSW is providing training on the 29th and 30th of May, with Amanda Tink & Sophie Clausen of Accessible Arts NSW at Lennox Head Community Centre.
Accessible Arts 2012 Annual Report is now available for download. Chairperson Emeritus Professor Sharman Pretty is impressed by the depth, breadth and reach of our organisation. In her first year as Chairperson of Accessible Arts, Pretty noted “The ongoing achievements of Accessible Arts would not be possible without its many supporters and volunteers, and without the tremendous dedication of its staff.”
Disability awareness training is useful for people working at any level of an arts organisation, or in arts policy or practice. It provides a practical understanding of disability in an arts context with information and skills relevant to all venues and types of work including festivals and public events.
Sixty people gathered at Newcastle Museum on Thursday 28 February 2013 to consider how the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (now Disability Care Australia) can assist artists with disability to overcome obstacles and realise their ambitions.News
Access The Arts Group moving into 2013
Access The Arts Group (ATAG) is set to continue informing it’s members with quarterly meetings in 2013, where speakers and cultural institutions present the latest on access in the arts. Our four successful ATAG meetings for 2012 included the engagement of representatives from the disability sector, including the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, People With Disability and Sylvanvale Foundation.
We heard from the disability sector about some of the challenges groups face, ranging from physical to attitudinal barriers as well as resources, energy, and priority management.
We were treated to the latest developments and the high tech refurbishments of Museum of Contemporary Art and their National Centre for Creative Learning, using high-speed broadband to reach rural and remote communities to run visual arts related workshops. This segued nicely with Roger Hudson of Usability, offering a refresher on website accessibility.
Our final meeting for the year was suitably hosted at Australia Council for the Arts, where Practice in Motion, an arts and disability exhibition was showing. We heard from Australia Councils’ Program Manager, Morvenna Collett about her recent arts and disability related trip to Washington and Canada, and Sancha Donald, Accessible Arts CEO, of her time in London as part of Unlimited UK.
ATAG’s 2013 planning meeting was held in late February, where discussion and debate was open about what is and what isn’t working, and who we are able to engage in ATAG to keep the group informed and engaged with accessibility in the arts. More information about the coming year's agenda will be available soon.