Self-directing and achieving my ndis goals

This week I attended a workshop by the Australian Cultural Fund. Unlike other crowd funding platforms you do not need to offer rewards.  The site is perfect for small independent not-for-profit organisations and independent artists like myself who do not have charity status.  Using the platform means they hold funds on your behalf, however you do all the fundraising and marketing.

One of the most helpful segments of the workshop was thinking through how to use your current resources most effectively.  Enter a timeline and planning your campaign.  With fundraising for most projects is driven by the timing of your project, it is good to look at what else is happening in your art practice and personal life.  The bulk of a fundraising campaign should be done when there are slumps in your calendar. 

For me I can be developing a campaign now before applying for funding so in my budget proposal I can say I aim to raise $2000 through the Australian Cultural Fund and here is the outline of my campaign.  The key to the success is packaging you campaign to attract like minded supporters.  I thought my goal was clear.  My goal has always been to assist the development of a socially inclusive Ipswich arts community.  This is not really a goal but the story behind my goal, leading to the activity I want to undertake.

Visual art workshops and art exhibitions to promote discussion on diversity.  My ultimate goal is to see a fair percentage of work by visual artists with disabilities acquired by the Australian Art Bank.  These are a collection which are 'rented' by public galleries around Australia.  When I started working in the arts and disability sector the Art Bank did not own a single collection by an Australian artist with disability, rest assured at that time the Art Bank was in the process of acquiring art from one such artist. 

Without people like myself working at grassroots level to both assist artists with disabilities to access their local art communities and galleries; and advocating for these artists, then we will not see a growth in the number of artists with disabilities with collection owned by the Australia Art Bank.  As an artist living with disability when creating my own body of work advocates for others.  Every time I interact with a gallery, art collection, other artists and people attending openings, is a change to highlight ability and not disability. 

This is one reason more and more I am directing my work to the arts community rather that of the disability sector.  The are many services offering art for enjoyment or art activities to grow self esteem, but few supporting artists to work in the mainstream arts community.  I have always said along side this we need to highlight the talents and the work of artists living with disabilities to the community.  Only then will the community support us to address the many access issues for artists with disabilities.

Along side selling and projects I put my name too, I need to find supporters that want to see the Australian Art Bank purchasing work by artists with disability.  

My own participation in the art sector and growing my art practice has been assisted by my participation in the ndis.  My primary ndis goal remains to grow my visual art practice.  Being able to self-direct and employ a key worker for 30 to 35 hours a week has made it easier to focus on this goal.  I am no longer needing to bring eight support workers or multiple providers onto the same page. 'I am a professional visual artists' good luck to any support worker trying to make my supports about social engagements, having fun and going to movies.  

Apart from the movies in the main I think my current support structure allows me to do these things as well.  My activities have moved from the Ipswich CBD to Boonah, Marburg and Brisbane and in 2019 I am keen to extend this more.  One thing I do want to do is to map out regular art events for 2019 to look for gaps when I have time to do a personal project well and that includes any fundraising that I undertake. 

This is how my main ndis goals look likes day to day. And how I structure my support team to achieve this.