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BREAKING THE BARRIERS TO
EXCELLENCE + ARTISTRY
About Us
Art Advocacy Australia is a disability-led creative agency representing & supporting high quality visual art produced by Australia's contemporary artists & graphic designers with disability & mental health conditions.
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Our employment-focused social enterprise paves professional development pathways through managing & brokering professional relationships & commissioning opportunities that enable our creatives to create new art, earn fair income, gain recognition, & connect to others.
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Our team is driven to change social perceptions of people with disability & mental health conditions by promoting the excellence & artistry of our talented creatives.
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We use the power of art to transcend preconceptions, telling the stories of lived experiences that challenge & redefine the status quo for artistic aesthetics.
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our Story
Art Advocacy Australia was created as a professional visual arts agency ambitious towards achieving an international reputation for the highest excellence in arts & disability.
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Historical & current approaches to arts & disability have solely targeted the therapeutic benefits of art-marking, without recognising or embracing the valuable cultural contributions artists with disabilities bring to Australian cultural life.
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We want to break these barriers by commissioning talented artists with disability in Australia to make new, groundbreaking, high quality work. We want to showcase the very best works by artists with disabilities to audiences across the globe, enriching lives & transforming the arts & cultural landscape of Australia.
We saw the need to shift the public attitude by confronting the myths & misconceptions about disabilities & artists with a disability.
OUR structure
SOCIAL Heart + COMMERCIAL MIND
Art Advocacy Australia is an employment-focused social enterprise, meaning the majority of our revenue derived from operational activities is reinvested back into our social mission to increase inclusion, well-being, & access to meaningful work for both our artists & the wider community.
Image Source: Peatix
We explicitly focus on creating employment pathways, directing income derived from commissions, sales, & promotions to directly benefit our creatives.
Peatix 2019 MaGIC Accelerator Program
We advocate the need for social reform based on the principles of the Human Rights & Social Models of Disability in pursuing the Creative Case for Inclusive Arts, which "seeks to find the best approaches to liberating artists from imposed labels by making the discussion first & foremost about quality art"
Nwachukwu & Robinson, Arts Council England 2011
Tony Nwachukwu & Mark Robinson, 2011 The role of diversity in building adaptive resilience, Arts Council England
OUR approach
Our evidence-based holistic approach driving our inclusive & sustainable social enterprise is built on these key fundamental principles:
PEOPLE-CENTERED
Empowering Artists
COLLABORATIVE
Strengthening Communities
INTEGRATIVE
Changing Perception
ADAPTIVE
Innovative Leadership
OUR TEAM
Our social enterprise is run & operated by peoples & families with disabilities (DPO/DFO), seeking to change the lives of artists with disability & mental health conditions by showcasing quality artwork to wider audiences, validating & growing their credibility as professional artists.
