Meeting Place 2019 Travel Grant recipients announced

Hosted by Arts Access Australia (AAA), the disability-led Meeting Place forum will take place this year in Canberra from 1-3 December, with the support of local Creative Partner Belconnen Arts Centre.

Indigenous artist Joshua Campton is one of the recipients of the 2019 travel grant. He first attended Meeting Place last year in Alice Springs, and the experience led him to apply for this year’s grant.

“To be with other artists with a disability in the creative and inclusive environment of Meeting Place is so special,” said Mr Campton, who is currently studying visual arts, film-making and acting at Tutti Arts in Adelaide. “The experience in 2018 was invaluable and made me proud to be among the Meeting Place community of artists, seeing other artists who are making changes to how people living with a disability are perceived in the wider world.”

Another grant recipient, West Australian theatre-maker, performer, puppeteer and arts worker Rachael Woodward, said that experiences like Meeting Place were vital to progressing her work in accessible and inclusive theatre.

“I want to connect with other artist, leaders, and arts workers around Australia, so that we might learn from each other about the successes, the struggles and the systems in place,” said Ms Woodward. “I hope that by learning more about other practices in Australia and creating and strengthening my networks, I will be able to help develop the thriving disability theatre sector in Perth.”

For grant recipient Emiko Artemis, a visual artist from South Australia, attending Meeting Place would enable her to take part in a bigger national conversation around inclusiveness in the arts.

“There is an exciting shift happening in the arts, with peak organisations, like the Australia Council for the Arts, putting into their guidelines strategies to ensure disability is not a barrier,” Ms Artemis said. “There is also an awareness of discrimination against people with disabilities and a desire to change this at grassroots to institutional levels. This new environment of inclusiveness needs people with the language and skills needed to keep the energy moving forward.”

AAA CEO Meagan Shand said the organisation worked hard to obtain the funding to provide these travel grants each year.

“Artists with disability often do not have access to the same support as their peers without disability,” said Ms Shand. “With professional artists in Australia currently earning an average of 42% less than their peers without disability, it is critical that professional development and networking opportunities such as Meeting Place are made more accessible to attend.”

Ms Shand added that the calibre of applications this year was “exceptional”.

“Reading through the applications just highlighted for me just how many fantastic things are happening in the arts and disability space in Australia,” said Ms Shand. “We are very excited to invite these eight artists to Meeting Place 2019 and to give them a platform to share their ideas and experiences with the wider community.”

The Meeting Place 2019 Travel Grant recipients are Emiko Artemis (SA), Michelle Brown (NSW), Josh Campton (SA), Michael Chan (VIC), Debbie Chilton (QLD), Anna Molnar (VIC), Andi Snelling (VIC), and Rachael Woodward (WA).

Meeting Place is hosted annually by Arts Access Australia and brings together local, national and international arts and cultural leaders, arts workers and artists with disability, to present, perform, discuss and debate the latest in access and inclusion in the arts.

Registrations are now open for the three-day Meeting Place forum, which will take place across leading arts and cultural venues in Canberra and features some of Australia’s most culturally ambitious artists with disability.

The 2019 Meeting Place Travel Grants are supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through their Plus1 program, AAA donors, and grant funding from the Australian Government.

Meet the recipients

Emiko Artemis (SA)

Photographer: Ingrid Windon

Emiko Artemis has been a professional artist since 2012. That same year, she received her PhD for a research and studio project exploring the medicalization of women’s bodies and mind. Emiko has investigated this concept further in her practice, particularly how body and mind are connected and disconnected by the experience of modern life.

Emiko was a category winner in the Manning Valley Art Prize in 2012, also exhibiting at the Wollongong regional gallery that year. In 2004, she received the university medal for her honours work.

Emiko has since relocated to South Australia, where she regularly exhibits her work and is focused on building her community arts practice.

Michelle Brown (NSW)

Photographer: Allyson Brown

Michelle Brown is an artist living in South Western Sydney who identifies with disability.

Working in sculpture, installation, video and painting, Michelle’s work employs patterns and colour to expand upon her fascination with the unpredictable. Recent work explores patterns of disease lesions on her brain and visuals deteriorations, including rapid changes in colour fields and light impressions, leading to sensory overload, fogginess and double vision.

Michelle is a trainer and advisor for Accessible Arts NSW as well as an Arts Educator. She was chosen by Create NSW in 2018/19 for a createability internship at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. Michelle has also had success in being awarded the Vocational Student of the year for her region, a finalist in the State training and industry awards and the NSW state winner of the Phil Darby Award in 2018.

Josh Campton (SA)

Photographer: Penny Campton.

Joshua Campton is an Aboriginal artist, originally from Darwin. He is a dancer, poet, actor and D.J. He studies visual arts, film making and acting at Tutti Arts in Adelaide. He has performed throughout Australia, currently working with Kurruru Performing Arts, No Strings Attached Theatre and Tutti. He attends the Access2Arts Beats program developing skills as DJ Salt. He was awarded an Australia Council Jump Mentorship 2012. Writer for ‘The Performance Encyclopedia’  at the Australian Theatre Forum  2017. His film, ‘Landscape Diaries’ featuring his poetry and dance screened at the ‘Sit Down and Shut Up Film Festival’ in 2018.

Michael Chan (VIC)

Michael Chan is an ensemble artist who works for Geelong-based theatre company, Back to Back Theatre. Michael travelled to Hong Kong to work on the Democratic Set project after making an appearance as an extra on the short film Oddlands on ABC TV.

In 2017, Michael was awarded with the 2017 Geelong Awards for People with a Disability under Arts category for his performance in Geelong Society of Operatic and Dramatic Arts’ (GSODA) musical production of Chess.

Michael is currently rehearsing for the upcoming production of ‘The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes’ which is premiering nationally in Sydney, Geelong and Melbourne and slated for tour across the United States in early 2020.

Debbie Chilton (QLD)

Photographer: Jacinta McMahon

Debbie Chilton has been active in the creative arts since 2000, first as a published poet and author and most recently as a visual artist. Debbie has been very active in her local arts community. In 2019 she had a solo exhibition in Brisbane, Fortitude Valley, and in November is taking part in a major art exhibition with other artists from Arts from the Margins. In addition to her personal arts practice, Debbie has delivered several community arts programs under the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) including working with people with disability.

Anna Molnar (VIC)

Photographer: Lachlan Woods.

Anna Molnar is completing the Masters in Directing for Performance at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), and previously studied Drama at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Anna’s production credits include roles such as: Director of the play readings Rare and Chimera (HATCH Performing Arts Incubator, Frankston Arts Centre); Director of CROSSROADS (La Mama Explorations); Assistant Director of Caucasian Chalk Circle (dir. Michael Kantor, VCA Theatre Practice and Production); Co-Director of The Light Ensemble, presenting shows at the 2high Festival (Backbone Youth Arts); and Producer of EVE by Margi Brown Ash (Metro Arts and the nest ensemble).

Andi Snelling (VIC)

Photographer: Sarah Walker

Andi Snelling is an award-winning actor and theatre-maker with dancing roots who trained at the prestigious Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London. Her career highlights include working for the BBC, performing on the West End, being the voice of Qatar Airways, and a recurring role on Neighbours. She has been described as “the standout” (Herald Sun), “nightmarishly funny” (The Age) and “so skilled that you’re left wanting more” (Daily Review). Her solo works include #DearDiary, Déjà Vu (And Other Forms of Knowing) and her current sell-out hit Happy-Go-Wrong (Winner: Melbourne Fringe SA Tour Ready Award 2019) which explores her experience of living with Lyme disease.

Rachael Woodward (WA)

Photographer: Yvan Karlsson

Rachael Woodward is a theatre maker, performer, puppeteer, and an arts worker who identifies as neuro-diverse. Rachael has a Bachelor in Performance Making from WAAPA and has worked with companies such as Sensorium Theatre, The Last Great Hunt, and Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. She has presented her own work as part of the AWESOME International Arts Festival, ASSITEJ Next Generation Asia, Melbourne Puppetry Festival, ATYP’s Fresh Ink Program. While teaching at DADAA, Rachael’s classes have participated in the Joondalup Festival Lantern Parade, the Sketch Book Project, and screened their movie in the Perth Cultural Centre.

Media contact

Yvette Tulloch
Communications Manager, Arts Access Australia
Email: media@artsaccessaustralia.org