The power of sharing stories

 Sharing Stories

Image: a multi-coloured A3 size artbook the cover is over layer 

with a coral pink print on a sea colour background,

with a hand-sized felt spider hanging from a bright 

red button. The red button about the size of a 50 cent piece

is accompanied by 3 other identical buttons.

Storytelling is what artists do best, whether it be written, spoken or through images. Storytelling follows a tradition of the First Nations People over thousands you years. Handed down through oral tradition music and dance.  Using art to tell our individual and collective stories evokes an emotional response.  These responses demand action. 

All of us have been impacted by COVID-19 and we have had to change the way to do things in order to protect others and save lives. Working and learning online has become the new norm.  This new norm continues to pose challenges for the deaf and disabled arts community. 

Image: Artists standing with a life size stuffed scarecrow; in jeans and a blue and white check shirt.  Likewise the female artist is dressed in blue tight and a white shirt dotted with tiny purple flowers. Her long hair is tied in a tight ponytail and she is wearing triose glasses. 

One way I share my story is by participating in an Artists in Residency Program at local Kindergartens. One way to share my story is 'to live it'!  Powerful storytelling needs to active

As artists the way we create and present work has impacted our incomes.  Art in some from fills every areas of our lives, yet at the start of COVID the arts we almost wiped aside,  While life without art is almost unimaginable, economic support for the arts sector had to be lobbed for.  Most artists work on contract and gigs. By definition we are rarely employed for a period of 12 months.   

Visual artist like every other business lost physical space in the marked place as galleries and major exhibitions were cancelled.  It is why many artist live me invested in upskilling to find new ways to get their work scene. 

While kindy was cancelled and one by one competitions and group exhibition were also cancelled. I was able to present an artwork online through a gallery I work with in Brisbane and participate in webinars online to explore new ways to present and promote my work,

Unlike the majority of artists I was successful in applying for funding for both a digital project and physical project for the next 12 months.  While many artists seek specific funding for artists living with disabilities, I am able to successfully compete for mainstream funding. I believe this makes my story even more powerful. I work in the mainstream artists community, while advocating for the development of inclusive art spaces. 

This was a discussion held at this weeks Meeting Place.  Creating social change in the arts community demands we find powerful ways to tell our stories.  Social change in the arts and disability sector requires advocating in two ways:-

1. Advocating for changes in accessibility to the arts and the community in general. Many deaf and disable artists feel unsupported and undervalued. On average and artist living with disability earns 40% as their peers.  Characters and therefore performs with disabilities are underrepresented and when a character is disabled roles are still offered to able-bodied people.  Under representation in theatre, film and television remains for all those who are disadvantaged. These statistics increase the difficulties in telling our stories in a genuine and powerful way. Stella Young often spoke of disability prawn, where disable people were labelled as inspirational for something as simple as having a job.  We still struggle to loosen the chains of tokenism. Yet we also struggle as disabled people to have our needs meet. Both forms of advocacy are required because the general perception we are less. 
2. Advocating for the arts in general; COVID 19 has provided a stark illustration of how the arts is valued in terms of the Australian economy the arts was dismasted by the impact of COVID. Most artists are engaged on contracts and not eligible for job keeper or job seeker.  Their was not assistance for the industry until the industry advocated for a lifeline.  Though the arts employ more people than the sporting world it was the world that tugged at the hearts of governments and general public.  The arts is one of the last industries to be opened up in a COVID plan.   Many are unware of what a world looks like without arts.  Television,  movies, theater, music events and venues, dance companies and art galleries all closed for business and COVID still makes it difficult for some companies to operate.  Once again in times of economic struggle support for the arts us warned. 

Disable artists are in a constant battle on all fronts.  Both sectors are seen by politicians as optional extras and for many years the Liberal Government referred to the NDIS as a scheme that Australia couldn't afford, yet even with the scheme fully operationally it was able to bring back the budget in to surplus.  People struggled to comprehend the value disabled people added to the economy.  Little has been said about how or why the scheme was delivered millions of dollars underbudget and this was a key factor in the budget returning to surplus. 

The sharing of stories is how many majority groups have created change.  Including slavery, women, rights of First Nations Peoples, LAGBT and more. Stories is what gives social issue a face, however that face needs to present the facts as they are.   

  

Telling my own story can play a powerful role in creating social change. At the core of my heart practice is the fight for an inclusive arts cultural.  I like to see myself as a pioneer, as I seek to work in the mainstream arts community.  My work is rarely addressing disability issues and work closely with the Drawing Point Gallery in Ipswich and Aspire Gallery in Brisbane,   I also am part of the Brisbane Rotary International Art Spectular each year and can hold my own in the open art market.

Creating art is the most powerful way I can tell my story to create social change and yet I have to struggle to ensure it is visual in the art landscape of Australia.  I urge all deaf and disable people to tell their stories, in the most powerfully.  But to do it authentically, don't let people hail you as a hero.  Let them see your daily struggles and your pain.  Tell it like it is. 

Thank you to Arts Access Australia for letting me tell my story at the 2020 Meeting Place