THRIVE Creative Grants are a City of Port Phillip and Arts Access Victoria Grant partnership providing funding for Deaf and Disabled artists to present art projects at Thrive Festival, 24- 25 July in the Emerald Hill precinct.
Daniel Coulson, exhibition at Carlisle Street Arts Space, 2019.
The 2021 Thrive artists will join the 2020 Thrive artists to showcase their work at the Thrive Festival.
Hugh will develop a site-specific, semi-improvised roving performance for Thrive Festival utilising Hugh’s puppet character ‘The Crow’ as a central character. Through the character of ‘The Crow’, Hugh will bring his unique perspective to festival attendees by reminding them to have fun and play, encouraging them to be thoughtful with their waste and inspiring them to explore the buildings and surroundings of Emerald Hill in unique and playful ways. For example ‘The Crow’ may visit the weaving workshop and offer some unusual materials for weaving with, show an interest in learning photography at the camera shop, collect discarded rubbish, visit the music area and remind everyone how to dance.
SICK is a collaboration between myself and one of Australia’s foremost provocateurs of choreography Phillip Adams. SICK is a dance and performance that makes you think about the meaning of the word in unexpected ways. We are planning to make an impact with SICK by presenting a unique gathering at Temperance Hall for the Thrive Festival.
I will work with residents in supported independent living here at Edith Pardy house, who will provide their time and share their story while I do their portraits on a cardboard box. These boxes will have a QR code on them which will link to a page that will have audio of that person, giving them the platform to share their story and interests. My aim is for the viewer to think outside the box, beyond the stigma, that this person is more than their mental disability, that they’re multidimensional with many interesting qualities.
Full-On Theatre and The Bongo Brothers will create a new work with Port Phillip Special School students. This will be an exciting music-theatre performance designed for young audiences and families. Mind Beatz will be a live music performance, using world music, comedy, storytelling and animation to explore different modes of learning. Music has been proven to help children’s development and assist with other areas of learning. The show investigates a variety of ways that children and adults learn, leading to the realisation that while people are different, everyone can learn and that we All have something to give. This message is especially important in the Disability sector where intelligence is often stigmatised by others
Using Artificial Intelligence (Ai) to create a script that I will input information about the history of the Emerald Hill precinct and the City Of Port Phillip. The script will then write a fictional history using this information. I will get a copywriter to fix up the Ai output. From there I will create illustrations to accompany the work and make a zine, accompanied by a poster. I hope to have the zine printed in Risso graph printing. I will then hire someone to turn the zine into an audio file for access and create a digital version. I would like to run a workshop to show the local community how they can use ai and what it is capable of doing. I will be handing out the zine for free at the Library and at Sticky or any local events festivals.
More information about the exciting Thrive Festival program will be on the Arts Access Victoria website soon!
For more information about the festival, contact Sarah Houbolt, Creative Producer by emailing shoubolt@artsaccess.com.au or calling 03 9699 8299
