Hello again from me, Arts House’s Access Advisor here to talk through how we’ve tracked in Year 3 for our DIAP. This has been my first full year in this role, and our work is only just beginning! Here are some of our biggest wins!
We’ve created more resources to share with artists including:
These are not consistently used across our program. We look forward to seeing where these resources can take us into the future.
We’ve focused on reviewing our processes to ensure access is being thought of from the get-go. This includes:
- an update to our Access Guide template
- having direct meetings with Artists about access
- reviewing our consultation processes
We’ve continued to offer a range of access services across our season. Our season access consultants included Jonothan Craig, Riana Head Toussant and Irene Holub. Sam Martin and Ipek Cav also helped review our accessibility to the Deaf community.
We’ve also continued offering the Warehouse Residency and presenting works led by Disabled artists. Olivia Muscat’s Is Anyone Even Watching and Rebecca Jensen and Weave Movement Theatre’s Flesh Mirror both debuted in 2025. Developing projects with us we’ve also had Irene Holub and Walter Kadiki with 1800 Manifestos of Silence, Jamila Main with Pillow Talk and Fayen d’Evie and the Language of Lunacy collective with the lunatic ball & the majestic tic & pacing… And so much more! If you want to get a full idea of what we got up to this past year, I’d recommend checking out our Progress Report.
What’s next?
Even with all of these wins, there’s still so much more work to do. Goals for the year to come include:
- Revising and re-instating our Access Advisory Group.
- Advocacy to City of Melbourne.
- Larger projects such as venue upgrades.
- Approaching access earlier into artistic developments.
- Adjusting to new team configurations, budgets and organisational structure shifts.
Video Credit: Luke King
Image Credit: Sarah Walker
Image Description: Olivia in a fluffy purple gown has her head back and hands out to the sky with cucumbers on her eyes. Zoe is behind in partial shadow with both arms up over Olivia, who seems very relaxed. Both are dotted with Disco lights.
