Accessible Arts / arts + disability NSW

Hugh is currently studying towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies at Macquarie University and will eventually do his Masters. His contribution to the committee and the exhibition was tireless and added to an improvement in documenting and promoting the artists and the show.

Jacqui O'Reilly, Communications Coordinator at Accessible Arts spoke to Hugh about his experience working on the committee.

When did you first get involved and what attracted you to coming on board?

The committee came together in March 2009 by expression of interest. The main reason I wanted to be involved was because I had never worked with people living with a disability before and felt that it was something I needed to explore. I knew that arts and disability was an important area but I just wasn't sure exactly why. I only had a very basic understanding of the issues in this area so I decided to try and find out more.

What did you get out of the experience?

Apart from the invaluable 'hands on' stuff like writing for and developing an exhibition, I came into contact with a whole army of great people. Although it's something of a cliche - I had no idea how many great artists and artsworkers there are out there, not to mention the people working in organisations like Accessible Arts.

It also really opened me up to be able to see things I had never even considered before. I only really ever had a very basic understanding of what access is and over the time i've been involved with AART.BOXX, I've realised how expansive an issue it actually is. There is so much to it on both a social and artistic level that needs to be explored and reconsidered.

You wrote the catalogue essay and gathered information for artists bios. Can you tell us about that process?

I coordinated a small group of volunteer writers, Micaela Giffney, Lia Unthank and Arthur Chan, to develop artist profiles for the exhibition. The writers and I basically split up the artist profiles and went at it. As quite a few of the artists are from interstate we had to be really flexible about how we got information. A lot of the material was gathered by email simply because it was the simplest and most practical way to do it. I did get the chance to get out and meet a few of the artists and it was a huge lesson for me in regard to writing about artists. Actually being able to interact with the artist and see where they work, what they are like in person and how they talk about their art just adds so much to your understanding of what they are trying to achieve as an artist.

In terms of the essay, that came up about halfway into the year thanks to the funding we got from the Australia Council for the Arts. The aim was to try and contextualise the exhibition within the broader contemporary arts and give insights into the practices of the artists. The thing I love about writing is the way it helps you work through to a better understanding of artists and their work. I really got to experience that with the essay and found that once I had done it I could see things in the works that had not been apparent before. Hopefully that comes across when people read it.

Are you involved in any other projects or do you have anything coming up?

I'm going to be working on an exhibition next year focusing on artists working out of supported studios in NSW, which is going to be shown at Macquarie University Art Gallery at the end of 2010. I'm extremely excited about it. These studios are very important to the visual arts in Australia but it seems that often they don't get the critical attention (and funding) they deserve. The work coming out of these spaces is just phenomenal and I think that more people should be exposed to it.

Can you elaborate on your interest in the arts, in disability, in getting things happening?

My interest in the arts is centred around how art is created and displayed - the mechanisms by which objects become art and people become artists. Recently I've been really interested in the idea of artistic 'legitimacy'; what it is, who bestows it, what it achieves and what its shortcomings are. While I am still exploring this area myself, from the conversations I've had with people working in the arts & disability area, one of the big issues they mention is that this type of work is often given legitimacy by being presented as either art therapy or outsider art. Both of these areas have their place, but are not necessarily helpful for artists who want to develop a consistent practice and exhibit their work in a professional context. The supported studios that work with these artists are specifically setup to provide technical and professional guidance to the artists, but should also be given opportunities themselves to push out into the 'mainstream' arts sector more. Many of the studios are already doing this and attracting attention, so really I'm just jumping on the bandwagon and hoping to be able to contribute.