NSW Arts and Disability Partnership launched at Carriageworks including $100,000 support for two major new works.

Sydney, Australia: The NSW Minister for Disability Services, Minister John Ajaka MLC, today launched an extension of the NSW Arts & Disability Partnership, announcing funding of $475,000 for 2015 to support four programs that promote social inclusion through the arts and disability sector.

The Partnership includes $100,000 support for Carriageworks to commission two major new works developed by artists with disability in collaboration with NSW arts companies and artists.

The first work called ‘A Simple Infinity’ will be a new contemporary theatre work created by Urban Theatre Projects’ Artistic Director Rosie Dennis and inspired by the popular novel and film The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It will be developed in partnership with artists with disability living in Western Sydney.

The second project, a new dance work by Force Majeure and Dance Integrated Australia, has also been commissioned by Carriageworks, and will be created in partnership with artists with disability based in Sydney and regional NSW.  The project will be delivered over a period of two years commencing in January 2015 and concluding with a world premiere season at Carriageworks in October 2016.

These works will be developed under Carriageworks’ National Strategy ‘New Normal’ which will commission 10 new works by artists with disability over the next three years. Through these commissions, ‘New Normal’ will make a major investment into embedding disability arts into contemporary arts programming in NSW and remove barriers to inclusion in the arts for people with  disability.

Artists with disability make a significant contribution to our artistic and cultural life in NSW.  The support of the NSW Government through the NSW Arts and Disability Partnership will enable us to deliver high-quality innovative works that bring together NSW companies and artists with a disability. Lisa Havilah, Director of Carriageworks

ABOUT CARRIAGEWORKS: Carriageworks presents a contemporary multi-arts program that engages artists and audiences with contemporary ideas and issues. The program is artist led and emerges from Carriageworks’ commitment to reflecting social and cultural diversity. The Carriageworks artistic program is ambitious, risk taking and unrelenting in its support of artists. Carriageworks is a cultural facility of the NSW Government and is supported by Arts NSW. The Carriageworks program can be viewed at http://www.carriageworks.com.au.