Six months to the Articulate Festival
Today is the Summer Solstice which means there is exactly six months till the Articulate Festival. Even though there’s been work going on in the background since the Team Up grant to run the event was announced, today is the official launch of the project with the unveiling of the festival’s logo.
New logo is launched
As you can see, our main goals dominate the logo, and that is deliberate. The goals are to be front and foremost for all of the events and participants and audience. The “party” aspect of the festival is embodied in the dynamic lettering of “Articulate”. There’s a close grouping of many coloured letters of all shapes that could be dancing, or talking, or interacting in some way – but they clearly represent inclusion of all types in happy cohesion.
Or if that’s all mumbo-jumbo then let’s all agree it looks cool.
Creatives Collective is working hard
In the background Creatives Collective members, all artists with disability, have divided up events and leaders have been chosen for each event, with other members lending a hand or performing as backup. Our members will start engaging with stakeholders, other groups who can assist, suppliers, and soon the audience, in the new year. These leaders with disability will also be reaching out to people in the community they consider to have expertise in the area they are running, for mentorship and connections. The grant was awarded to build the leadership skills, confidence and visibility of people with disability in the community. We already hope that ideas in the community of the capability of people with disability are being challenged, this is a large project and one that only the Coonabarabran Show would match in scale and complexity in the local area.
No list of local groups or way to contact them
We have added a new risk to our list, that is one of contacting other groups in Coonabarabran. There’s no centralised list of groups in Coonabarabran, and a suggestion to self-create one with other groups by forming a Facebook group was met with a negative response. This was very disappointing as this is another act of disabling that people do not recognise they are perpetuating. A lack of social contacts, or access to them, means that people are unable to live the life they want to. It is a form of isolating which is extremely damaging to mental health as well as aggravating for anyone who is trying to do things with groups in Coonabarabran.
Local groups not using online tools to attract young people
The lack of online communication is also discouraging for the younger generations who use social media for all of their contact and organising, if groups aren’t using these tools too then they will not attract younger members to their committees (and issue that all groups mark as an issue). We will continue to lobby for better communication that is inclusive for Coonabarabran as we push on with the festival organisation.
Articulate Festival website to go live January 1st
In the good news section the Articulate Festival website URL will be www.ArticulateFestival.com and will be launching next year. New information will be added to the site as it is confirmed and links will be shared on the Articulate Festival Facebook page (and shared by the Creatives Collective page as well) and the Articulate Festival Twitter Page. Make sure you follow and share everything!
