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Newsletter :: June 2009
With the announcement of the next Arts Activated Conference planned for March 2010, together with numerous access initiatives in place at festivals, conferences and exhibitions over the coming weeks, the arts and disability sector is creating a stronger presence in NSW with every passing month. In celebration, and thanks to Sydney Opera House, Accessible Arts is giving away a double pass to Food Court, Back to Back Theatre's newest work, with music from Australian cult band, The Necks, on Tuesday 9 June 2009, at the Opera House. Food Court is showing as part of the new Luminous Festival, curated by Brian Eno. To win these tickets email info@aarts.net.au by 5:00 pm on 2 June 2009 with the answer to this question: How does Brian Eno describe the Luminous artists? Read more...
Taking the Lead
Arts - Access - Excellence: Arts Activated Conference announced for 2010
Accessible Arts is convening the second Arts Activated Conference at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney on 26 and 27 March 2010. The theme of the conference, Arts - Access - Excellence, will explore process, practice and innovation relating to inclusion of people with disability in the arts. Keynote speakers and panels will discuss 'excellence' - workshops and performance will demonstrate innovation. "Following the success of Accessible Arts' first conference in 2007, Arts Activated 2010 will provide an important forum for nation wide delegates to meet, discuss and debate access and excellence in the arts for people with disability," commented Sancha Donald, CEO, Accessible Arts. Speakers confirmed to date include Genevieve Clay, emerging filmmaker and winner of Movie Extra Tropfest 2009, Gerard O'Dwyer, best actor, Movie Extra Tropfest 2009, Dr Erin Brannigan, founding director ReelDance, David Doyle, Executive Director of DADAA and Gareth Wreford, Executive Director of Arts Access Australia. Read more...
Can-Do Performance Group receives Accessible Arts Cultural Award
A theatre group that evolved from a social support program at Great Lakes Leisure and Respite Options has received the Accessible Arts Award at the 2009 Local Government Cultural Awards. This award recognises excellence in access initiatives within council supported community arts projects. Sancha Donald, CEO, Accessible Arts presented the award and said "Can-Do Performance Group has developed into a genuine and lasting mixed abilities theatre group. They had all the elements the judges were looking for." Their latest production Peregrine was performed during 2008 International Day of People with a disability. The contemporary non-narrative play was set in a 1946 train station with a sound score combining steam train sound effects, 1940's and contemporary music. Great Lakes Leisure and Respite Options, a HACC funded service and auspice of Great Lakes Council, continues to subsidise the performance group together with grants from local clubs and fundraising by the performers.
Inclusive Museum Conference: Enabling Diversity Sustaining Development
International Focus: 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 session will highlight leading practices in access at museums across the state including regional NSW. Alison McLaren, Accessible Arts' Audience Development Officer, will facilitate the panel and present a paper about incorporating accessible design into heritage museum spaces, based on research undertaken by Accessible Arts about the relationship between disability discrimination and heritage legislation. Speakers from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australian National Maritime Museum, Age of Fishes Museum and Arts Access Australia will also participate. The conference is held annually in different locations around the world and attracts some of the leading thinkers in museum studies as well as leading practitioners.
Audio version of the Accessible Arts Newsletter now online
David Doyle, radio announcer on Music From Everywhere, BLU fm 89.1 Community Radio, will produce an audio version of the Accessible Arts Newsletter each month from his home studio in the Blue Mountains. David is a graduate of Accessible Arts' 2008 Apprenticeship Training Program where he attained a certificate in Live Production, Theatre and Events. David has a particular interest in voice work. "Animation, video games and movies, giving voice to all kinds of characters; realistic to fictitious, serious to ridiculous, all of it," explains David. He recently completed a voice acting course at NIDA and producing an audio version of Accessible Arts' news will contribute to building his career as a voice artist. It will also give subscribers an alternative format to learn about monthly arts & disability news. David's employment with Accessible Arts is an initiative of the Western Sydney Area Initiative project, providing employment opportunities in the arts for people with disability. For more information about Accessible Arts in Western Sydney contact Jennifer Teo, Strategic Initiatives Coordinator, tel: (02) 9251 699 ext 111 or email jteo@aarts.net.au.
New Marketing and Media Coordinator on board at Accessible Arts
Accessible Arts has engaged David Finnigan as Marketing and Media Coordinator. David has worked for festivals and arts organisations in the past and is also a theatre-writer whose works have been toured to festivals and venues around Australia and Manilla. David is Co-Director of the Crack Theatre Festival, a national performance festival, taking place in Newcastle as part of This Is Not Art. His position at Accessible Arts will follow the valuable work of Nadia de Ceglie, who raised the profile of the organisation and laid the groundwork for promoting the programs, partnerships and projects of Accessible Arts to the arts sector, the disability sector and the broader community over the last three years. To contact David tel: (02) 9251 6499 ext 101 or dfinnigan@aarts.net.au.
Creative Inclusive
Sydney Film Festival announces Accessible Cinema Program
Accessible Arts' partnership with Sydney Film Festival continues with another year of Accessible Cinema, to be launched by Professor Ron McCallum AO, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Disability at 2pm on Saturday 6 June 2009. Australian documentary A Good Man, a love story about a struggling Australian farmer, his wife who has quadriplegia and their plans to open a brothel, will also screen followed by an Auslan interpreted Q&A with Director Safina Uberoi. The festival continues its focus on films about people living with disability with a range of movies including Slovakian romance Blind Loves, a film examining the ways in which people who are blind find love and documentary The Horse Boy, about the journey of an American 
family to Mongolia to discover if traditional healing can help their autistic son.
An industry forum 'Representation and Engagement: enriched filmmaking by cast and crews with disability' at 4:00 pm on Sunday 7 June 2009 in the Statement Bar at the State Theatre, will involve discussions with filmmakers and directors about the rewards and challenges involved in producing films with a cast and crew of people with and without disability. Australian films such as the Black Balloon and Be My Brother will be highlighted as recent examples of successful productions. All screenings at the festival will be honouring the Companion Card and all venues are wheelchair accessible. Rear window technology is being used for the first time in Sydney and will provide captioning for the films Cheri, and Prime Mover. Read more ...
Alan Constable, Not Titled (Green SLR AIH), 2008
Australian Ceramic Triennale - Off The Edge
Off the Edge is an exhibition that showcases recent ceramic work by artists who are informed by the experience of disability. The exhibition includes works by artists with disability and arts workers whose practice includes supporting such artists. Curated by Karen Weiss and Jean Hartmann, as a prelude to the Australian Ceramic Triennale, this exhibition explores shared experiences between these artists and the unexpected directions that diversity and access brings to the medium of ceramics. Off the Edge is held at Chrissie Cotter Gallery from 8 July to the 18 July 2009. Exhibition hours Wednesday to Sunday, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Chrissie Cotter Gallery is wheelchair accessible. The Australian Ceramic Triennale will take place from 16 to the 20 July in various venues around Sydney. Josie Cavallaro, Arts Development Officer, Accessible Arts will present a paper on the panel ‘Clay: From wellbeing to Art,' on 20 July at the National Art School, Forbes Street, Paddington.
Image courtesy Chris Herzfeld and Restless Dance
Theatre
Fresh move on integrated dance practice - expressions of interest sought
Dancer, actor, choreographer, movement teacher and devisor of new dance work Margot Politis is calling for NSW performers aged 18 to 30 years old with and without disabilities, to establish a professional integrated performance company. This new group will work on a weekly basis, progressively developing skills in physical performance and material creation. Margot has spent the last six years working with Restless Dance Theatre in South Australia as a dancer, tutor, workshop facilitator and board member. Restless Dance Theatre is well known for producing collaborative dance theatre with young people who predominantly have an intellectual disability. Margot aims to create a central NSW hub for information or training in integrated dance practice and work towards regular performances including workshop showings, participation in short-works performance programs, and, eventually, stand-alone company performance. For more information contact Margot Politis tel: 0403 532 838 or maevis91@hotmail.com. Read more...
NWDS Radio - a collective experience
Community radio station 2CCRfm 90.5, is hosting a new radio show by a collective of people from North West Disability Services. NWDS Radio will provide a weekly magazine radio program that reflects news, issues, aspirations and achievements of people with disability based in Holroyd, Parramatta and Hills districts. Inam al-Haqq from NWDS explains, "NWDS Radio is a breakthrough event in the disability field. It is the first initiative of its kind where people with disability, their carers and professionals are gathered together in one avenue to create quality radio." The team of NWDS Radio is comprised of NWDS service users who are primarily people with intellectual disabilities, NWDS staff, carers, TAFE teachers and other disability professionals. The show is providing people with disability an opportunity to develop media and broadcasting skills as well as voice a collective experience of disability. The show goes to air every Wednesday from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm and is also being streamed online.
Sarah Tracton with Adam Elliot, 2008 ATOM Enhance
TV Award
Artists Profile: Sarah Tracton, emerging filmmaker and access advocate
Sarah Tracton, emerging filmmaker and access advocate has been appointed the new Communications Manager at Arts Access Australia, the national body for disability and the arts. Sarah brings to the position experience from previous roles at SBS and the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA). The NSW Film and Television Office has recently granted Sarah an emerging filmmakers grant to travel to the Benaki Museum in Athens for the Emotions Pictures Documentary and Disability Film Festival. Sarah's short film White Sound is being screened at the festival. This film explores the notion of a 'soundless' existence, where noise, silence and imagination converge. A 2008 Enhance TV ATOM Award finalist, White Sound has screened at festivals worldwide and won numerous awards. Sarah is also widely known for raising awareness of cinema access issues in conjunction with Melbourne's The Other Film Festival and other industry forums. She received the Spirit of SHHH (Self Help for Hard of Hearing) Award in 2008 for raising awareness of hearing loss.
'An Inclusive Approach,' Artist + Community Toolkit
Workshop June 2008
Current on the Ground offers inclusive practices and techniques
A practical workshop to impart tools and processes to creatively engage with integrated communities will take place from 1:00 to 4:00 pm on Monday 29 June at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith. Creative producer Margie Breen will facilitate a one-hour practical workshop on community cultural development and Accessible Arts' Western Sydney Creative Programs Coordinator Alison Richardson and members of the Mixed Abilities Ensemble, Powerhouse Youth Theatre will lead a one hour drama workshop featuring inclusive practices and techniques. This workshop is part of the free Artist + Community toolkit workshop series being presented by Penrith City Council. To book a place on Current on the Ground, RSVP by Thursday 25 June 2009. Contact Cali Vandyk-Dunlevy, Cultural Development Officer, Penrith City Council tel: (02) 4732 8098 or email cvandyk-dunlevy@penrithcity.nsw.gov.au.
Other events
- Exploring A Sensory World - Workshops, performances and activities to enliven the senses through touch and sound at the Powerhouse Museum
- Windows on Pain - exhibition about the experience of pain - physical, emotional or the pain of loss, grief, depression or dispossession.
- Realise your Dream - The British Council is offering five creative Australians a career chance to work alongside Britain's best creative talent.
- Kino Kaberet - A series of filmmaking marathons, screenings and parties for people of all abilities.
- Free accessible creative workshops - Rozelle Neighbourhood Centre offers workshops in the creative and performing arts for people with disability.
- Sydney Opera House Access Newsletter - News and information on accessibility at Sydney Opera House
Feedback
We invite feedback and suggestions from our readers. Share your experiences of attending any of the listed events or offer suggestions for future newsletter items. Email feedback to info@aarts.net.au.
Send us your news
Contributions to the newsletter are welcome and encouraged. Please send us your item by the 15th of the month, for the following month’s edition. Listings should include the title, date, location, a short description (100 words), plus all available contact details, access details and an image (JPEG or GIF format). Arts events, opportunities or news that will be of interest to people with disability, their families, friends and carers and are accessible will be published. Email contributions to info@aarts.net.au.