My Place is a new program developed by Arts Access Victoria, the state’s leading arts and disability organisation. Supported by Gandel Foundation, My Place program is delivered in Nebula, a unique mobile arts space which is a workshop, a gallery, a performance venue and a meeting place – all in one!
My Place is a great opportunity for Arts Access Victoria to engage with a large number of artists with disabilities as well as the broader artistic community.
The concept of placing Nebula in communities for longer residencies, in a range of locations, that would allow much greater engagement and connection with community and time for people within those communities to take part, gave birth to the idea of the My Place program.
Workshop strategies to engage community members in the project include self-portrait making (people in place), using a combination of photography, painting and drawing; drawings made of key places in people’s lives and recorded interviews where people have been asked to talk about places in their local area which are special to them or secrets about the communities in which they live.
My Place Self-Portrait workshop (Photo: Paul Dunn)
My Place has already been delivered in a number of locations, including the City of Casey, with many more being planned in the coming months. In October 2014, My Place took centre stage in the City of Dandenong, offering arts workshops for children, young people and adults with and without disability, providing all with an opportunity to create art in a contemporary portable arts space in the heart of Dandenong.