Day 1: Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Session 2: Vision for Arts and Disability in Australia
ELIZABETH HILL: My name is Liz Hill. I'm the Policy and Project Manager for
Accessible Arts. Our next session is called "Vision for arts/disability in Australia".
This is a chance for us to think about the status of arts and disability and our culture
in Australia, to consider where we stand compared to other nations around the world,
and to hear from some of our arts and disability leaders within Australia. Four
prominent thinkers in this area will discuss whether Australia lags behind other
western countries, whether this is true, this cultural cringe, whether it matters, how
they envision the future of arts and disability in Australia.
I'd like to thank our four speakers today for being brave enough to open up the floor
to discussions after their presentations. We are searching for a roving mic, which we
hope will enable you to voice your opinions and so that the captioner can hear your
comments and questions later in this session.
Before that, I'd like to introduce our four speakers: Emma Bennison, from Arts
Access Australia; Morwenna Collett, from the Australia Council for the Arts; David
Kay, from KPMG; and Katharine Annear, freelance arts and disability consultant.
Starting with Emma: Emma Bennison, as you heard from Sancha already, is the new
Executive Director of Arts Access Australia. Emma holds a Bachelor of Music from
the University of Queensland and has a broad range of experience in managing key
arts and cultural projects in partnership with organisations and communities across
Queensland, nationally and internationally. She is a passionate advocate for artists
experiencing disability and disadvantage and has made a significant contribution to
the direction and culture of Accessible Arts since 2004.
Emma is also a professional singer/songwriter, and in 2007 she established
Inclusion Fusion, an acapella quintet comprising Accessible Arts staff, as a means of
enabling staff to maintain connected to their artistic practice whilst promoting the
talents of professional artists with disabilities. Emma tells me she was also a gong
girl in a previous life, so she's happy for me to tell her after 10 to 15 minutes that it's
time to stop. Emma.
EMMA BENNISON: Thank you very much. That's an interesting and eclectic
biography that I hadn't heard for a while.
I'd just like to quickly introduce Arts Access Australia for those of you who are not
aware of what we do. We're the peak national body for arts and disability in Australia,
and we work to increase opportunities for people with disability as artists, as arts
workers and as participants and audience members. Some of our key services
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include representation and advocacy, facilitation and development and information
and advice.
I was going to talk in a bit of detail about some of our recent projects, and also more
broadly about the sector in Australia, but Sancha has given such a fantastic
overview, so I'm not going to go into too much detail. But I did just want to mention
language briefly, because I think it is important that we talk about what we mean
when we use the words "artist with disability", and that is what Arts Access Australia
uses. When we use those words, we mean talking about the social model of
disability, so we're talking about barriers which society creates, rather than medical
conditions or impairment. I think that is important to mention.
When we talk about disability, we mean anyone who has a sensory, physical
impairment, a hidden impairment - intellectual or learning impairment - or mental
health conditions. Of course, we also recognise, and very much value the language
and culture, of the Deaf community, and we include them in our definition of
"disability". So I just wanted to make that clear before I continue.
Rather than talking about Arts Access Australia and the broader sector, I want to
move on now to answering the question about whether Australia really does lag
behind other western countries and what is my vision for the future of arts and
disability in Australia.
To start with, I think we do lag behind other western countries. Having said that, I do
think that we have much to be proud of as well. I don't want to paint a terribly
pessimistic picture of where we're at, but I think that we do in some cases lag
behind. I think that the National Arts and Disability Strategy, as Sancha mentioned,
has provided some much-needed momentum, particularly policy momentum and a
framework, but without consistent equal and sustained investment across the
country from governments at all levels beyond the life of the NDIS in its first three
years, and also, of course, from the private sector, I think much of that potential that
has occurred has not even yet been realised, or is in danger of being lost - some of
that momentum is in danger of being lost.
I think the second issue is that, due to the size of Australia and our geographical
distance and the distance between people with disability, it can actually be very
much more difficult for us to present a united, cohesive call to action. But it is
important to mention, as I said, that there are some areas where we do lead the
world here in Australia. I could mention many of them, and Sancha has already
alluded to some in her wrap-up earlier, but one shining example that I did want to
mention, and I gather that there's a brochure about it in your bags, is about
The Captioning Studio, which has developed its Go Theatrical! application for the
Smartphone, which enables people who are deaf or hearing impaired to access live
theatre with captioning on their mobile devices. So that's a world first. Of course, as
has already been mentioned, we also have ground-breaking theatre companies,
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such as Back to Back and Restless, creating work which is winning awards and
receiving international acclaim.
So I think that there are really good reasons to be optimistic, but I think there's a long
way to go. I don't think anyone in this room would disagree that there's a long way to
go.
In order to illustrate some of my thinking around the vision for arts and disability and
some of our thinking within Arts Access Australia, I just wanted to put on the table a
few hypothetical case studies. I promise you that none of these people are real - I've
made them up, they're all fictitious - but I thought it was an interesting way perhaps
to highlight some of where I think we need to go.
The first one is about John - I don't know why I called him "John", so sorry about
that. Anyway, he's a professional tenor and he works with a major opera company.
He sustains a spinal injury following an accident, but he's supported to return to his
operatic career, with his disability becoming just another facet of the performance.
The performance venues where the opera company performs are always accessible,
whether or not John is performing, and all the stages in those venues are accessible,
not just the auditorium. The organisation has an access budget which supports not
only John but the other 20 people with disability employed in the company, including
their CEO - okay, so that's perhaps taking it a bit far. Sorry, I got a bit carried away
with this. I'm new to the job. Forgive me.
So Number 2 is about Samantha. Samantha is seven years old and she's
non-verbal, so she's unable to speak. She has been participating in drama classes,
with assistance from a support worker, for the past two years, so she started young,
but that's fine. When she leaves school, she will have the opportunity, if she so
chooses, to undertake a university degree in theatre and audition for a fully waged
position with a disability-led theatre company. In order to supplement her income,
she'll also be able to teach drama in a mainstream secondary school, and she'll have
support, of course, along the way to do that, because we'll have the NDIS and
everything will be rosy and wonderful.
The final one is about Lisa. Lisa is a blind woman living in regional New South
Wales. She loves theatre and visual arts, and going to the theatre or gallery are
enjoyable and straightforward experiences. Audio description is available for at least
three shows in every season, with a variety of weekend, evening and matinee
performance options.
So that's the end of my case study foray, but some of those stories - I don't know
whether they seem all that visionary, but to anyone who has worked in the arts and
disability sector or experienced the arts as a person with disability will know that the
notion that a wheelchair user would feature in a performance of, say, The Magic
Flute, or the idea that an opera company might have the capacity to include access
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in its budget - not just for audiences but for artists and other employees, as a matter
of course - has not yet been realised here in Australia. Pathways to careers in the
arts for people with disability to enable them to achieve their full potential remain all
too few.
The provision of audio description is improving, as is the provision of captioning and
other access services, but the quality and consistency of these services varies
widely across the country, and it's virtually non-existent outside the metropolitan
areas. But it's okay, because all of these objectives I believe are achievable, and I
believe this because - well, for a variety of reasons, but, firstly, because a few weeks
ago I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a symposium of thought
leaders around arts and disability, and I met a number of leaders with disability from
the UK, where it seems much of my vision is already a reality. I also know that it's
possible, because many of the Unlimited artists who I've spoken to have told me
some really exciting stories of their experiences. I also know it because of the small
but important attitudinal changes that I personally notice as I navigate life as a blind
person.
But this vision will only become a reality if governments and the private sector invest,
as I said before, strategically in arts and disability, not just for one-off projects, but for
sustainable development and growth over a five- to ten-year period. These things do
take time and they do take resources. People with disability must also unite to send
a strong message that current levels of investment in the sector are unsustainable.
So how do we get there? We've talked about funding, but that is not the only issue.
People with disability also have a role to play in raising our own expectations of arts
and cultural programs and services and what we expect of them, and this can be
really difficult, I know first-hand, especially if you have family, friends, colleagues in
some cases, sending you the message that you shouldn't rock the boat, that you
should just settle and feel lucky.
But be assured that you do have the right to expect quality service, the same quality
service that your peers without disability expect. It takes courage, but unless we
discuss issues as they arise, and do it in a constructive way, nothing will change.
People with disability also need to be employed in arts and cultural organisations as
artists, arts administrators, arts managers, et cetera. I know that there are possibly
some people in the room who are going, "Oh, here she goes again, we're going to
talk about employment and leadership", but I have to tell you that in the months since
my appointment - it has been only a month and a half, actually - many people have
asked me, "Why does it matter that a person with disability leads Arts Access
Australia?" I've thought a lot about it, and I think it's something that we need to talk
about in this room.
I have a number of responses. The first one is that whether I like it or not, and
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whether we in this room like it or not, there is still some genuine uncertainty that
persists, that may persist, for some people around whether a person with disability
really does have the capacity to manage an arts and cultural organisation in this
country. I hear it from within the arts and disability sector and I hear it beyond the
arts and disability sector.
I don't take it personally. It's not surprising that people here in Australia are still
questioning the abilities of people with disability to take on leadership roles, because
there are so few of us doing it. But I would reassure those of you who are concerned
that whether I personally succeed or fail in this role, it will have nothing to do with my
disability and everything to do with my ability as a CEO. So I believe that the arts and
disability sector really does have a role to play in leading the way in this area.
Now, I really don't want any of my colleagues, many of whom I love and respect maybe I shouldn't use the word "love"; no, I do - I don't want any of my non-disabled
colleagues to believe that I'm suggesting that you should go home now and write out
your resignation letters. I really am not suggesting that. I'm not at all suggesting that.
We have many wonderful allies in this sector who I'm very proud to work with.
Nor am I suggesting that if a person with a disability applies for a role in an
organisation, they should automatically be employed simply on the basis that they
have a disability. I myself have not employed people with disability on a number of
occasions. But I do believe that it's time that we started having a look at succession
planning which actively seeks to appoint suitably qualified people with disability.
Yes, they do exist, because I do get asked that question a lot, and, yes, it can be
done, because failure to do it is not only a waste of first-hand knowledge and
experience and a waste of talent; it is also sending the very subtle but very clear
message that, on some level, the perception remains that people with disability are
less capable, less qualified and less important as a voice for change in this sector, in
spite of the fact that people with disability have the lived experience to inform their
leadership.
So I'm not concerned by people's perception of my ability to do this job, but I am
concerned that the existence of this perception may put young leaders or potential
leaders off. So they do need to be challenged. Is that the gong?
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Yes.
EMMA BENNISON: That's all right, okay. Just as importantly - I'm nearly finished - if
the arts and disability sector cannot move in this direction, it makes it so much more
difficult to see how we, as a sector, can honestly champion employment of people
with disability in the broader arts and cultural sector with any credibility. This push is
an important step towards people with disability moving from passive recipients of
services to becoming active social and economic contributors to society.
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Some exciting progress has been made as a result of the National Arts and Disability
strategy, but we still have a long way to go before we truly achieve full and equal
access to arts and culture. So let's celebrate our successes, let's draw on and learn
from the experiences of other western countries, and non-western countries as well,
as we create a society where all Australians can have access to the arts anywhere,
any day and at any time. Thank you.
(Applause)
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Thanks, Emma. We will have questions and comments at
the end of all the speakers.
Let's move to Morwenna Collett, who is the Program Manager, Arts Funding Music,
and she's also the disability contact person for the Australia Council for the Arts.
Morwenna holds Masters and Bachelors degrees as well as the University Medal
from the Queensland Conservatorium of Griffith University. She's the Program
Manager of the music area at the Australia Council for the Arts and she's the
disability contact person, having worked in arts funding for five years. She was
previously the Arts Development Officer for the dance and music section at Arts
Queensland. Morwenna is a clean - a keen, and I'm sure clean, flautist. She
identifies as an artist with disability, living with multiple sclerosis for 12 years.
MORWENNA COLLETT: Thank you very much, Liz, and I will try to keep this as
clean as possible.
I thought it's 11.30, what do we need? We need some PowerPoints, so here it is,
what you've all been waiting for. Thank you very much, Emma, for setting the scene
in such - I hate to use the cliche word of the session, but a visionary way. Those
case studies really have given me something to think about, and also, I guess, have
made me realise that it isn't actually that far away, that things like that are happening
in other places and there's no reason that that can't be something that can happen
here in the very near future.
So what I'm going to do is talk a little bit about the Australia Council, how we operate
as an organisation, what our visions are for the future, and also what we're doing,
and plan to do, in the area of disability down the track. I'll also talk a little bit about
what's happening in the USA and Canada and how this compares with what's
happening here and what our strengths and opportunities are in Australia.
As some of you I'm sure will know, the Australia Council is an arms-length statutory
authority of the Federal Government. We were established by an Act of Parliament,
the Australia Council Act, in 1975. We are accountable to the Australian Government
through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in the office for the arts,
under our current Minister, Simon Crean.
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We've been around for about 30 years now, during which time we've been helping
artists create, present, exhibit and publish creative works and develop their
professional skills. We do this primarily through giving grants to artists and arts
organisations. We also promote the arts nationally and internationally, so there's a
larger audience for Australian artists. We also build knowledge of the arts sector by
commissioning and publishing research, giving us insights into the needs of artists
and audiences, and we work with government to increase spending on the arts,
where we can, and contribute to policies on the arts, such as the impending National
Cultural Policy.
Our strategic plan outlines the Council's mission, vision, values, goals and strategies.
So our mission that we work under is to support the creation, presentation and
appreciation of distinctive cultural works by providing assistance to Australian artists
and making their work accessible to all. As an organisation, we envisage a future
where the arts are a vital part of Australia's culture and that all Australians
experience the arts through education and their communities, with life-long and
inspiring engagement.
The Australia Council regularly reviews its goals to take into account changing arts
landscapes nationally and internationally and, of course, to ensure that our
government priorities are met. So our current goals are that we're working towards
our accessibility, sustainability, innovation, engagement, support and efficiency.
So our first goal around accessibility is obviously something that's going to come up
a lot over the next two days, and I think this is particularly relevant here, because
one of our strategies under this goal is to increase diversity of access to Australia
Council funding and our programs through what's called our cultural engagement
framework.
Since the Australia Council was created, we've developed a whole range of different
policies, strategies and programs which aim to ensure that the opportunities to enjoy
and participate in the arts were not constrained by an individual's background or life
circumstances. Since 2007, we've had a cultural engagement framework. This has
provided a sort of place for all of those policies, strategies and programs to come
together to ensure equity of access to our grants and initiatives and, at the same
time, they're deeply grounded in our twin mandates, which are to provide all
Australians with the opportunity to enjoy and participate in the arts, and a key driver
for us, which is artistic excellence.
There are a number of different demographic communities under this cultural
engagement framework, and we've got specific strategies, initiatives and
partnerships relevant to each of these areas. So those five areas are indigenous
Australians, people with a disability, multicultural Australia, young people and
regional and marginalised communities.
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At the Australia Council, we're aware of the influence that we have as an
organisation on our applicants and artists across Australia, so it is important for us to
try to take a leadership role. So I wanted to highlight a few of the strategies which
have been effective for us and assisted in raising awareness of arts and disability
across our organisation and beyond.
A lot of what we do in this area is driven by our arts and disability action plan. We
also work with our operationally funded clients to assist them in developing their own
disability action plans, and I hope that in the future one day all of our organisations
that we fund will have one of these.
So some of the highlights that we've completed to date under our plan have included
the establishment of an access champions group, which is a group of about 15
people from across the Australia Council that act as advocates for disability within
their respective sections, and we meet regularly to discuss policy issues and
proposals, as well as working on the implementation of our disability action plan,
which is a shared responsibility across the organisation.
We're also passionate about advocating for and showcasing the professional
achievements of artists with disability, and we've recently partnered with Accessible
Arts New South Wales to deliver a multi art form exhibition and a series of artist talks
called Practice in Motion, and this is part of the artistic program of the Arts Activated
conference. This is curated by Jennifer Stockins, and it's currently on display in the
Australia Council's exhibition space in Surry Hills. So if you're in Sydney long
enough, come and check it out.
We're also of course really interested in increasing access to funding to artists with
disability, and so in 2011 we divulged funding to Arts Access Australia to establish
their Cultivate program, which has been so successful and in such high demand that
it received funding to run for a second year in 2012, and it was very exciting to see
the results of that program announced yesterday to 10 very special artists.
So in the future I really want government funding programs to be more accessible to
all artists to apply for. We're certainly working towards making adjustments to the
way in which we accept grant applications for this to happen, but there's a long way
to go, and Cultivate for us certainly has been a real model for us to look at in terms
of the flexibility of the application process and some sort of world-firsts, I think, in
terms of accepting applications via methods like Skype and text.
In some recent research that we conducted, we've seen extremely low numbers of
applications received across the Australia Council from artists identifying as having a
disability, and, of course, this has consequently had an impact on a fairly low
success rate for artists with disability across our funding programs. There's a
perception out there that we do not fund many artists with disability, and, of course,
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this is constrained by that very small percentage of people who apply.
So I hope to see a future where artists with disability apply regularly and
competitively to government funding programs to support their projects. To increase
this success rate, we need to do a lot more as an organisation in terms of raising
awareness and promoting our programs, and I think there's work that we can do
around our assessment panels and ensuring that they're reflective of the different
communities across Australia that people are applying to us from.
At the Australia Council, other than the divulged funding to Cultivate, we don't run in
house any funding programs at the moment specifically to support artists from our
cultural engagement framework areas. To encourage more artists with disabilities to
apply for funding, I think we need to celebrate our successes a little more, because
there have been a number of amazing projects that we've supported featuring artists
with disability, which I think have demonstrated just how vibrant the arts and
disability sector is in Australia and how competitive this work is internationally on an
artistic level.
So a couple of successes I've listed here are Restless Dance Theatre and Back to
Back, who have already been mentioned quite a few times this morning, who receive
triennial funding from various art form boards, and Gaelle Mellis, as has already
been mentioned this morning, is one of the five creative Australia established artist
fellows for the inaugural year in 2012, a fantastic achievement. I believe Gaelle's
work is currently in Adelaide.
There is a range of other projects which are funded by the different sectors of the
Australia Council for project funding, such as the Click Clack Project in Melbourne,
Rudely Interrupted, who are performing here tomorrow, and No Strings Attached
theatre.
I've recently come back from a trip to the States, where I was actually at the same
conference as Emma, and I had the opportunity whilst there to meet with some of
their arts funding bodies and hear about how they support arts and disability work in
their countries. I came across some interesting observations that I think we can look
at here in terms of how we support our artists with disability.
So the National Endowment for the Arts in the States, or the NEA, have an entire
office dedicated to accessibility, and they run a range of state and national forums
and an annual summit to do with issues of accessibility. They've also invested
heavily in a range of resources, which are available on their website, and
accessibility in terms of venues primarily.
They also are very good at partnering, and partner often with organisations in the
health field, who they tell me tend to have a lot larger budgets in the States.
Surprise, surprise. At the moment they're working with the Global Alliance for Arts &
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Health on a project focusing on warriors who have returned from war.
Because of the particular compliance laws associated with government funding in
the United States, every single one of the arts organisations that the National
Endowment for the Arts funds must have a staff member responsible for access and
disability. They also list a question on every grant application form asking how an
applicant will ensure that their program is accessible.
At the Canada Council for the Arts, they also have an equity office. At the moment,
their number one priority is disability, and they've recently published their first
strategy, called "Expanding the Arts: Deaf and Disability Arts Access and Equality
Strategy", which is also available online. They have a staff member solely dedicated
to arts and disability work, the first one I've come across in any arts funding agency.
Across the Canada Council's grants program, applicants with different access
requirements can request additional funds to cover these costs, so I think there's a
real understanding at an organisational level of the impact this can have on our
artists.
Yes, I certainly think that Australia is lagging behind in some areas in terms of arts
and disability support mechanisms that we have. However, what I found interesting
was that neither Canada nor the US have a peak body in the arts and disability
space in the same way that we do here. Their government funding agencies are
providing services that I believe would be better suited to be managed externally by
a service organisation, and the network of peak bodies that we have here within
Australia is a real strength for us, and these organisations play a valuable role in
supporting and advocating for all of our artists, and I imagine that we will see the
capacity and remit of these organisations expand in the future.
So thank you very much for your time this morning. Before I hand back to the rest of
the panel, I just wanted to say that if you have any questions about the Australia
Council or our funding programs, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. I'll also
hang around after the session if anyone wants to come and have a chat, and I'll be
here today and tomorrow as well, so please come and say hello. Thank you.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Thank you, Morwenna. That was a very brave offer to
everyone here: come and talk to Morwenna about funding and other issues. Thank
you.
We'll move on to David now. David Kay is the Associate Director of KPMG. David
holds a Masters of Public Policy and Bachelor's degrees in political science and
economics. He's a consultant in KPMG's Health and Human Practice area, providing
advice to a range of government and non-government agencies on disability reforms,
review and evaluation. David has been part of the team advising the New South
Wales Government on its person-centred reforms and providing advice on design
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aspects of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. David has just been away in
the Middle East on holidays and his first day back in the office is today, so we will
bear with you, David.
DAVID KAY: Thank you. Please forgive me if I'm a little all over the place. It is my
first day back and my brain isn't quite engaged yet.
You may be wondering what a person from KPMG is doing up here. KPMG is known
as an accounting firm and does a lot of work with the private sector, and I can assure
you I'm not an accountant. I've spent a number of years working within government
in the disability sector and more recently as a consultant to government and to large
NGOs working on disability reform and disability policy advice.
In terms of the topic, I do come from a disability perspective, and my knowledge of
the arts sector and the arts and disability sector is relatively limited. But what I want
to speak about this morning is what's happening in terms of disability reform in
Australia and, in particular, the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the
opportunities and the challenges that the NDIS will provide to people with a disability
and artists with a disability.
I recognise there is a fair degree of scepticism and doubt around the NDIS. The
Productivity Commission's report did propose a fundamental reform and quite a
grand scheme - some would say a gold-plated scheme - and I guess it is
understandable that people are doubting whether this will go ahead.
From our perspective, and from the work we've done with government and the work
that is going on, I can say that there is a fair degree of momentum, there is a fair
degree of development work that is occurring now around the NDIS, and a particular
focus on the five launch sites which will be operational from July 2013. So I do want
to talk about the NDIS, I want to talk about what the NDIS is and how the NDIS will
work, as well as what it will mean for people with a disability in terms of accessing
the arts.
There is no doubt that the reform is a once-in-a-generation reform to the disability
sector. There hasn't been a reform of this scale in the disability sector in Australia to
date. If it is implemented, as the Productivity Commission recommends, there will be
a significant investment in disability supports and services, and if the
recommendations of the Productivity Commission are implemented, resources will
double in size. So that alone provides significant opportunities for growth and
development.
As well as this boost in investment in disability supports and services, fundamentally
the NDIS is about a person-centred approach and will give people with a disability
much more control and much more choice over the supports and services that they
access and much more control and choice over their lives. It also has the potential to
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open up opportunities for people with a disability to more deeply engage and
participate in the arts where they choose to and to contribute to the arts sector more
broadly.
So what is the NDIS? The NDIS will be a broad social insurance-based scheme
which will fund long-term care and support for people with significant disability. It will
be a national scheme and will replace the State and territory-based programs and
funding that currently exist.
The Productivity Commission inquiry, which occurred in 2009/2010, examined the
current disability support system in Australia and was quite scathing of the system
and acknowledged that the system was underfunded, unfair, fragmented and
inefficient and didn't give people with a disability choice or certainty of access to
services. So fundamentally the NDIS, as they propose, is about changing this.
The NDIS will target two broad groups of people with disability. People talk about,
and this has been the focus to date, people with significant disability, people with
severe or profound disability who need ongoing support with one or more activities of
daily living. Under the NDIS, this group will be eligible for, and will receive, individual
funding packages and will be able to design and tailor a package of supports to suit
their needs. Under the NDIS, there will be approximately 300,000 to 400,000 people
with a disability eligible for a funding package, and this is significantly more than the
number of people who are accessing disability support and services currently.
The second group is a much bigger group, and the NDIS, in part, will focus on
people with a disability more broadly - those people with mild to moderate disability
or core activity limitations, who don't necessarily need ongoing support but will
benefit from advice and information and planning and, in some cases, one-off
assistance throughout their lives. As I said, this is a much bigger group, and it's
around 3 million to 4 million people, which is the estimated number of people with
disability in Australia currently. Really the resources and the funding will focus on the
first group, so those people with severe and profound disability and a need for
ongoing support.
How the NDIS will work - people will, as I said, have access to a funding package.
Funding will be individualised and people will have control over their funding
package. They'll be able to tailor support to their needs and to access services,
activities, programs which meet their needs as well as meet their goals and
aspirations. Importantly, access to this funding will be based on an entitlement
model, rather than a rationing model, which the current system is based on.
The scheme will also be person-centred, and I think person-centredness is a term
which is used quite widely. It is the latest term, I guess, and certainly there are
elements of person-centredness that exist in the disability support system throughout
Australia. I guess what the NDIS will do is institutionalise person-centredness and
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put structures and processes to support a person-centred approach in the disability
sector. It means people will have choices. People will be at the centre of decision
making. They will be able to make choices about the supports they access. They will
be able to control and have influence over the design of the supports and services
that they choose to access.
People will also be able to choose where their funding is allocated, so they'll be able
to choose what types of supports or activities they use their funding for and they'll be
able to choose the organisations or individuals, if they choose to employ individuals,
that their funding is allocated to. This is quite a fundamental change from the current
disability support system, where organisations are funded on a block funding basis.
What a person-centred approach and the NDIS will also provide is a capacity for
people to move beyond traditional disability services and supports. The notion of
service types will go out of the window and really it will be about designing supports
and services and activities which meet people's individual needs.
One of the other focuses of the NDIS will be on accessing mainstream and
community-based supports, and there is a proposed model in terms of local area
coordination which will support people with a disability more broadly to access
mainstream and community-based supports and activities and programs, and this is
based on a model that has already been in place and in operation in a number of
jurisdictions in Australia, including Western Australia as well as Queensland.
Local area coordinators will be based in local communities, will work with community
organisations, mainstream services, to help people link with those organisations and
services and programs. So they will have both a community capacity-building focus
as well as a source of support for people with a disability to access those services.
So what does an NDIS mean for artists with a disability and people with a disability
who want to engage with the arts? There are a number of elements to the NDIS
which will assist people to access and engage with the arts and provide greater
opportunities for people to access and participate in the arts. First of all, there will be
an emphasis on better information and people will need information to make
decisions and make informed choices, so comprehensive information resources is
quite critical to an NDIS and that will be central to the development of the scheme.
This will encompass arts programs, arts organisations, arts opportunities that exist in
local communities and will also encompass local area coordinators working with arts
organisations to improve access to the arts for people with a disability.
Another element is a focus on better planning and guidance for people with a
disability. A person-centred approach puts increased emphasis on individualised and
holistic planning where a person's needs and life circumstances, as well as their
goals and aspirations, are considered in a holistic way. The way that this planning
process will work will be a series of facilitated discussions about a person's needs
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and circumstances, their aspirations, their goals, as well as a discussion about how
best to use their funding package to meet these needs and goals. What this means
is that where a person has an interest in the arts, they will be able to bring that to the
planning process and incorporate that in the planning process, and people will be
able to determine how much of an emphasis they put on the arts relative to other
aspects of their supports or activities.
I think there will also be greater flexibility and greater choices. An individualised
approach puts more influence and more power in the hands of people with a
disability, so, as I've said, they won't be restricted to pre-determined service types
and they will be free to design supports and activities which meet their needs. This
might mean, for example, that a person may be able to employ someone on a
one-on-one basis to support them to access the arts, or they can use their funding to
access arts pursuits or activities that are available in their local community.
Finally, there will be greater access to mainstream and community-based supports
and organisations and programs. As I've said, there will be a focus on community
capacity building and local area coordination, and while this isn't new, what the NDIS
will bring is an increased emphasis on this community capacity building and on this
access to the mainstream.
Just finally, what an NDIS and what an individualised approach means for arts and
disability organisations is something which we need to consider. It is a different way
of working. Funding will go to an individual and then to an organisation. Funding will
not go directly to organisations. I think this changes the power balance between
people with a disability and arts and disability organisations, and it means that
organisations will need to be more flexible, more responsive to people with a
disability and artists with a disability and more responsive to their needs.
Really, I guess I've given a bit of a snapshot about the NDIS, and I guess, from my
perspective, in terms of the future of the arts disability sector, the NDIS provides
significant opportunity and will provide significant funding which will contribute, or
can contribute, to the growth and development of the arts disability sector in
Australia. I think it is important to note, though, that this does require a different way
of working and it does require a true partnership between people with a disability and
artists with a disability and arts and disability organisations. Thank you.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Thank you, David. Another challenge for us, a new way of
working.
Next we have Katharine Annear, a freelance arts and disability consultant and
founding member of Company@Autistic Theatre. Katharine was also an Unlimited
UK recipient travelling to London for the Cultural Olympiad earlier this year.
Katharine holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Disability Studies and a Master of
Disability Studies and has a long history of activism representing the disability and
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the gay, lesbian, transgender, intersex and queer communities. She has served on
numerous boards and advisory committees, including No Strings Attached Theatre
of Disability, Restless Dance, Autism SA and the Australian Federation of Disability
Organisations, AFTA.
Katharine has worked in radio and had poetry published in local, national and
international anthologies, including "Vernacular" and "Thylazine", in the Australian
Journal of Arts, Ethics and Literature. She's a performing artist and writing tutor for
the award-winning theatre piece "The Cracked Pot" and she launched Company@
Autistic Theatre in 2008 with artistic director Julian Jaensch, based in Adelaide.
Katharine currently works with Tutti Arts, the Disability and Arts Transition Team, and
lectures at Flinders University, South Australia. Does she have any spare time, I ask
you?
KATHARINE ANNEAR: I'm here to talk about a lot of the things that have already
been talked about today, and some of them I'll reiterate because they need
reiterating. What we're talking about is are people with disability truly able to lead
arts and cultural endeavours and are we able to convene the necessary debate,
withstand the necessary criticism within the arts world?
As was said, I recently attended the London-based festival Unlimited UK, which was
commissioned as part of the Cultural Olympiad for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games. The 29 commissioned works that were part of Unlimited UK were led by
disabled artists, and included performers with and without disability.
In their presentation, these works ranged from gritty grapplings to highly evolved
works with high production value. Of value to the festival program also was the
series of talks and debates that complemented the festival works.
The team commissioning the Unlimited works may have felt that there was a risk
involved - in fact, they articulated that they felt that there was a risk involved - in
commissioning 29 disabled artists or arts companies to produce work. But there is an
element of risk in everything. In the case of Unlimited UK, the risk paid off and
produced ground-breaking work, elements of which you would have seen in the
opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics. Perhaps the UK was uniquely
placed to take this risk, with its history of disability, activism and long-term
investment in disability arts and artists with disability.
It was clear from the commissioned work that the artists could make work about
disability and the ways in which society has disabled them, but there were also
works that explored themes that resonated with everyone, regardless of their
impairment status, and these works had the capacity to move entire audiences
through common experiences. So artists can make the work, but can they debate
about the work and can they handle criticism? During the concurrent program of
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MEMBER OF AUDIENCE: Could you move the mic closer to you?
KATHARINE ANNEAR: Sure. During the process of talks and debates for Unlimited
UK, artists pushed themselves and were pushed by audiences to grapple with
questions of identity, questions of the quality of the work, the inclusiveness of the
work and the extent to which they belong to this illusive disability culture. Debate
convener Jo Verrent brought up an interesting provocation, and I will focus on this
provocation for a little while.
Jo Verrent challenged programmers to stop programming shit, and by this she was
referring specifically to staged works, and she meant stop programming work that is
unresolved and doesn't have good production values - the kind of work that sneaks
on our stages because we have a requirement to do so, or because we're funded to
do so, and we don't really think about it other than, like Emma alluded to before,
putting it up there because it's a person with a disability and not thinking about the
content of the work. This programming sometimes happens, but from our collective
failure to critically review work by disabled artists and share those results of reviews
with potential programmers so that they know what to look for when programming
staged works.
So in Australia do disabled artists make work? Yes, they do, and Australia has some
companies that make work of a very high standard that is unequivocally not shit, but
is it disabled led. Works by Australian companies that involve artists with disability
and promote art that is derived from disability culture and the disability aesthetic
achieve high acclaim, but these companies continue to struggle with producing work
that is truly disabled-led. We also share the problem with the UK of a lack of
willingness to criticise and debate work within the disability community.
In the Australian States, where funded companies produce work of a high standard,
there are several reviewers who will critically review work. However, there is a
plethora of work sometimes grouped as festivals or special programs that remains
unreviewed or uncriticised.
Then we need to ask other questions about this type of work and is this type of work
the work that should be criticised, or is this not really the disability art that we're used
to but a different process at hand for people with impairment, one of those new
processes that perhaps Petra is exploring through her work? As a community, we
need to think about this. We also need to talk about new ways of working.
Some may say what a luxury it is to be sitting back and talking about disability and
the arts when the disability system is broken and underfunded. However, article 30
of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability talks
specifically about cultural participation as artists and as audiences. We need to be
talking about art. Art is a career for some people with disability, and within that
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career people with disability deserve opportunities to lead, to produce work, to
debate work and to criticise and be criticised.
What can we do to improve opportunities for people with disability to lead in the arts?
Education and access to it is a key. There are very few, if any, professional
education programs that are accessible to artists with disability. There are a series of
physical barriers to education, but one of the biggest barriers is attitude. These
attitudes range from a lack of willingness to consider how to accommodate artists
with disability in education to attitudes that artists with disability will somehow dilute
mainstream professionalism and change established aesthetics.
Funders need to consider funding artists to produce work and setting up
mechanisms whereby networks of artists who are funded can communicate with
each other across our vast nation. Leading disabled artists need to think about their
own networks of support and producing stronger ones. Disability art needs the
support of the Australian community as audiences and as reviewers. Australian
audiences need to be willing to engage with disabled artists and their product and to
be open to being challenged by new work with new aesthetics.
In terms of the disability community, we're at a junction that is about finding our own
way, and once we begin to understand that much of what we need to further our
disability and arts practice in Australia lies within the disability community itself, we
will begin to find answers. Within our own community, we need to address ways in
which we support and promote people, and ensure that we continue to support and
promote people once they have been installed in positions of power. Our own
internal tall poppy syndrome gets the better of us as a disability community at times.
Whilst I was in the UK, I asked a question about power sharing. I asked how we, as
disabled artists and arts workers, could share power with non-disabled artists and
arts workers and managers. The answer I got was that sharing power was not an
option and was something that we could not wait for; indeed, we had to wrest power
from non-disabled people.
So that's the answer I was given. So, as a community, we need to think about that
and we need to think about how we're going to negotiate this space as disabled and
non-disabled workers in the arts industry. We all can look to the recent case of Arts
Access Australia and what it has demonstrated, but we need to consider whether
we're willing to sit around and wait for the next Kate Larsen to come along and give
up her job, or whether we as a community create the circumstances in which new
jobs and new opportunities are created for disabled people.
We also need the capacity to operate within intensely bureaucratic structures, and
for this we need peer support. No-one can do it alone within these structures, and a
peer support network, one that is a professionalised resource and maintained, is
necessary.
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In a sense, it is about understanding that we have to do this together and that we
can't do it alone. These are two separate realisations. Working together is indeed a
skill and it takes effort, especially across disability circles. We have a tendency, as
individuals with a disability, to go it alone and boldly go where no-one has been
before. However, this is lonely - lonely, lonely, lonely. We need peers, we need
colleagues, we need mentors, we need proteges, we need to share our successes,
our trials and tribulations. We need our culture.
One of the things that we need to do is examine the existing structures to determine
whether they are currently meeting our needs. The established disability arts
structures within each State have their own peculiarities in terms of funding services,
viability and inclusion of people with disability and disabled artists, not just as
consumers, customers and participants, but as employees, managers and those who
govern organisations. If there are people involved in these organisations who have a
disability, then what responsibility do they take for succession planning and
mentoring of the next generation?
We all cling tightly to the things we love. However, too much love can stifle them.
This is the approach we should take to our roles: hold them gently and be prepared
to let go when the next best and brightest do come along, and I hope some of those
next best and brightest are in this room today. Thank you.
(Applause)
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Thank you, Katharine. I loved the term "gritty grapplings"
that she mentioned at the beginning.
It's our turn now. I want you to think about all of those challenges set out to you by
Emma and Morwenna, David and Katharine and ask the panel and ask each other
what are your visions for the future of art and disability in Australia. Is anyone brave
enough to raise their hand without a microphone? Can you please project?
SANCHA DONALD: I have a question - Sancha Donald.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: It wasn't a Dorothy Dixer, it wasn't planned.
SANCHA DONALD: My question is to the panel. In the State of New South Wales,
Arts NSW have developed a significant partnership that has resulted in professional
development grants - by the way, they've just been launched.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: This is a comment, not a question, Sancha.
SANCHA DONALD: It's a question. The partnership has resulted in much greater
support and awareness for arts and disability in New South Wales from government
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departments. My question to the panel is could you illuminate just a little bit more
perhaps what you think the role of partnerships might be in the next few years in this
phase?
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: The captioner has got that, I think. Who on the panel would
like to answer the partnerships question?
MORWENNA COLLETT: I can take a stab at part of that question at least. In my
presentation, I talked a little bit about what the Canada Council had been doing in
terms of working a lot with partnerships, particularly in the health field, and I think
that this is something that is going to happen more and more. Certainly, at a
government level, a few of us from different government agencies met yesterday,
and it was fascinating to hear about the different partnerships happening at all levels
of government, between governments and with other organisations as well.
I know there's a session on this afternoon about partnerships that I'll be looking
forward to hearing a lot more about. But I do think partnerships are very important
and something that we're going to be seeing a lot more of and something that I think
governments and organisations, such as the Australia Council, have a responsibility
to start exploring further and doing more in that field. Emma, did you want to
comment too?
EMMA BENNISON: Yes, I would agree. I think partnerships are absolutely important
and really do help to enable us to think more broadly about not only how we source
funding, but also how we look at the impact of arts and culture on our society. I do
think that, particularly with the NDIS becoming a reality in the next few years,
partnerships are going to become even more crucial, because we are going to be
needing to look at what role arts and culture play in this kind of decision about
reasonable and necessary supports, which are the words I keep hearing around the
NDIS, and we need to make absolutely sure that the message is heard very, very
loud and clear across government that arts and culture is in fact reasonable and
necessary.
I know that we in this room are all absolutely across that, no issue there, but when
you're talking about people being able just to access the minimum kinds of supports,
like having a shower in the morning and making sure that people have a roof over
their heads, arts and culture can get lost. So that's where I think partnerships are
crucial - not only in terms of funding, but also in terms of making sure that we get
that message out loud and clear across government and community.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Thanks, Emma. There are a few other questions. There was
one back here before.
QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: My question isn't about what you were just saying,
but about the NDIS. You were talking about people having a choice where their
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money goes, and that's fantastic, it's like a free market. I'm a bit worried about the
corporatisation of services and what insurances the NDIS will put in place that
people will actually be able to use their money within the arts when it has to go to
these other needs?
DAVID KAY: Well, the way that the NDIS has been thought about currently is that
people will receive a funding package and will have to use that funding package to
meet all of their needs and wants and desires.
QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: The arts in general already suffer, not just in the
disability sector, due to this. So how are you going to ensure that all people can have
access?
DAVID KAY: Well, I can't ensure that.
QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: I really think it's something we haven't thought about
in a healthy structure.
DAVID KAY: It's about the emphasis that people want to put on the arts and the
balance. I don't think that it will come down to that choice. I think what the NDIS will
provide is a reasonable and necessary amount of funding to meet people's needs
and to help them achieve their goals and aspirations.
Now, I can't say that everyone is going to get an amount of money that will enable
them to do whatever they choose; that's not going to happen. It's government
funding, there will be a limit to government funding. But what it does provide is an
ability for people to choose. They will have to use some of the funding to meet their
core support needs, but there will also be an ability to choose what sorts of
community participation or recreation or arts activities they can participate in.
QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: What impact do you think that will have on the
services and the arts sector, considering we know what corporatisation and leaving
things to the free market does in general?
DAVID KAY: I'm not sure that corporatisation is something that will happen.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: This is something that could be discussed over lunch,
perhaps. Gaelle has the next question.
GAELLE MELLIS: Hi, everyone. I want to pick up and particularly discuss what
Katharine and Emma were talking about and stuff that I think about a lot, and that
was things like as Australians with a disability, the geographics of this country and
how we actually galvanise and get together to have a voice and particularly start
talking about critical debate and stuff - we need those numbers in some way.
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I just wanted to, I suppose, pose to the panel the question of identity. I think because
geographically in the country we have a lot of people with disability that don't identify,
or they only identify to what suits them because they have a little grant. I say shame,
shame, shame. Come out, be proud.
DAVID KAY: Or they don't even know.
GAELLE MELLIS: Yes, people don't know. Can I also get you to clarify what you
think the difference is between disability in arts and disability (inaudible) - very
different things.
KATHARINE ANNEAR: Shall I start?
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Yes, Katharine first.
KATHARINE ANNEAR: I'm going to answer all the questions really quickly, just
because I have the microphone. We need to understand what they are before we
enter into them. They're not just an exercise of bureaucratic construct, so we don't
just do partnerships because partnerships are the thing to do at the moment. I think
we actually need funding to help us develop partnerships and understand what their
potential is and understand what partnerships are when they are between powerful
groups and groups with less power. We should be funded to do that first before we
create work based on those partnerships.
Secondly, the NDIS is both a threat and an opportunity, so we should think about it
like that, and that's all I'm going to say about that. Identity is really important, but it's
also intensely personal. We constantly evolve as human beings and our identity is
part of that, and some of us I think choose to be in or out of particular identities,
some of us don't have that choice also.
As far as convening, it's really up to something coming out of this conference around
convening the necessary debate around what it means to identify as a disabled
artist, and also I think we need to have those conversations about how there are
many identities and that one is not necessarily better or worse than the other. But
through our conversations, we can come to better understand how we might identify
and the ways in which our identity affects the work we make and the grants we go for
and the partnerships we form.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Thank you, Katharine. We might move to the next question.
Go ahead.
QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: I'm from Arts Access Australia. It resonated with me
particularly around the area of career pathways and the importance of education,
and also you talked about self-critiquing and having external critiques meet a certain
standard, performances (inaudible) people with a disability. What ideally do you see
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you need to do in education, post-school options, to make this possible, to develop
more equitable careers?
KATHARINE ANNEAR: We need to stop calling it "post-school options", for a start,
because nobody else has - it's not a criticism of you, but I want to put it out there that
we call a lot of this stuff that we do post-school options. Non-disabled people -QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: I was thinking after school.
KATHARINE ANNEAR: I'm not having a debate with you. I know there are a lot of
other people in this room that associate the term "post school" with post-school
options for people with disability, and that's a problem, and I'm answering your
question by saying that there is a problem (inaudible) that disabled people do after
school, and it means that we don't have opportunities then to break into mainstream
environments like education. We can have parallel streams of things that people do
after school, but we also need integrated streams in terms of education.
This is a much broader issue than the arts. This is about access to education
opportunities for people with disability, full stop, and having them become far more
inclusive, because it's only through those education opportunities that you are
exposed to that kind of learning that enables you then to enter a different space. So
if you've never had that learning, then you're never going to go on to be in the same
linguistic space as somebody else. So you're at a disadvantage from the outset. So
we want to explore our own culture and our own linguistic spaces, but we need to
understand other cultures and other linguistic spaces, and the way we do that is
through education.
How do we do it? Well, we have to lobby in general for improvements to access to
education for people with disability, including arts education, and there are some
unique attitudes around arts education and having people with disability accessing
that education, which can form barriers, like I said. But, in general, I think it's about
using our instruments like the DDA and the standards for education to lobby for
better arts education for people.
EMMA BENNISON: I would like to quickly add something to that, exactly on the point
you just made, which is that I think more broadly the complaints processes under
those instruments are so difficult for people to work through at times, especially
when the issues are fraught with a lot of emotion, and it's a very difficult process for
people.
So, again picking up on what Katharine said, it's that peer support that is needed and
making sure that people have the assistance that they require to go through that
process - even if it's just someone to talk to about it, because it can be a very lonely
road, having been through it. So, yes, I think that's important too.
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SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Graeme Innes will be here tomorrow, so we can make that
point then. I have the wind-up signal that it's lunchtime, but I have been asked for at
least two questions. I ask you to be really brief.
QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE: This is actually a comment, not a question, so it will
be brief. It's a comment to Katharine. I was so excited to hear you defend risk taking.
Risk taking is something that we all have to engage in. People learn through
education by risk taking. We will not develop excellence in the arts unless artists of
all descriptions take risks and we learn from those. So well done.
QUESTION FROM FLOOR: I have just a quick question, you may not be able to
answer it, but I guess it's something to ponder. One of my pet hates is watching TV
programs or movies that are portrayed by people who don't have a disability but
they're portraying people with a disability. My question is: when will we finally see the
talent of people with a disability on those screens portraying that disability and
actually have input into how it is and not some kind of depiction based on what pulls
in drama ratings? That's my question.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: Who would like to answer that?
MORWENNA COLLETT: When you say "when", I hope it's soon, and I guess again it
comes down to organising as peers and networking and creating those networks by
which artists, actors with disability can be promoted in those roles, and also actively
campaigning around non-acceptance of non-disabled people playing disabled
people.
There have been some more successful overseas campaigns around disabled
actors playing those people that are cast as people with disability, but also disabled
actors just playing roles full stop in theatre and on screens, yes. So when I don't
know, but let's get one step closer with this conference.
SARAH-JANE RENNIE: All right, I would like to send you out to do all that
networking, but before we do that, please thank our panelists.
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