Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report 1991-92

WORKSHOPS A N D INTERPRETATION The inception of the Disabilities Assistance Program was a new initiative for the Gallery and the first of its kind in any Australian art museum. The aim of the program is to ensure that the Gallery and its Collection is made as accessible as Mic Gruchy in the possible to visitors with a wide range of disabilities. performance of 'Gallery Explorer', a series of weekend workshops designed to accommodate individuals with any type of developmental 'Passeggeri Del Sogno', disability, was offered several times throughout the year. Workshops were based on a variety of themes and featured a a multi-media performance presented tour of the Gallery followed by related practical art activities. The program was enthusiastically received and will feature collaboratively with Tim as a regular event. Many participants had never visited the Gallery previously. Gruchy and Mario . . . Several special events were held in collaboration with the Queensland Performing Arts Trust's D Arts Program (which Mancini, around the concept of 'Passenger also serves the needs of patrons with disabilities). The first of these was presented in July/August 1991 for teenage of the Dream'. students from Brisbane special schools. Entitled 'As We Are', it focused on the idea of portraits (in particular self portraits) and students worked over four days to create individual portrait cloaks' symbolising their own personalities and interests. The enormous success of this project prompted the presentation of two follow-on programs. As We Are' was expanded for a new group of students, while the original group was invited to participate in something more ambitious - t o create within the Education studio space the sensation of being in an entirely different place, as if they were the first settlers on a new planet. The completed installation, 'Where We Are', was open to the public for four days over Easter. 'Art Beat' was developed expressly for young people to gain direct access to contemporary art through multi-disciplinary interpretations. The specific needs of children aged five to eight years were addressed, as challenging interpretations of contemporary Australian visual art were presented through the medium of performance. The first series was presented in March 1992 and included works by Peggy Wallach and a collaboration between well-known Brisbane actor Jennifer Flowers and London-based dancer Deborah Saxon. The second series coincided with the Queensland Performing Arts The Gallery's Education / Studio was transformed / \ Trust's Out of the Box Festival of Early by the installation Childhood Jennifer Flowers collaborated with 'Where We Are', a joint i - dancer Nick Hills to create an 'epic' journey of project between the Gallerys Disabilities A 1 discovery through the Gallery, weaving a Assistance Program i I sequence of dances and storytelling that explored 7 and the Queensland '1 / the chosen contemporary Australian works in Performing Arts Trust's ( 'k ' fresh and unexpected ways DArts Program both of s dl 45jj which serve people with 1 " s Another highlight of the performance program '44 disabilities !, - was Passeggeri Del Sogno (Passenger of the ' ( Dream) The seventy minute performance / I combined a series of vignettes carefully woven around intimate perceptions of the dream and • - / i' i ' evolved through continued collaboration - - - ' between multi-media artist brothers Tim and Mic • ' . - - • ; •• • Gruchy and Italian writer and musician Mario Mancini. 'Passeggeri Del Sogno' combined projected 22