And that's a wrap! Meeting Place 2018 leaves the stage, but not our hearts

“Hello, I’m Julia Hales and I am now 38 years old – and did I mention that I’m still single?”

Julia Hales on stage at Meeting Place 2018 for her keynote address. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

There’s a chuckle from the 150-strong crowd of artists, arts-workers, government-workers and disability leaders, who are gathered together in Alice Springs for Meeting Place 2018 – Australia’s national forum on arts, culture and disability.

On stage, Western Australian actress and disability advocate Julia Hales smiles cheekily as she delivers the first line of her keynote address.

She continues: “I wanted to talk to you about how [my play, You Know We Belong Together] was made and how we can all create opportunities if we dream big.”

For the next hour, Julia captivates the audience with stories about the inspiration for her play (love!), the incredible value of a supportive family and professional network, and her game-changing participation in a leadership program – the latter motivating her to help other people with disability to “get clear about what they want in their artist careers”.

It was a powerful opening to Meeting Place 2018, which was held at the Araluen Arts Centre over three days in September, and hosted by local organisation Incite Arts.

It was also the first time an artist with learning disability had given the keynote address at Meeting Place. This milestone was achieved through a decision to showcase artists with learning disability at this year’s forum. In fact, artists with learning disability made up a more than a third of the program – from panel speakers, to DJs-in-residence, to workshop facilitators. This focus on neuro-diversity created an opportunity for the forum to showcase best-practice in creating inclusive environments.

From left: Tiffany Malthouse and Lizzy T from Connect2Culture celebrate after their performance; Top right: Comic book writer Cal Young sells his work in the Araluen Arts Centre; Bottom right: DJ Josh Campton (centre) speaks on the Own Voices panel. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

Overall, around 70% of the three-day program featured artists with disability. The forum also drew heavily on local talent, with around 60% of artists and speakers hailing from the Northern Territory.

The inaugural regional location of the forum also inspired another first for Meeting Place; this year, almost half of the program featured artists and speakers who identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Left: John Scrutton from CemeNTheads was the poet-in-residence at Meeting Place. Top right: Members of the Akeyulerre healing centre with author Margaret Heffernan (centre); Bottom right: Dion Beasley draws his famous ‘cheeky dogs’. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

Chansey Paech MLA, Member for Namatjira, officially opened the forum. He said the Meeting Place program showed that artists and disability practice in the Northern Territory is unique.

“It’s vibrant and it’s strong. I think that art is a fantastic and vital form of self expression. It allows us to interact with others and to form connections. And certainly, as a first nations Australian, myself, I understand and appreciate the deep connection we have with art in the health narrative,” he said.

Chansey Paech MLA opens Meeting Place 2018. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

“Art does not discriminate,” said Mr Paech, “so as a country, we must make sure that every opportunity is an inclusive opportunity; is an inclusive approach so that people with disabilities are able to continue to tell their important story on a national stage with national recognition.”

As a forum of discussion and debate, Meeting Place also engages government and other key stakeholders as part of the program. This year, representatives of the Department of Communication and the Arts, the National Disability Insurance Agency, and the Australia Council for the Arts took part in panel discussions, sitting alongside artists with disability, academics and industry leaders as they talked about key issues to access and participation in Arts and Culture in Australia

Representatives from the NDIA and the Department for Communications and the Arts spoke on the Big Picture panel about putting policy into practice. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

We were particularly honoured when Australia Council for the Arts’ outgoing CEO Tony Grybowski chose Meeting Place 2018 as his final public occasion, and to use that moment to announce $750k of new funding for the sector in the form of a new mentorship program and two new awards.

Australia Council CEO Tony Grybowski with AAA CEO Meagan Shand. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

My Grybowski said, “We are supporting new structured mentorships as part of a practice-based project for career development opportunity for artists with disability. These will be designed to be particularly beneficial for artists who have not been able to access Council’s grants programs.”

“Secondly,” he continued, “we will launch two new national awards to celebrate the achievement of artists with disability: an established artists award of $50,000 and an emerging artist of $20,000. These awards will be open early next year, with recipients will be announced on International Day of People with Disability in December.”

Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Mitch Fifeld, also chose Meeting Place as a platform to launch the official opening of the National Arts and Disability Strategy consultation period. In a welcome message provided to the forum, Minister Fifield discussed the importance of every story, every experience, and every idea towards achieving an improved arts and disability sector.

“A lot is changing in the disability sector as we roll out the National Disability Insurance Scheme but there is still much work to be done in terms of access, participation and employment in the arts,” read Minister Fifield’s statement. “We need to take a closer look at how the arts sector is operating and take concrete steps to address remaining barriers to the full inclusion for people with disabilities. Your stories and ideas will help shape the future of the arts and disability policy in Australia.”

Find out more about the review of the National Arts and Disability Strategy, which closes 3 December. Please visit the Department of Communications and the Arts’ website to contribute your story to the review if you haven’t done so already.

Left: Dr Stephen Arnott, DCA, and AAA CEO Meagan Shand; Top right: The DCA provided pamphlets on the National Arts and Disability Strategy review to attendees of Meeting Place 2018; Bottom right: The team from the Department of Communications and the Arts. Photo credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

Meeting Place creates opportunities for artists to travel nationally and internationally to connect with other key stakeholders in the sector. This year, eight artists and arts-workers from around Australia received a travel grant to enable them to attend the forum, thanks to funding provided by the federal Department of Social Services’ National Disability Conference Initiative 2017-18. You can read our travel grant receipient’s reflections on their time at Meeting Place. We are very excited to announce that the travel grant program will be running again in 2019 – watch this space!

Meeting Place 2018 Travel Grant receipients. From left: Larissa Macfarlane, Evelyn McKay, Suzanne Whiteman, Eliza Hull, Madeleine Little, Fiona Tuomy. Not pictured: Ceilidh Dalton and Jeremy Hawkes

We were also delighted to have German artists Jovana Komnenic, Dirk Sorge and Imke Baumann attend the forum as part of the Australia-Berlin Arts Exchange, thanks to the support of the Goethe-Institut Australien.

Top left: Berlin artists Dirk Sorge, Jovana Komnenic (centre) and Imke Baumann (right) with AAA Chair Belinda Locke (far left) and AAA CEO Meagan Shand. Right: Jovana Komnenic takes part in the Smoking Ceremony on Day 2 of Meeting Place; Bottom left: Dirk Sorge speaks on the Leading to the Future panel. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Northern Territory Government for supporting us in bringing Meeting Place to Alice Springs. We would also like to thank our supporting partners, the Alice Springs Town Council, Araluen Arts Centre, the Australia Council for the Arts who support Arts Access Australia. The Feilman Trust, the Goethe Institut and the Government of Western Australia Department of Communities.

A big thank you as well to our access people: AUSLAN by Vital interpreters Alana and Steve; audio description by Carrie and Julie; and our audio captioning by Kerrie and the Captioning Studio.

Thank you to Vital Interpreting for providing AUSLAN interpretation at Meeting Place 2018. Credit: Oliver Eclipse Photography

And thank you to our photographer Oliver Eclipse for capturing the wonderful moments had at Meeting Place, and to our videographer David Nixon from TransmediaNT, who enabled us to live-stream the forum this year in a milestone achievement for Arts Access Australia. Almost 150 people tuned in to the live stream over the first two days of the forum, and a further 150 have so far viewed the archived streams on our YouTube channel. Not only did this mean we tripled our reach, but it also brought us one step closer to achieving universal accessibility for Meeting Place.

Day 1 – Live Stream 

Transcript of Day 1 of Meeting Place 2018 (pdf, 299 KB)

Transcript of Day 1 of Meeting Place 2018 (docx, 86 KB)

Day 2 – Live Stream 

Transcript of Day 2 of Meeting Place 2018 (pdf, 394 KB)

Transcript of Day 2 of Meeting Place 2018 (docx, 114 KB)

Finally, this year’s forum would not have been possible without incredible work of the Meeting Place Dream Team: Project Manager Kate Larsen, Incite Arts CEO Jenine Mackay, and our very own CEO Meagan Shand! Kate did an amazing job producing this year’s program, and Incite Arts were fantastic hosts to this year’s event. A huge THANK YOU to Kate, Jenine, and the entire Incite Arts team for your dedication and your passion.

The Dream Team, from left: Project Manager Kate Larsen, Incite Arts CEO Jenine Mackay, AAA CEO Meagan Shand

We hope to see you in 2019, as we bring Meeting Place to our nation’s capital – Canberra! Meeting Place 2019 will take place from 1-3 December as part of the International Day of People with Disability celebrations.

Please register your interest for Meeting Place 2019 to be the first to receive updates on next year’s, including travel grant opportunities, program information and ticket sales.

You can view more images and video from Meeting Place 2018 via the official website.

Our fabulous audience for Meeting Place 2018, enjoying the forum and the wonderful venue at the Araluen Arts Centre. CreditL Oliver Eclipse Photography