Arts Access Victoria
- Project: ARTfinder
- Amount: $114,047 over two years
- Year(s) Funded: 2015
An online database to empower Victorians with disability to engage in the arts has gone on to national success.
ARTfinder started out as an online, state-wide directory to improve access to inclusive arts programs across Victoria and has gone on to become Choose Art, a national online directory platform designed for and by deaf and disabled people.
“Everyone has a right to take part in art and culture.” – ‘International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ and the ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’
One million Victorians live with a disability. With recent shifts to individualised funding, people with disability have greater self-determination but if they cannot easily locate suitable and accessible arts programs, their participation remains limited. Choose Art, an Australian accessible arts directory, makes it easy.
Snapshot:
- Established in 1974, Arts Access Victoria (AAV) is the state’s peak body for arts and disability.
- As a disability-led arts organisation, AAV is at the forefront of innovative disability arts practice, access and inclusion.
- ARTfinder was a community capacity-building project which set out to improve planning, sourcing and delivery of inclusive arts programs specifically designed for Victorians with disability.
- Based on the success of ARTFinder, in February 2018, Arts Access Victoria was funded by the Federal Government in collaboration with all States and Territories, to deliver ARTfinder across Australia as an initiative of the National Arts and Disability Strategy.
- ARTfinder is now known as Choose Art, an embedded national online resource, delivered by Arts Access Victoria.
- It’s mission is to make arts visible with NDIS. To make sure people with disability have choice and control, to place information directly into the hands of people with disability.
- The platform enhances the capacity of local governments, disability services and arts organisations to plan, promote and deliver accessible arts programs.