Audiences were invited to uncover the lesser-known side of Mackay on our unlikely bus tour. Through the beauty of poetry, music, performance and projection, artists with and without disability joined together over three exciting nights to explore the themes of strength and vulnerability. This performance was a part of the Mackay Festival of Arts.

Access initiatives for audience members included: wheelchair accessibility, Auslan interpretation, audio description and braille programs.

Loose Ends #1 was a kooky, social performance evening featuring unique and unusual performances by local and interstate artists with and without disability at the accessible cocktail bar, Dirty Martini’s.

Access initiatives for audience members included: wheelchair accessibility, Auslan interpretation and Braille menus.

Dancing with Ansel was an exhibition of new and original works held at the local café The Grazing Goat, showcasing the photographic works of Crossroad Arts Ambassador and Artist in Residence, Brenden Borellini. Brenden was also joined by a panel of other artists with and without disability. They discussed how to create more inclusive arts and cultural events.

Access initiatives for audience members included: wheelchair accessibility, Auslan interpretation, Braille programs, artwork titles and 3D photographs.

‘Floating – Meetings with Remarkable People’ Stage 2, was a cross-cultural development project linking people from Australia and Japan who were affected by natural disasters. Crossroad Arts collaborated with communities in Sendai, Yamamoto cho and Mackay Queensland, which resulted in the creation of three films and inclusive arts performances in Australia and Japan.

This project aimed to re-engage the elderly and those with disability back into the cultural and social lives of their communities. ‘Floating – Meetings with Remarkable People’ Stage 2, built upon the creative recovery work carried out in the Australia-Japan Foundation funded Gama project in 2016.

In 2016, three talented artists from Crossroad Arts collaborated with artists from Able Arts Japan, Tanpopo, along with disability participants from the Polaris corporation in Yamamoto-cho for two weeks of dance, theatre and photography workshops. This two-week workshop resulted in a public arts event that celebrated the opening of the Japanese Rail Joban Line Station in Yamamoto-cho, which was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The project was aimed at re-engaging and uplifting the people of Yamamoto-cho, celebrating their resilience and ability to create thoughtful and reflective works of art following the 2011 devastation.

Troika: Red, Blue, White was a large-scale project we worked on over several months that captured 20 dances in three new and original films, screened over three nights. Troika featured local performers from Mackay, as well as dancers from Dancenorth (Townsville) and Tanpopo (Japan). The films were shot in various locations, including the spectacular landscapes of Winton, Longreach and Mackay.

In January 2015, 9 puppeteers with disability from Crossroad Arts travelled to Japan to join with Japanese dancers, Shin Sakuma and Hiromi Mita, in the staging of ‘Cry of the Curlew’, a new and original theatre performance, in Nara. The tour also included the photographic exhibition ‘Fallen Leaf’ by photographer Brenden Borellini, who happens to be deafblind. The exhibit included 3D and 2D photographs and poetry, and travelled to Nara, Nagoya, Nagakute City, Sendai and Yamomoto Town. In Miyagi Prefecture, Crossroad Arts also delivered creative recovery workshops with people who had lost their homes and livelihoods following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

As part of our 2015 international tour, Crossroad Arts photographer, Brenden Borellini, held an exhibition of 30 black and white landscape photographs. The exhibition, entitled ‘Falling Leaf’, included both 2D and 3D rendering of photographs and poetry, making it suitable for a blind audience. ‘Falling Leaf’ was the culmination of Brenden’s year-long photography traineeship at Crossroad Arts.