Campaigns

 

AAA submitted a response to the Australia Council National Sector Development Initiative discussion paper in March 2012.

 

To whom it may concern,

Arts Access Australia (AAA) is the national peak body for arts and disability.

We represent artists and artsworkers with disability as well as arts and disability organisations that work within a community arts and cultural development context from all states and territories of Australia.

AAA supports the Australia Council’s commitment to undertake strategic national initiatives and can see clear benefit in programs that aim to address the imbalances between state provision, which is particularly relevant within the under-resourced arts and disability sector.

The success of our collaboration with the Australia Council on the first Cultivate professional development grant round last year is a good example of how national initiatives can have a significant direct impact on target communities.

What started as a once-off initiative with Australia Council investment of $40,000 has been funded for a second year by the Australian Government through the Office for the Arts. Last year, we received over 110 applications in just six weeks, with requests for grants exceeding $780,000. The accessible grant process made it possible for more applicants with disability to apply than ever before, and 60% were first-time applicants.

The Cultivate example does raise the issue of sustainability and of the importance of providing sustained longer-term support: both directly to the Australia Council’s target communities and to the organisations that administer these initiatives on its behalf.

When considering the move towards national implementation strategies, however, it is important to recognise that the issues of specific communities will still be able to be best addressed at a grass-roots level, particularly for people with disability for whom a ‘one size fits all’ approach will never be able to encompass the community’s diverse demographics, geographical spread, access requirements or cultural groups.

It will be important for the Australia Council to achieve a balance between commissioning strategic national services as well as the sort of direct localised delivery that national organisations are unlikely to have the resources or particular knowledge to deliver appropriately.

We support the Australia Council’s commitment to use new technologies to increase national collaboration, networking and information exchange across a diverse and widely distributed sector. We are currently developing our own website into a centralised arts and disability portal to improve access for and collaboration between people with disability and sector organisations across all areas of Australia, and hope to develop this work further.

However, it is important to note that while people with disability are likely to be early adopters of new technology, they are among the least able to afford it. Therefore, any online strategy will need to be accompanied by effective offline alternatives to ensure technologies that are designed to improve access don’t end up becoming barriers in themselves. These strategies could include national meetings (with travel subsidies, as appropriate), accessible national forums that take place via teleconference, or activities taking place at a local level.

We encourage the Community Partnership’s Committee to ensure the needs of artists, artsworkers, participants and audiences with disability are adequately met within the redevelopment of the Community Arts and Cultural Development program.

The final deadline for responses to the paper is the 16^th of April 2012.

Responses to the discussion paper can made in the following ways:

- Comments can be left below the discussion paper

- Via twitter using the #CACDNSD hashtag

- Email - l.mendelssohn@australiacouncil.gov.au

 

AAA re-launched the call for support of the National Arts and Disability Strategy as part of the National Cultural Policy consultation process in October 2011.

 

Submissions to the Australian Law Reform Commission's review of the National Classification Scheme are due by Friday the 15^th of July. Read more…

You can help make sure that the arts community and arts lovers have a strong voice in this debate. Feel free to use AAA’s submission (below) as a template to put together your own response. Or check out the draft submission from the Arts Law Centre of Australia here…

 

The Executive Director 

Australian Law Reform Commission 

GPO Box 3708, SYDNEY NSW 2001

By email to: classification@alrc.gov.au

To whom it may concern,

RE: Response to the ALRC National Classification Scheme Review (IP40)

Arts Access Australia (AAA) is the national peak body for arts and disability.

As representative of Australia’s artists with disability and disability-led companies, AAA is a strong advocate for freedom of expression and for the right of artists to communicate their work as widely and freely as possible.

The purpose of classification is primarily to enable adults to make an informed choice as to what they want to see, hear and read, and what to allow their children to have access to. It is not and should not be used as a means to censor material that is otherwise legal.

However, the ongoing calls for the classification of artworks over the past few years, largely based on responses to the work of just one artist, has already had the disturbing effect of some artists choosing to avoid controversial themes. This is particularly relevant to those artists with disability who work within a disability arts context, where themes relating to their own or a collective experience of impairment can be potentially confronting for some audiences.

This not only presents a threat to freedom of expression but also presents a direct risk the development of our creative sector and the livelihood of the artists working within it. It also presents a risk to Australia’s international reputation when calls to expand the range of materials that should be banned, restricted or classified creates the danger of Australia being seen as a producer of bland, meaningless content that does not fully reflect the breadth of our diverse experience.

AAA supports the suggestion of the Arts Law Centre of Australia that the ALRC should take a practical approach to developing a standardised national classification framework that acknowledges it is not possible, nor necessary to classify all content, which values freedom of expression, places a much greater onus on industries to self regulate within Government-mandated guidelines, and that supports the education of Australians that they can take responsibility for the content that they and their children access. We are happy to support all of the recommendations outlined by the Arts Law Centre of Australia in their submission to the ALRC National Classification Scheme Review of July 2011.

e: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;" lang="EN-US">The arts – whether making it, attending it, or coming across it accidentally as part of our everyday engagement with public and private spaces – provide an invaluable means of expressing and understanding the wide variety of opinions and beliefs vital to the development of Australia’s collective culture.

Arts Access Australia calls for a national classification system that helps the arts flourish in Australia and to provide audiences with information about the arts content they want to access, rather than censor or restrict access to something that discerning Australian adults should be educated to do for themselves and for their children.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss any of these issues further.

With best regards,

Kate Larsen

CEO

Arts Access Australia

 

A National Disability Insurance Scheme and the Arts

Arts Access Australia welcomes the draft report released by the Productivity Commission that recommends the introduction of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

This is a once-in-a-generation chance to affect the ability of people with disability to work in and enjoy the arts for years to come.

This includes people like James Davies, an aspiring author from Perth. You can hear James’ story on the Every Australian Counts website…

A NDIS will also help the recommendations of the National Arts and Disability Strategy get off the ground.

Now, 18 months after its release, we look forward to seeing how these two excitinginitiatives can both be given the resources to help make better outcomes for everybody.

Please join the Every Australian Counts campaign to support artists and arts-workers with disability finally get their independence. Sign up now…

 

National Arts and Disability Strategy (NADS) campaign

In October 2009 the Cultural Ministers Council launched the National Arts and Disability Strategy which describes the actions necessary to increase the low level of cultural participation by the 20% of Australians with disability identified by the Australia Council and Cultural Ministers Council. A significant investment of new money is an essential part of making the National Arts and Disability Strategy a success by directly addressing the barriers to participation. The investment will also compliment other successful activities like the Australia Council’s Disability Action Plan.

In July 2010, over 90 % of 812 of respondents to an Arts Access Australia survey agreed or strongly agreed that there is a need for:

- Dedicated funding for arts and disability in addition to increasing access to all funding programs

- Increased arts career pathways from education, mentoring and arts residencies to tertiary training and employment

- Improved physical and service (ticketing, captioning etc) access to arts and cultural venues

- A national arts and disability portal and government and non-government working group to inform policy and programs

- Government leadership on access by requiring and supporting application of the Disability Discrimination Act

- Increased research and data on arts and disability

The 733 respondents who identified their residential postcode were from: NT 15, NSW 205, ACT 23, VIC 270, QLD 54, SA 55, WA 60, TAS 51. 40% of respondents identified as having a disability, being deaf or living with a mental health issue.