Arts and Disability Connect
When: Friday 15th March, 12 noon – 2.30pm
Where: Tramsheds, 4 Invermay Rod, Inveresk, Launceston
What: As part of Ten Days on the Island’s Beyond Ten Days initiative, Arts Tasmania is hosting a forum that aims to connect professional artists with and without disability, disability-arts organisations, and service providers who run arts programs, together.
A light lunch will be provided.
A Carer from Calvary will also be available for those that require assistance
Cost: FREE
Registration essential
Please RSVP by Tuesday 5th March 2013 to Marianne Taylor
Marianne.taylor@arts.tas.gov.au
0439 599 572
03 6237 6316
The Forum will feature Emma Bennison, CEO of Arts Access Australia and artists from the United Kingdom’s Turtle Key Arts and Ockham’s Razor.
Turtle Key Arts’ main objective is participation in the arts for all, with an emphasis on disabled, disadvantaged, or socially excluded people. They have played a committed and innovative role in advancing disability-arts, and are widely recognised as leaders in this field.
Ockham Razor specialise in creating physical theatre on original aerial equipment, creating stories from the vulnerability, trust and reliance that exist between people in the air. Rather than paint the circus performer as a superhuman character capable of impressive feats Ockham Razor make work that draws on the human and the real, where the characters go through recognisable experiences, emotions and conflicts which the audience can identify with and relate to.
Running Order
12 noon – 12.10pm: participants arrive
12.10pm – 12.15pm: Formal welcome and acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the land / housekeeping
12.15pm – 1.00pm: Turtle Key Arts and Ockham’s Razor present Art for All
1.00pm – 1.15pm: Emma Bennison, new CEO of Arts Access Australia conducts presentation about their work
1.15pm – 1.20pm: Facilitator to divide participants into groups of 5 and each group will be given a topic to discuss. Paper will be provided for each group to note down their thoughts.
1.20pm: lunch provided for each group whilst they discuss key topics
2.00pm – 2.15pm: Facilitator to collect papers and notes from each group. Each group to summarise their discussions
2.15pm – 2.30pm: Emma Bennison sums up the days discussions and the future work of AAA
2.30pm: event finishes
Charlotte Mooney, Ockham’s Razor
Charlotte initially trained as a dancer. While at university studying Literature, she discovered a passion for physical theatre and decided to go to Circomedia to train in aerial and physical theatre. Since then she has been devising and performing work combining theatre and aerial with Ockham’s Razor. She has also performed with integrated dance companies Blue Eyed Soul and Amici and at festivals all over the world with Bim Mason’s masks The Big Heads. She has also worked with Improbable in the ENO opera Satyagraha and on two collaborations Something in the Air, a participatory aerial show with Oily Cart and Hang On with Theatre Rites. She co-directed the Circus Space youth show Wrap, Tear, Scrunch. Charlotte is one of the co-artistic directors and founders of Ockham’s Razor.
Alison King, Turtle Key Arts
Turtle Key Arts produces manages and devises performance arts projects with a particular emphasis on original and ground-breaking work. They combine production, technical and training skills; working with artists, theatre companies, venues, disability arts organisations and the education sector in London, nationally and internationally.
Turtle Key Arts produce Amici Dance Theatre Company, an integrated dance theatre company who are the resident arts company at the Lyric, Hammersmith; the award winning and highly original physical theatre company Red Cape Theatre; SMITH dance theatre, a new contemporary dance company who are currently touring their debut show Agnes & Walter: a little love story; Flying Cloud Theatre, who recently premiered their debut play Napoli at the West Yorkshire Playhouse followed by a UK tour.
Turtle Key Arts takes its responsibility as a creative producer seriously and strives to allow the companies to reach their full artistic potential. The team also feels strongly about their model of embedded outreach and works alongside the companies to deliver it.
Turtle Key Arts also forges strong partnerships with other arts organisations to deliver work in areas where they feel that there are gaps in provision. This includes work with people on the Autistic spectrum and work with people with Alzheimers and dementia – both areas in which Turtle Key Arts are acknowledged as industry leaders. Partners include English Touring Opera and Royal College of Music on the Turtle Song project for people with dementia, Wigmore Hall and National Portrait Gallery on Musical Portraits for children on the autistic spectrum, Royal Court Theatre on Key Words for young people with Dyslexia and Opera North and Paddington Arts on the Key Club for over 16’s with Autism and Asperger syndrome.
The work of Turtle Key Arts is delivered by a small but dedicated team who have worked together for a number of years. Skills within the team include fundraising, marketing, production management, finance, film-making, sound design, teaching, training and advanced logistics. The team also provide a wide range of opportunities for trainees and work placements.
Turtle Key Arts became the producers for Ockham’s Razor in spring 2006, perfectly complimenting their existing portfolio of companies and collaborators with their original style.
Alison has been a Director of Turtle Key since 1998, she trained as a stage manager and worked for many years as a free-lance before joining Turtle key. Alison produces and manages many projects nationwide and internationally and access to art for everyone is at the heart of what she does.
Emma Bennison, Arts Access Australia
Emma Bennison has recently been appointed as CEO of Arts Access Australia. Emma is the first person with disability to lead the organization, following the departure of her predecessor, Kate Larsen, who stepped down because she believed that an organization advocating for the rights of people with disability should be disability-led. Prior to this appointment, Emma spent eight years working in various roles at Access Arts, Queensland’s peak arts and disability organization and in various Government roles before this. In addition to being a passionate advocate for the rights of artists with disability, Emma is also a singer, pianist and song-writer with a bachelor of Music from the University of Queensland.