About Arts Access Australia

Norridge - Arts Access and the Snuff Puppets. Photographer Catherine Acin

Arts Access Australia is a membership based non government service organisation. We are a company limited by guarantee with Deductable Gift Recipient status as a Public Benevolent Institution.

Arts Access Australia was formed in 1992 as the Disability And Disadvantage in the Arts Australia (DADAA) National Network.

We work with government agencies, arts organisations and disability organisations.

Arts Access Australia 5 Year Strategic Plan 2005/06 - 2009/10

Mission Statement
Arts Access Australia is the national non-Government organisation working to increase cultural inclusion of the one in five Australians with a disability and those who are at risk of acquiring a disability.

Arts Access Australia's work reflects the World Health Organisation International Classification on Health and Functioning by promoting wellbeing and the social model of disability and health.

Values
Arts Access Australia believes that:

Everyone has innate creative ability
It is a human right to have access to cultural opportunities
Art created by people with a disability makes a unique contribution to the cultural life of Australia
Cultural inclusion can be an effective means of achieving social change with a positive impact on health and wellbeing
Our work is more effective when cooperating rather than competing with arts sector and disability sector stakeholders
Improving access benefits the whole community

Outcome 1
The arts and disability sector is supported across government arts portfolios and disability portfolios

Outcome 2
The distinctiveness of Australian arts and disability culture/s is widely recognised within Australia and Internationally

Outcome 3
The Arts Access Australia network is a strong and unified voice for the growth and development of arts and disability practice

Outcome 4
The Australian arts sector and disability sector sees arts and disability as part of their core business

The name changed to Arts Access Australia in 2004 as a result of a strategic planning process that reflected a more outward looking focus for the organisation.

'DADAA National Network' as a name was not always clear to people not sure of what we do. Arts Access Australia strengthens understanding of our aims and goals. Changing our name to Arts Access Australia:

explains and describes what we do
keeps a strong link with the disability sector through the word 'Access'
strengthens the relationship with our State members as 8 of the 9 are called 'Access Arts' or variations like 'Accessible Arts'
makes a link with the New Zealand organisation 'Arts Access Aotearoa' which has some similar aims to us

Feedback from stakeholders, consumers and funding bodies also indicated general agreement that the change was positive and represented the next stage in development for the Network.

Disability Action Plan
Arts Access Australia's Disability Action Plan is available in PDF (360kb) here

Our Disability Action Plan exists so that we can be sure that our understanding of disability issues and implementation of strategies to address these issues is: up to date; continually assessed and open to feed back from people with disabilities. We welcome your feedback on the plan.

Annual Reports
Arts Access Australia Annual Reports are available in PDF here

Please contact Arts Access Australia if you have any difficulty in reading PDF files.

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