Access Arts and KPMG Official Opening of Perception Exhibition

Thank you. I too acknowledge Minister O’Rouke, and members of the wonderful Access Arts family. I also acknowledge the 25^th Governor and former Patron Ms Wensley, whose comprehensive support for the arts in Queensland is well-established.

Kaye and I are delighted to join you all this evening for the Minister’s Opening of Perception, the twenty-fifteen Access Arts exhibition – our first experience of this signature event in the annual Access Arts calendar.

As you will all be aware, this is Disability Action Week. Launching the exhibition at this time is important because it helps to empower those who are living with disability, and to raise public awareness of the ongoing need to make our communities more inclusive and accessible.

Tonight’s opening is also an ideal opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful three-year partnership between Access Arts and KPMG.

This partnership has enabled Access Arts to showcase the work of the Brisbane Outsider Artists and the Camera Wanderers in one of Brisbane’s most prestigious inner-city venues.

The choice of venue for an exhibition such as this is far from incidental; it is extremely important because how we view and value the work on display is all about perception.

I was very pleased some years ago to facilitate a photographic exhibition for the Sporting Wheelies at the Supreme Courthouse in Brisbane – then an unusual use for the Courthouse, but, as with here tonight, a use of the venue which emphasized the significance of the initiative.

Holding the exhibition here says, very clearly and publicly, that whether artists are disabled or not is irrelevant; they are artists at heart and it is their art that defines them, not their disadvantage or disability.

Serendipitously, tonight’s opening also falls during the Brisbane Festival.

I was very pleased to learn that, parallel to this exhibition, a photographic installation by the Camera Wanderers is being projected onto the large outdoor screen in the Creative Industries Precinct at QUT as part of the Festival – what a marvellous public showcase for those artists!

As Patron of Access Arts, I congratulate KPMG and Access Arts on their ongoing commitment to this annual exhibition and to the Access Artists Achievement Award.

I am looking forward immensely to presenting the second annual award later this evening and I sincerely thank singer-songwriter Peter Vance – a Life Member of Access Arts – for his exceptional generosity in supporting the award.

 Thank you.