First ever disability-led arts and cultural hub launches in Sydney

Published by: Kabuku PR | 15-Nov-2016
Front Up, the first-ever disability-led Arts and Cultural Hub, was launched by leading not-for-profit organisation, Ability Options on Tuesday, November 15th with the incredible 'I'm Still Here' exhibition.
Front Up, the first-ever disability-led Arts and Cultural Hub, was launched by leading not-for-profit organisation, Ability Options on Tuesday, November 15th with the incredible 'I'm Still Here' exhibition.

The innovative new community Hub in Western Sydney offers participants access to multi-layered professional arts and cultural education, as well as linking participants with existing NSW Government education programs and services.

A series of three collaborative programs will be offered through the Hub, aiming to promote artistic vibrancy and social inclusion through both inspiring interest in the arts and culture sector, and developing creative skill sets.

The three programs are titled Explore, Discover and Emerge, and will all aim to build confidence and self-esteem within participants, with the ultimate goal of assisting them to find pathways to access communities, further education, future employment and volunteer opportunities within the arts industry.

Located at Seven Hills, the Front Up Hub includes a theatre space, gallery, open plan performance space, multimedia space, café as well as both audio and visual studios.

To celebrate the launch of this project, a special exhibition 'I'm Still Here' was held at Barangaroo's The Cutaway on Tuesday, November 15th, showcasing works from artists involved in the Emerge pilot program.

The 12-week creative process for the exhibition began with participants invited by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to spend three days exploring the artworks in three exhibitions, including Manifesto by Julian Rosefeldt, Lot Lost by Eko Nugroho and Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera: from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection.

Kay Armstrong, Artistic Director of the Emerge pilot program, said 'I'm Still Here' has been a highly collaborative project.

"We found extraordinary resonances with each of the selected artists exhibiting at the Art Gallery of NSW and the manifold social issues that their work embraces," she commented. "Finding these commonalities has been a fantastic impetus for our creative journey in creating new collaborative works using these selected artists as our starting point."

The 'I'm Still Here' exhibition embraced three main themes; identity, visibility and validation, which are all explored through interactive installations, sculptures, video, performance, live poetic narrative and paintings.

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