There’s a shift happening across Australian stages, with accessibility and inclusivity within arts practices and community spaces taking the spotlight and one of the major players in Queensland is Indelabilityarts. The theatre provides professional artistic and training opportunities for artists and community members who identify as having a disability by creating original works that communicate the lived experience of its six-strong professional ensemble.
The company, founded in 2015 by Rebecca Alexander and Catarina Hebbard, was inspired by local and international trailblazers and identified a gap within the creative sector for students with disabilities interested in pursuing a career in the arts after leaving school.
But one particular experience fueled Alexander’s passion. “I was working at a school in Peckham in the UK and actors from the Globe came out weekly to work with the kids, who then got to go out and perform on the famous Globe stage. I thought, ‘Why aren’t we doing anything like that with our kids back home?’
“To see what those kinds of experiences can do for young people with disability, their way of communicating and coming alive and unlocking all that potential, that was a big part of why I wanted to start an inclusive company here.”
Indelabilityarts is celebrating its biggest achievement to date, providing advice to the Global Games Sports Company for the 2019 INAS Global Games Arts and Culture program in Brisbane next October.
A Queensland tour to Bundaberg, Gladstone and the Gold Coast begins later this month. In addition to public performances in each region, Indelability will host a series of workshops for community participation.
Hebbard said the company’s ultimate aim was to create sustainable employment for Queensland arts makers who identify as having a disability.
“In three years, we’ve grown from employing four artists with disability to having a permanent part-time ensemble of six artists aged 20 – 45, plus an additional practitioner in a technical support role,” Hebbard said. “Our ultimate goal is to be the driving force behind the company becoming self-sufficient, so that it can live on, and be run by, artists with disability.”
Catch the Indelabilityarts ensemble in Bundaberg (11 October), Gladstone (23 – 24 October) and the Gold Coast (26 – 27 October). For information and tickets visit: https://www.artour.com.au