Resources.
Websites, articles, books, papers and podcasts.
Art et al. has compiled a list of resources that are relevant to our field. This is a starting point and will be updated as the project grows and as recommended reading becomes available. If you think a key text is missing, please contact us. We’ll review all suggestions and add them to the page if relevant.
/ Featured.
Nonconformers | by Lisa Slominski
A New History of Self-Taught Artists
Yale University Press | 2022
A global history of self-taught artists advocating for a nuanced understanding of modern and contemporary art often challenged by the establishment.
When the art world has paid attention to makers from outside the cultural establishment, including so-called outsider and self-taught artists, it has generally been within limiting categories. Yet these artists, including many women, people with disabilities, and people of color, have had a transformative influence on the history of modern art. Responding to growing interest in these artists, this book offers a nuanced history of their work and how it has been understood from the early twentieth century to the present day.
“Featuring William Edmondson, Bill Traylor, Aloïse Corbaz and more, this book highlights marginalized artists.”
—New York Times Book Review
General.
Nonconformers: Labels + Contexts for Disability in the Visual Arts Past + Present Keynote speaker Lisa Slominski in-conversation with Sheryll Catto and Nicola Wright
Australia Council for the Arts, online resource for Australian artists
British Council, online resource for British people and creatives
Decentring Australian Art: Looking Past the Mainstream by Anthony White, Grace McQuilten, Charles Green & Anna Parlane
RAW VISION: Archive, online access and new issues
The Inclusive Arts Initiative: Exploring intersections in fine arts, art education, creative therapies and arts activism
Useful Downloads a digital toolbox by The Explorer’s Project
Articles.
Boue, Sonia. Autistic Arts Professionalism, A-N (November 11 2020)
Fleck, Ella. Nnena Kalu’s Chrysalides of Material Quietly Evolve in Mayfair, Frieze (March 30 2020)
Gruber, Fiona. Outsider art and why the mainstream always wants a piece of it, The Guardian (October 1 2014)
Heaton OBE, Tony. The Disability Discrimination Act: 25 years on for disability arts, Shape Arts
Indrisek, Scott. Why ‘Outsider Art’ Is a Problematic but Helpful Label, Artsy (October 18 2019)
McQuilten, Grace. Self-Made: Arts Project Australia, Assemble Papers (August 10 2015)
Miekus, Tiarney. Bringing the outside in, Art Guide Australia (June 4 2021)
Miekus, Tiarney. Problematic or romantic? Why self-taught artists don't quite fit, The Sydney Morning Herald (June 19 2020)
Piepenbring, Dan. How a Revered Studio for Artists with Disabilities is Surviving at a Distance, The New Yorker (September 24 2020)
Rowlands, Elinor. Access and the Neurodiverse Artist, Disability Arts Online (March 1 2019)
Slominski, Lisa. These centers are helping artists with disabilities break into the mainstream (and the market), Artsy (December 1 2017)
Unlimited: Is disability a dirty word? Language and the labels we use, Unlimited website (6 July 2023)
Artist books.
Hack, Bronwyn. The Heretic Fork, print edition of 10, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2019
Licenblat, Michael. Cyber Cop, print edition of 10, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2019
O’Brien, Chris. Eden’s house and Chris’ house, 9 Rubber Street Kyneton, print edition of 10, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2018
Conference
papers.
Luttin, Sim. The Power of Doing, part of the “Foraging for Feminism: excavating feminist histories and redefining feminist legacies at Arts Project Australia”, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne (February 2018)
Luttin, Sim. Issues in Contemporary Practice, part of the “Talk the Talk” lecture series, Art Curatorship Partnership Projects, University of Melbourne (April 2018)
Parlane, A. & White, A., Recentring Australian Art, Panel, IMPACT: Art Association of Australia & New Zealand (AAANZ) Conference, Sydney (December 2021)
White, Anthony. Outsider Art: Contemporary Considerations, part of the “Talk the Talk” lecture series, Art Curatorship Partnership Projects, University of Melbourne (April 2018)
Podcasts.
Real, Glenn, host. “Judith Scott”, The Outsider Art Podcast, Episode 8 (November 23, 2020)
Diament, Robert; Tovey, Russell, hosts. “Jennifer Gilbert (QuarARTine special episode)”, Talk Art (August 3 2020)
Miekus, Tiarney, host. “FEM-aFFINITY #1 Catherine Bell on inclusion and collaboration”, Art Guide Australia (February 1 2021)
Miekus, Tiarney, host. “FEM-aFFINITY #2 Janelle Low on creative relationships and otherness”, Art Guide Australia (February 26 2021)
Miekus, Tiarney, host. “FEM-aFFINITY #3 Anne Marsh on doing feminism”, Art Guide Australia (March 26 2021)
STRIVECast, Hosted by two men with Down Syndrome, aiming to change the voices we typically hear through podcasts, and provide meaningful dialogues with all sorts of public figures in our world.
Triulcio, Damian L., creator. “Nemesis: The Jaded Millennium”, The Art Factory (2021)
Publications.
Alessi, Vincent (curator). It takes more than 140 characters to write a novel, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2015
Bell, Catherine (curator). FEM-aFFINITY, National Exhibitions Touring Support Victoria; with Arts Project Australia as part of a NETS Victoria & Arts Project Australia touring exhibition, 2019
Daye, Cheryl; Ginter, Kitty. A Sense of Place, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2015
Findlay, Carly (editor). Growing Up Disabled in Australia, Black Inc. Books, 2021
French, Jade. Inclusive Curating in Contemporary Art: A Practical Read, ARC Humanities Press, Leeds, 2020
Jones, K; Koh, E; Veis, N; White, A; Hurworth, R; Bell, J; Shrimpton, B; Fitzpatrick, A. Framing Marginalised Art, Cunningham Dax Collection & University of Melbourne Custom book Centre, 2010
Ludins-Katz, Florence; Ludins-Katz, Elias. Art and Disabilities: Establishing the Creative Art Center for People with Disabilities, Brookline Books, Cambridge MA, 1990
Newton, Geoff (curator). Video Doctor, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2013
Phoenix, Richard. D.I.Y. as Privilege: A Manifesto, Rough Trade Edition No. 36, Rough Trade Books, London, 2020
Sharkey, Patrice (curator). Auto Body Works, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2018
Slominski, Lisa. Nonconformers: A New History of Self-Taught Artists, Yale University Press, London, 2022
Stonehouse, Anne (with James McDonald). So Far… Eight Artists / Eight Stories, Arts Project Australia, Northcote, 2014
Wexler, Alice; Derby, John. Art in Institutions: The Emergence of (Disabled) Outsiders, in the National Art Education Association Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research, Volume 56 No 2, 2015
White, Anthony; Parlane, Anna; McQuilten, Grace; Green, Charles. “Outsider Art in Australia: Artists’ Voices Versus Art-world Mythologies” (p41-48), Outsider Art in Australia: Artists’ Voices Versus Art-world Mythologies, Art & Australia, Vol. 56 Issue 1, 2019
Toolkits &
Reports.
Clements, Leah; Hattrick, Alice; and Lizzy Rose, Access Docs for Artists. Information on writing an access document for disabled artists
Neuk Collective – Manifesto for neurodiversity in the arts
Social Ventures Australia, Reaching Potential: Experiences of young people with significant intellectual disability. Commissioned by the Limb Family Foundation, Melbourne, 2021