It’s time to revolutionise access and inclusion in the arts

The disability-led forum takes place in two parts: a two-day online forum open to anyone in Australia or overseas; and a one-day in-person networking and workshop day held at Queensland Theatre, in Brisbane. It is hosted by Arts Access Australia, the national peak body responsible for advancing equity in the arts for Deaf and Disabled Australians.

The Meeting Place program kicks off with a special keynote session where three respected Disabled artists will present diverse perspectives on the 2021 theme: Reflect; Redefine; Revolutionise! The three keynotes are: writer and performer, Georgia Cranko; interdisciplinary artist, Riana Head-Toussaint; and choreographer and performer, Joshua Pether.

Arts Access Australia CEO Matthew Hall said, “This year’s theme for Meeting Place is an invitation to our community to reflect on access and inclusion in the past and use this knowledge to redefine our present. Through this process, we can identify, and (more importantly) take, concrete steps to revolutionise our future, creating a world where the arts in Australia is inclusive and accessible to all.”

Meeting Place is Australia’s annual forum on arts, culture and accessibility. This year the forum will take place from 15 to 17 September. The forum is presented in conjunction with Undercover Artist Festival and has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Tickets to Meeting Place are on sale now, with a 50% discount available to AAA Members.

The annual forum is hosted by Arts Access Australia (AAA), the national peak body responsible for advancing equity in the arts for d/Deaf and disabled Australians.

Meet our keynote speakers

Georgia Cranko

Georgia Cranko (she/they) is a Sydney-based multimedia artist, writer and activist. She endeavours to make you think about the world around us, and how we relate to others and ourselves.

Having studied Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, Georgia is constantly seeking out better ways to confront and navigate the complexities of privilege and oppression and encourage others to do the same. Her recent solo piece, How We Touch/How We Survive explores Disability politics, the bravery in vulnerability and the queerness of care.

She is currently collaborating with Crossroad Arts in Mackay on a performance work, Breath in, about the specific isolation and connection in using alternative means to communicate.

Joshua Pether

Joshua Pether is of Kalkadoon heritage but lives and works on Noongar country in Western Australia. He is an experimental performance artist, dancer and choreographer of movement, temporary ritual and imagined realties. His practice is influenced by his two cultural histories- indigeneity and disability and the hybridization of the two with particular interest in the aesthetics of the disabled body and also that of the colonized body.

As an independent artist he has had work shown in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and New York and has performed in festivals and events such as the Undercover Artist Festival, Yirramboi Festival, Next Wave, APAM, Short Cuts, MoveMe Festival, SuperCell Festival of Contemporary Dance In Situ and The First Nations Dialogues in New York. He is the creator of two solo works, ‘Monster’ and ‘Jupiter Orbiting’. He is also a former member of LINK Dance Company, Ochres and Touch Compass Dance Company based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Riana Head-Toussaint

Riana Head-Toussaint is an interdisciplinary disabled artist, who uses a manual wheelchair for mobility. Her work often crosses traditional artform boundaries, and exists in online and offline spaces. Most often, she employs choreography, performance and video/film to create works that interrogate entrenched systems, structures and ways of thinking; and advocate for social change. The enduring concerns across her works are agency, representation, the limits of empathy, and how these impact people across different marginalised intersections. Her work is deeply informed by her experiences as a disabled woman of Afro-Caribbean heritage, and her training as a legal practitioner.

As well as being an artist, Riana is a qualified Solicitor, Access Consultant and curator/space-maker. She is the founder of Headquarters: a dedicated, disability-led digital space, focused on centering and celebrating disabled creatives (which is currently under construction). She lives and works on the unceded lands of the Eora Nation.

Headquarters instagram: @enter_headquarters

Headquarters facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enter.headquarters