Nominations open: National Leadership Award 2022

Emerging leaders in the arts sector who identify as d/Deaf or disabled can now apply for the $10,000 Arts Access Australia (AAA) National Leadership Award 2022.

The Award is designed to discover, recognise and support new and emerging leaders in the arts and disability sector, and provides $10,000 towards leadership development for the successful recipient.

The AAA National Leadership Award 2022 is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, their arts funding advisory body.

What is the National Leadership Award?

Arts Access Australia’s National Leadership Award recognises, celebrates and supports artists and arts workers with disability who are emerging or potential leaders. The Award gives the recipient opportunities to promote their leadership experience and develop leadership skills and capabilities, and a platform to demonstrate their passion, and advocate to effect meaningful change.

Important dates

• 5pm AEDT Monday, 7 November 2022: Nomination application deadline. Late applications will not be considered.
• Monday, 14 November 2022: Award recipient notified. Unsuccessful nominees notified.
• 16-18 November 2022 (specific time and date to be determined): Filming of recipient interview as pre recorded content for the Award ceremony
• 2pm AEDT Friday, 2 December 2022: 2022 National Arts & Disability Awards ceremony
• 3pm AEDT Friday, 2 December 2022: Award recipient’s confidentiality and restricted communications obligations in relation to the Award end.

Who can you nominate for the Award?

You may nominate any artist or arts worker with disability who you consider is:

• an emerging leader, or
• demonstrating leadership potential,

and who satisfies all the selection criteria. You may nominate yourself.

Eligibility requirements

The person nominated must:

• identify as person with disability, who is D/deaf, or both
• identify as an artist or an arts worker
• be 18 years of age or older
• be an Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident
• currently reside in Australia
• at the nomination deadline, be a financial Ordinary Member of AAA. If you are not a Member, you can become a Member
• not be a previous recipient of the AAA National Leadership Award, and
• not be a AAA Board member, staff member or contractor at any time 12 months prior to the nomination deadline.

How to nominate

You can nominate:

1. online via our nomination form
2. by email, to NLA@artsaccessaustralia.org
3. by direct message to AAA via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @ArtsAccessAust

If applying by email or direct message, please refer to the below nomination form as the template for your nomination. Any type of submission (written, audio, video, etc) or file format is acceptable.

• Download PDF: NLA 2022 Nomination Form (pdf, 252 KB)
• Download word doc: NLA 2022 Nomination Form (doc, 1 MB)

Before you begin a nomination, please read carefully all information provided on this webpage. You must also read and understand the terms and conditions of the Award. You can access, read and download the terms and conditions here:

• Download PDF: NLA 2022 Terms and Conditions (pdf, 291 KB)
• Download word doc: NLA 2022 Terms and Conditions (doc, 1 MB)

By submitting an application, you are bound by, and agree to, the Terms and Conditions.

Contact

If you have any questions, please email us at info@artsaccessaustralia.org or text/call 0419 201 338. Please note that all our staff work part-time. We will endeavour to get back to you within three working days.

More about the Award

The award was established in 2019, with Queensland theatre-maker Madeleine Little receiving the inaugural award. In 2020, dancer and choreographer Abbie Madden became the second recipient., and in 2022 musician and disability advocate Eliza Hull won the award. The 2022 AAA National Leadership Award will be awarded at the National Arts and Disability Awards on the eve of International Day of People with Disability, 2 December 2022.

The Award offers the recipient significant opportunities to develop leadership knowledge, skills and capabilities and to build leadership (and disability leadership) networks. This may include mentoring, interactions with established leaders to share information and experiences, peer networking, leadership training, advocacy skills development, governance training, taking a leadership role in AAA or other projects, participation in AAA or other events, participation in Board meetings as an observer and skills development and training specific to the recipient’s development needs.

The 2022 AAA National Leadership Award will be awarded at the National Arts and Disability Awards on the eve of International Day of People with Disability, 2 December 2022.

AAA presents the National Arts and Disability Awards in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts.

Why does AAA have an annual National Leadership Award?

People with disability are less likely to be found in leadership and management roles in all sectors of our society, including in the arts sector. If we are to see greater diversity, better representation and increased visibility of people with disability in the arts in Australia, we need more people with disability in visible leadership roles.

If people with disability are to have real agency in all the ways in which we engage with the arts, as artists, arts workers and audience, and the means to effect change through our decisions, we need people with disability to demand, make, hold and keep space for disability leadership across every art form and all parts of the arts sector.

If we are to achieve systemic change and remove all disabling barriers in the arts, create more opportunities for people with disability, and embed equity in Australian arts, we must develop knowledge, skills and capabilities of the next generation of leaders – those people with disability who have a passion and capacity to influence, motivate, represent, advocate, and lead.

As the peak national body for arts and disability, Arts Access Australia (AAA) has a central role in strengthening the environment that builds leadership capacity, creates opportunities for change, and ensures across the arts, there is “nothing about us without us”.