Following the success of the audio-described Tactile Tour program in 2010, Sculpture by the Sea are partnering with Accessible Arts to offer people with vision impairment and people with intellectual disability the opportunity to engage with art in a hands-on guided experience.
Accessible Arts hosted the Festivals Forum in July 2011, to review access for people with disability at festival events throughout NSW. Representatives from fifteen festivals large and small, and supporting arts organisations, gathered at the Utzon Room at Sydney Opera House to attend the three hour forum.
As part of an agreement to support festivals to develop accessibility, Accessible Arts has provided training to Sculpture by the Sea staff for the third consecutive year. Twelve staff from all sections of the organisation attended three hours of Disability Awareness and Access training to further embed accessibility practices throughout their organisation.
Festivals are increasing in popularity and continue to give expression and exposure to innovative creative arts and culture, which in turn adds greater vibrancy to communities who share in these occasions. Accessible Arts will present a forum in July, to bring festival producers together to discuss the unique challenges they face when improving access to festival events.
Nastasia Campanella is a Sydney based freelance print, radio and online journalist who also happens to be blind. She recently attended one of the audio described tactile tours presented by Sculpture by the Sea in partnership with Accessible Arts and reported on the experience.News
Accessible Cinema at the 56th Sydney Film Festival 2009
To be launched on Saturday 6 June by Professor Ron McCallum AO, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Disability, the 56th Sydney Film Festival will feature a program of Accessible Cinema with a range of movies exploring disability in contemporary and thought provoking contexts.
The Accessible Cinema program includes:
A Good Man (Australia), a love story like no other, A Good Man follows the lives of Chris - the good man of the title - and Rachel, who suffered a massive stroke 14 years ago, which left her unable to walk or talk. Since then Chris has taken care of his wife and son. Director Safina Uberoi adeptly captures the humour, tenderness and tenacity that sustain this remarkable relationship.
This documentary is in the running to win the 2009 Foxtel Australian Documentary Prize. This could be the first film included in the Accessible Cinema strand to win this award.
Blind Loves (Slovak Republic), a film examining the ways in which people who are blind find love. Winner of the Cannes CICAE Award, Blind Loves mixes documentary and fiction to illustrate the challenges faced by people who are blind in finding love and happiness. Teenage Zuzana describes her dream guy, adding significantly, ‘I wonder what he'll say when he finds out I'm blind'. Miro and Monika are in love, but her parents disapprove not of his blindness but his Romany roots. Lehotsky, in his feature debut, has crafted a compassionate and spirited essay on the nature of love.
The Australian short film Screening with Water, about a young boy's struggle to accept his father's disability will also be screened at Blind Loves sessions.
The Horse Boy (USA), follows the journey of an America family to Mongolia to see if traditional healing can help their autistic son. Texan couple Rupert and Kristin struggle to cope with their autistic son, Rowan. The only time Rowan is calm is when he's on horseback. The Horse Boy follows Rupert and Kristin's journey to Mongolia, a land famed for its horses and shamans, to see if traditional healing can help.
The French short film My Little Brother from the Moon, about a little girl's attempts to understand her autisitc brother will also be screened at The Horse Boy sessions.
In keeping with its commitment to accessibility, all Sydney Film Festival screenings will be honouring the Companion Card and all venues are wheelchair accessible.