Accessible Arts promotes and provides opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in arts and cultural activities either as audience members, through attending galleries, theatres, museums and festivals; or as participants in art, drama, music, dance and multimedia activities; and by developing as professional artists.
The Australia Council has recently launched What Makes Me, a digital online project that invites people with a disability to have a voice in the arts.
What Makes Me invites you to review the importance art has in your life by creating a cube of images, audio or video that will be viewable from the What Makes Me website. The project aims to collect personal stories to contribute to Australia's largest digital collaborative story.
Part of the challenge for many Australians, is that 'the arts' are associated with images of snobbery and inaccessibility. This project encourages people to see that art comes in many forms, and shows the many different ways in which people can and do engage with the arts.
"Many Australians don't necessarily identify with the arts and see how creativity and the arts impact their daily lives," said Sandra Bender, Executive Director of Arts Development at the Australia Council.
The project seeks to demonstrate that the arts are a powerful agent of change in our lives: they enrich our society and make Australia a better place to live, celebrating and defining us as Australians, as communities and as individuals.
"What Makes Me communicates the message that art is all around us and comes in many forms whether it is school bands, amateur comedy and circus, or classical music and oil painting."
What Makes Me wants to reach Australians who rarely have a voice in the art world and to identify the contribution of the arts to our society and individual lives."
To tell your own personal story, or the story of your disability service or community arts project, go to the What Makes Me website and create your own art cube to contribute to Australia's largest collaborative digital story. For more information head to www.whatmakesme.com.au