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
Accessing the Sydney Writers Festival
The annual Sydney Writers’ Festival will take place from 17 May to 23 May 2010 at Pier 4, Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay as well as at other accessible venues such as City Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House.
The Big Reading, a Sydney Writers’ Festival annual event highlighting international guest speakers, will be Auslan interpreted on Saturday, 22 May 2010 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. Hanan al-Shaykh, Willy Vlautin, Dubravka Ugresic, Natasha Solomons and Rupert Thomson will be reading from their work. A presentation of ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ Best Young Australian Novelist awards for 2010 will also be presented.
The First Flight Crew, Accessible Arts' own eight piece hip hop outfit, are performing in a free event on Sunday, May 16 2010 from 6 pm to 9 pm at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. Hip Hop Projections 5: Words from the West, is an all-ages free night of rapping, singing, dance, visual projections and spoken word is being presented by Information and Cultural Exchange.
Accessible Arts continues to work with the Festival in a partnership that began in 2008, to support the development of improved access information about Festival events, wheelchair accessible shuttle buses from Circular Quay to Walsh Bay and information sessions for staff and volunteers on disability awareness.
This year’s program is available online from Friday 9 April and released in The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 10 April.
Visit the Sydney Writers’ Festival website for more information and ticket sales.