The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) in partnership with Arts Access Australia, presents Super Human: Revolution of the Species (5 November - 5 December 2009), a suite of events addressing, amongst other issues, what it means to live with a disability in today's society. More

A UK based webmaster and multimedia storyteller, artist Dr Ju Gosling aka ju90's recent practice explores the relationship between art, science and disability. Arts Access Australia have sponsored Ju to deliver a keynote address at the Super Human symposium (23 - 24 November 2009, Melbourne), partnered with the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT). The Super Human symposium turns the spotlight on collaborations between artists and scientists and the impact these investigations have on what it means to be human, now and into the future. More

Arts Access Victoria and The Other Film Festival are pleased to announce that entries are now being accepted for the 2010 Festival. The Other Film Festival is Australia's only international disability film festival. First launched in 2004, the Festival is renowned for contemporary cinema concerned with the lived experience of people with a disability and people who are Deaf. The Festival is also highly regarded as a cutting edge film event that provides an accessible cinema experience to all patrons. More

Access All Areas Film Festival will visit venues across NSW from November 16 to December 3rd 2009. The event will feature free screenings of acclaimed Australian films, which will be made accessible to people with a disability via audio description and captioning. More

Following a nomination at the 2009 Australian Dance Awards and acclaim at the South Australian Screen Awards and Melbourne International Film Festival, Restless Dance Theatre welcomes Philip Channells as its Artistic Director. Arts Access Australia chats with Philip about the future creative directions of the company. More

Arts Access Australia congratulates the Cultural Ministers Council on the 9 October 2009 release of the National Arts and Disability Strategy. The effectiveness of the National Arts and Disability Strategy in improving cultural access and participation will also rely upon advocacy at a local level. Arts Access Australia encourages you to read and use the National Arts and Disability Strategy in discussions with arts, disability, and mental health services, organisations, programs and venues. More

Afloat performed to packed audiences at the Darwin Festival in late August 2009. Starting with 'memories of water', this three month collaboration between twenty local artists, including talented young adults with intellectual disabilities merged shadow puppetry, movement, visual art and animation. The performance was a partnership with Arts Access Darwin, Community Arts, Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre, Darwin Community Arts, Ausdance NT, and the Australia Council and Total Recreation Jointly. The project was supported by Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd as trustees for the Ian Dodd Trust & the Kingston Sedgefield (Australia) Charitable Trust. More

Songwriters from Roma in Queensland and surrounding towns performed on September 2nd in a gala concert at the 10th Asia Pacific Wataboshi Music Festival in Suwon, Korea. Two thousand people clapped and cheered as the group ‘Uplifted' performed its award winning song ‘We Are Alive'. The group was invited to perform at Wataboshi after it won Song Quest 2009. Access Arts (Queensland) has been sending Brisbane song-writers to the festival since 1999. More

In 2008, the South Australian Government Arts Funding body, Arts SA, conducted a sector-wide consultation of the arts and disability sector in South Australia. As a result Community Arts Network SA (CAN SA) was approached by Arts SA to work with the Disability Information and Resource Centre (DIRC) as partners in a disability arts transition initiative to facilitate the process of moving towards Stage Two of the consultation recommendations. More

The Department of Culture and the Arts, Western Australia (DCA) has announced its latest round off successful artist approvals with 9 applications supported to the amount of $102, 534. Learn more about the Access Indigenous Arts Pilot Project and other new initiatives. More

Cohabitation Bondi will premiere in the newly renovated theatre inside Bondi Pavilion on September 29, running till October 24, 2009. The play is produced by the new inclusive theatre company The After Party Project, which has been established to promote access and opportunity for people with disability in theatre. It will be wheelchair accessible and one of its lead roles, Simon, is played by actor and wheelchair user Anthony Masterson. More

Touch Compass Dance Trust, which aims to develop aspiring dancers who have disabilities, for integrated performance events, is celebrating its successful bid for funding through Creative New Zealand. The funding, which comes out of Creative New Zealand's new Sector Investments round, will ensure the company can expand and deliver more integrated dance programmes and ensure more professional development for their dancers. More

Elizabeth Wright and Jessica Maiden are two Fine Art MPhil graduates in Newcastle who have been accepted into the PhD program at The University of Leeds, UK. Both artists explore the nexus between the body and representations of disability through photography. Arts and health is a burgeoning field of interest for the University of Newcastle, which established the ArtsHealth Centre for Research and Practice as a cross-disciplinary centre in 2006.

 

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Back to Back Theatre has won the prestigious Kit Denton Fellowship for Ganesh vs the Third Reich, its current work in development. The aim of the fellowship is to promote the theme of courage, champion bold and challenging ideas, and reward talent and excellence in performance writing. An award of $25,000, the Kit Denton fellowship provides the recipient with funds to support the development of a new writing project. More

A human head collides with a tree at 140km/hr. Memories are erased by the impact. These words represent the experience of Northern NSW printmaker Scott Trevelyan, who survived a high speed motorcycle accident whilst halfway through his Visual Arts degree at Southern Cross University

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Arts Access Victoria's disability film festival, The Other Film Festival is pleased to announce that it worked closely with the Melbourne International Film Festival to improve access for all patrons, including people with a disability. More

celebrated its tenth year promoting deafness awareness at major regional events to promote Hearing Awareness Week in August 2009. More

Western Australians with disabilities stand to benefit substantially from a new arts grants project launched at the National Arts and Health Conference in September. More

A talented young writer who has overcome the odds, a mixed-ability dance company, a theatre project  inspiring teenagers and the elderly, and a prison arts advocate were recognised at the Big ‘A' Awards  2009, presented at Parliament by Arts Access Aotearoa on July 6, 2009. More

The latest production from No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability,Tom the Loneliest has received  glowing reviews from critics alike. An experimental new Australian work, the play challenges notions of time  and memory, explores limits and definitions of sanity, and questions theatrical conventions. More

New Australian horror short film James Jones and the Living Dead, written and shot entirely by people with a disability, will premiere this year at Narellan United Cinema. Production company Camden Creative Studios combines traditional and digital arts to provide education, new skills and greater opportunities for creative expression to people of all ages, all backgrounds and all abilities in the Camden area. 

 

 

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Arts Access Central Australia is running a series of workshops in four visual artform programs:  Jewellery making, Felt making, Fabric Marking and Pottery. Held throughout August to December 2009,  the workshops are themed to the ‘International Year of Natural Fibre'. The final result will be a curated, mixed ability exhibition as part of Alice Springs celebrations for International Day of People with a Disability 2009. More

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Arts SA have released a sector-wide consultation to of the arts and disability sector. Download the findings here. More

Victoria's Hume City Council Best Practice Seminars present a range of stimulating, informative and lively programs which focus on good access for people with disabilities. Guest presenters include Vision Australia, The Music Network for Mental Health, members of the silver medal Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby Team and a selection of groundbreaking films from The Other Film Festival.

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Ever since his father placed his first camera in his hands at the age of three, Rod Westbrook has had a keen interest in producing photographic art. 
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In partnership with Regional Arts Australia, SBS has launched a series of unique vignettes that showcase the depth of arts talent across regional Australia. The artists' stories were unveiled on Thursday 8 May at the Sydney Opera House by SBS Managing Director Shaun Brown and Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, the Hon Peter Garrett MP. Among the artists profiled was Rod Westbrook from Devonport in Tasmania, whose distinctive wilderness photography is featuring at the Access For Me exhibition in Hobart. More

The Artist Citizen is an exhibition that explores the place of artists with a mental illness towards gainfully participating in Queensland's thriving contemporary arts culture, writes curator and researcher Karleen Gwinner. More

The Other Film Festival, known for screening groundbreaking films about the experience of disability from around the globe, has launched an outreach program of accessible screenings. These presentations have already been delivered at major cultural institutions, local and regional councils, schools and community organisations. Find out more here.

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ABC Northern Tasmania's Tim Cox interviewed James Newton and Kim Schneider, coordinators of the Access for Me exhibition, which features the work of over 100 Tasmanian artists with disabilities. More

Comedian, change consultant and social entrepreneur. Philip Patston is took the stage at the 2009 New Zealand International Comedy Festival. More

During a panel discussion broadcast on the ABC program Q&A, MP Peter Garrett addressed the recent incorporation of arts into the national school curriculum and the ongoing development of government access policies. (36 mins 19sec)

 

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Arts & Health provides a pioneering international forum for the publication of research, policy and best practice within the interdisciplinary field of arts and health. More

A new City of Melbourne map that outlines access facilities at some of the city's most popular attractions. This document offers detail on accessing Melbourne's entertainment and sporting precincts.

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The Australian Government has made people with disability a priority for Australia's international development program through its Ausaid program. More

Channel 31's No Limits program received two awards 2009 Antenna Awards, which recognise excellence in community television. With a record breaking seven nominations, the show picked up Outstanding Interview Program. Steve Hurd, who is blind, received the award for most Outstanding Male Presenter. More

An additional 12 independent cinemas nationally will offer captions and audio description services on a regular basis, doubling the current levels of cinema's with access services in Australia. A project of Media Access Australia (MAA) and the Independent Cinemas Association, the ‘accessible cinema' initiative is funded by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing. More

Vision Australia and National Disability Services are among the community groups selected to consult in the digital TV switchover from analogue. The formation of a Consumer Export Group is part of the government strategy to inform the public on the transition. 

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Arts Access Australia is collaborating with Arts and Health Australia to convene an international arts and health conference, The Art of Good Health and Wellbeing at Port Macquarie in NSW.

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The Boldness, a radio program which examine disability issues on Melbourne's 3CR, invites aspiring broadcasters to send in sound-bites, snippets, music or radio plays for its program.

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Bedroom Dancing is a new performance by South Australia's Restless Dance Theatre investigating privacy, intimacy and connection.

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Artlink is a respite program providing access to engaging arts based activities for school-aged children and their siblings. It provides access to experimental arts, cultural development, exploration, socialization and arts learning in an inclusive environment.

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A New York City-based nonprofit organization, Art Beyond Sight produces materials for accessible arts programs for use  in museums, schools, libraries, senior/community centers. As one-stop resource, Art Beyond Sight gives the vision impaired access to arts and culture.
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The Australia Council for the Arts has developed a new arts and disability action plan 2008 - 2010 to guide the organisation in its operations, programs and strategies in relation to access and equity for people with disabilities.

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A revolutionary three year art-science project, run by the Australia Council's Synapse program, is helping unlock the potential of mixed reality environments towards rehabilitation of patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Based at Melbourne's RMIT, ELEMENTS is breaking new ground by using multi-modal interactive workspaces to assist TBI patients in regaining upper limb movement.

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