The ArtISability Prgram is based in Ipswich South East Queensland Australia. The program is designed to assist the professional development skills of visual artists living with disability or mental illness in the Ipswich area.
A kin to all artist in what ever fields is the struggle for social and professional acceptance, with so much of ourselves invested in the work itself. As a artist myself so much of my worth as a artists is tided up in how my work is judge by others and what they are willing to pay for it.
Imagine if you had to add to this mixture of creative emotions the struggles that living with a disability of metal illness can bring. Imagine you could not enter a building you needed to do business in. Artists are in the business of selling there artwork but for artist living with disability, access things such as education, training and skills development can be difficult.
ArtISability is about sourcing funding to provide training and resource support services to enable visual artists to further their skills development. We would love to extend our program beyond the Ipswich boundaries, but we are currently struggling to gain funding to launch our pilot program. We are currently looking to local businesses and organisations to partnership with us in presenting our four week pilot program.
ArtISability strives to focus on ability. Many of our artist are very talented and once their work hangs on galleries the traces of disability disappear. Our role is not to advertise the person's disability but promote the artist themselves.
