Accessing the Arts
Music at Nymagee, cartoons at Coffs
Introduction
December 3rd is designated as International Day of People with a Disability,
known familiarly as ‘International Day’. Since 2002, Accessible
Arts NSW has organised a program of cultural events to celebrate the day.
Accessing the Arts, as the program is called, encourages organisations
to participate by offering an accessible activity that celebrates ability.
The aim is that these one-off celebratory activities will provide a basis
for the organisation to take up a long-term approach to access issues
as part of their wider activities.
The participation of over 20 organisations in the first year of Accessing
the Arts set a strong precedent for developing it further. Subsequent
years have focused on encouraging particular participants — in 2003,
regional organisations, and in 2004, Indigenous and multicultural communities.
The coordination and promotion of Accessing the Arts events is funded
by the New South Wales Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care
(DADHC). Accessible Arts coordinates six-weekly meetings with all participants,
and provides training, expert advice and assistance with planning events.
Participating organisations hold events that variously offer access
opportunities, feature the work of artists with a disability and encourage
hands-on involvement of people with a disability in arts activities. Some
use it as an opportunity to launch access guides and discuss and recommend
approaches to access.
Two small arts organisations that have made an important difference
in their local communities by participating in Accessing the Arts are
the Nymagee Outback Music Festival and the Bunker Cartoon Gallery.
Nymagee Outback Music Festival Committee — performance
and exhibition
On ‘International Day’ in 2003, around 120 people gathered
at the Nymagee pub for a night of music, an art exhibition by local identity
Sqwark, and a feast put on by the Nymagee Outback Music Festival committee.
For most, it involved travelling considerable distances on dirt roads
and, for those from nearby towns, round trips of over 300 kilometres were
common.
Nymagee is a remote rural village and wider district with a 70–100
kilometre radius. Its name means ‘small plain surrounded by hills’
— a distinct landscape in the predominantly flat environment of
western New South Wales. As a result of the recent drought, the population
of the village has shrunk from 65 to 35 in a total district population
of about 150. The Nymagee school, an important focus for community life,
closed in 2002. The village now operates around a hotel and a police station.
There was a need for something to happen. Due to the drought morale
is low, local people can’t afford to go far and celebration and
entertainment are needed.
Jay Dunne, Coordinator, Nymagee Outback Music Festival
Nymagee’s event for International Day took place with the support
of the Mallee Hen Co-operation Ltd, a local initiative to encourage arts,
culture, tourism and community services in the district which supports
the Nymagee Outback Music Festival held every two years in October, and
the Outback Music Festival committee. Further support came from the Gymkhana
committee, the Nymagee Metropolitan Hotel and the Country Women’s
Association.
Jay Dunne organised the Nymagee event in her capacity as coordinator
of the Nymagee Outback Music Festival. As well as attracting over 100
local, interstate and international artists and over 1000 visitors, the
Festival is an inclusive community event. Jay’s approach to organising
both the Festival and the International Day event is an integrated one,
building awareness by highlighting people with a disability within the
general scheme of things and without making ‘too much fuss’.
The International Day event started at 6 pm, with performance stages
both inside and outside the pub to cater for an audience with diverse
interests and a number of keen performers whose work ranged across a variety
of styles.
A number of local musicians performed, including those with a disability.
Established musicians such as Tonchi McIntosh, born in Bourke and now
performing professionally in Melbourne, performed on the night, as did
artists new to performance. Original work was part of the mixture of folk,
country, rock, jazz and stand-up comedy.
Lots of talk amongst the community for weeks afterwards and obvious
raised spirits in general. Also gave the ‘disabled’ people
more confidence with the recognition and respect for what they can do
well.
Jay Dunne
Since the gig in December 2003, there have been more frequent performances
by visiting and local artists at the pub.There are hopes that a regular
event on International Day in future years will double as a community
Christmas celebration.
Bunker Cartoon Gallery — workshops and exhibition
Coffs Harbour’s Bunker Cartoon Gallery is Australia’s only
dedicated gallery for black and white cartoons. It features cartoons chosen
from the Coffs Cartoon Collection — a project of Coffs Harbour Rotary
Club — and holds original drawings by leading cartoonists from Australia
and around the world. It is housed in a heritage-listed underground bunker
built during World War II. Exhibitions are themed and change every three
months. The Gallery plays an active part in community life and has participated
in International Day since 2002.
As we are located in a small rural area, opportunities that were
provided by this day do not occur often, particularly with the help of
professional staff and the opportunity to have work shown in a public
gallery.
Robynne McGinley, Service Development Officer, Nambucca Valley Phoenix
Employment Service
Bunker’s 2002 event featured an exhibition of cartoons by employees
of Nambucca Valley Phoenix (‘Phoenix’) and the cartoonist
Cathy Wilcox under the banner A Celebration of Ability. Phoenix
is an employer of people with an intellectual disability and is funded
by the Department of Family and Community Services. Its training program
includes an art group, and there is a studio and exhibition space on its
site. Phoenix employees had been part of community exhibitions in Taree,
and the Bunker event offered a new exhibition opportunity for them. Cathy
Wilcox’s cartoons have appeared in many Australian newspapers and
she is a regular contributor to the Coffs Rotary Cartoon Awards. For the
2002 event, she gave permission for Bunker to exhibit her series of drawings
focusing on people with disabilities.
In association with the exhibition, Bunker organised funding for cartoonist
Richard Jones to conduct workshops. A number of local people with a disability,
as well as Phoenix employees, participated in the workshops.
As a result of their involvement in the workshops, three young people
from Phoenix became volunteers at Bunker. Two have since secured part-time
paid employment.
I started [at Bunker] in February 2003 … I was at the Gallery
until December 2003 when I got a job three days a week with the BASE Warehouse
furniture store in town. It was the skills I learnt at the Gallery and
the good reference that got me the job.
Sandy Booth-Conran, Bunker volunteer
For the Gallery, A Celebration of Ability was a huge success.
The Gallery Director at that time, Margaret Bridgman, reflected on the
‘fulfilling challenge’ it offered everyone involved —
the participants, organisers and workshop leaders — and its value
as an opportunity to introduce a new audience to Bunker. Her report also
shows the excitement and pleasure the workshop and exhibition generated.
In 2003, Bunker staff built on the new connections made in the previous
year and became more involved with the local International Day committee.
There were more sales from the exhibition and more participants at the
workshops. Richard Jones returned as a workshop presenter, with praise
for his rapport with participants. Robynne McGinley from Phoenix commented
on how inspiring it was for a particular participant — who had contributed
to local public artwork and was keen to become a cartoonist — to
meet Richard and learn from him.
Two important outcomes of the 2003 event for Phoenix were that participants
sold work and new people from the Coffs Harbour area found out about Phoenix’s
studio and gallery. This connection between Bunker and the International
Day committee continued into future events.
Conclusion
The Nymagee Outback Music Festival and Bunker Cartoon Gallery events both
show the longer term impact of participating in a low-cost, small-scale,
single activity. In Nymagee an event near Christmas to celebrate ability
was the opportunity for reinvigoration of the overall spirit of a small
remote community. Bunker’s involvement in 2002 was the beginning
of an ongoing relationship with the local disability community which continues
to have an impact on the Gallery’s activities.
The Accessing the Arts program itself has achieved such success since
2002 that the New South Wales Department of Ageing, Disability and Home
Care is increasingly playing a role in funding and coordinating International
Day events.
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