La Mama invites VCA students and alumni to take part in an intimate conversation with performing artists working at La Mama during our 2022 Midsumma Festival program. These artists are at the forefront of embedding diversity, access and equity as an integral part of their practice. Listen in as they share their tips and experiences. Speakers include artists both with lived experience of disability as well as experienced artists who have worked in the Art and Disability sector for over 20 years.
Gain practical insight into Audio Description, Tactile Tours and Auslan interpreting, Relaxed Performances and more.
This event will be livestreamed on La Mama’s YouTube and Facebook. It will be Auslan interpreted and include Audio description. Set a reminder below!
Chaired by Myf Powell, Outreach and Community Engagement Producer, La Mama.
Speakers include:
Nilgün Guven
Nilgün is a Turkish- Australian based producer, director, artist and culture agent whose business and arts practice is concerned with the intersectionality of human rights, inclusion & access, aesthetic innovation and creative production and is founder of Vitae Veritas (VV), a not-for-profit arts organisation dedicated to promoting cultural diversity, artistic excellence and inclusive arts leadership.
As an access & inclusion consultant and advisor, Nilgün works together in partnership with numerous companies, organisations, festivals, venues, artists and collectives delivering capacity-building programs, co-designing, realising and embedding genuine access into process and production, strategically, creatively and operationally and is also involved in several academic research and developments projects.
As a qualified audio describer & tactile tour guide since 2012, Nilgün has extensive experience in applying this craft and service for visual art exhibitions, short and longform films, live & immersive theatre, installations, conferences & events, and hybrid participatory projects, in various forms, scales and length.
Miranda Hill
Miranda Hill is a double bassist, G-Violonist, producer, and educator specialising in producing concert platform and community music events, promoting and supporting the work of queer artists, and performing early and contemporary classical music. Passionate about bringing experimental music to new audiences, she can be found performing everywhere from concert halls, to sticky carpet pubs, and maybe your own living room.
After studying at the VCA, University of Michigan, Hartt school of music, and a sabbatical in London, Miranda has a diverse performing career based in Melbourne. Artistic Director of Melbourne’s cult queer chamber music series “Homophonic!”, and a core member of Genesis Baroque, Artists in Music Ensemble, Melbourne Baroque Orchestra, Octave Pussy, BOLT ensemble, and the Adam Simmons Creative Music Ensemble; and has worked with many of Australia’s symphony, and opera and ballet orchestras; as well as historically informed period performance orchestras. Miranda teaches at Collarts, and Crashendo! at Laverton College
Milly Cooper
Milly Cooper is a Melbourne-based inclusive theatre director, practitioner and workshop facilitator with a background in physical and text-based theatre, music, dance and clowning. She regularly works alongside people with disabilities, young people, and the elderly as both an independent artist and under ‘Wielding Theatre’ company.
Milly has directed theatre shows across the country as part of Melbourne Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, and Undercover Artist Festival and is currently in collaboration with Canberra disability arts company Rebus, where Milly is be co-directing their regional work ‘Re-emergence’; a piece devised with local residents with disabilities who are affected by the 2020 bush fires, the on-going drought and Covid-19.
Artemis Munoz
Artemis is a multidisciplinary artist primarily known for their work in Independent Theatre and Cabaret. Recent credits include:
- Unsorted (Actor: Jacket – Midsumma Festival 2021)
- Breeders (Actor: Various Roles – La Mama Summer & Autumn 2021)
- Campfire Stories (Host/Producer/Performer – Online 2020/2021)
- People of Cabaret: Variety Spectacular (Ensemble: Melbourne Fringe 2020. Green Room Award Winner – Best Cabaret Ensemble)
- First Stage 2020 (Playwright – MTC and Emerging Writers Festival)
- ACEtravaganza (Host/Producer/Performer – Midsumma Festival 2020)
They hold a BA (Acting) from Federation University and have just completed coursework for their Masters in Theatre (Writing) at the VCA. Artemis is proud to be a working bi-racial, queer and neurodivergent artist and is as passionate about bringing greater access and representation to the arts.
This event is supported by the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne.