Our Statement on COVID-19  

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation classified COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic and called for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. To help prevent the spread of the virus, the Australian Government has declared a human bio-security emergency. The Government advises the practice of good hygiene, self-isolation and social distancing. It has placed limits on visits to vulnerable groups and advised that organised, non-essential outdoor gatherings are limited to 500 people and non-essential indoor gatherings are limited to 100 people. They are also considering further restrictions. Additional travel restrictions and self-isolation measures for people arriving from overseas have also been recommended.

These actions are vital to protecting our health.

Outlandish Arts recognises that COVID-19 is not just a public health crisis, it is a crisis that may have severe economic, social and cultural consequences and touch many sectors – so every sector and every individual must be involved in the fight to prevent infections, save lives and minimize impact.

We are concerned by the impact of COVID-19 on the arts industry in Australia and particularly on disability arts organisations and Deaf and disabled artists across all communities. We stand with our peak arts bodies in advocating for a range of urgent measures. These include government implementation of an ambitious and well-funded stimulus package specific to the arts sector in response to industry advice.

We also support calls to rapidly increase the healthcare sector’s capacity to care for disabled people and the disability-care workforce and to update the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 to include the needs of people with disability.

In addition, we underline the urgent need for disabled leaders to be at the table when talking about how we respond to this emergency.

Outlandish Arts stands in solidarity with all those trying to build a society that places care for one and other at its heart.

Australian Gov. Corona virus news, updates and advice

Aus Dept Health Information on COVID-19

NSW Health Information on COVID-19

NDIS emergency Information on COVID-19 for Disabled People

IDEAS Corona Virus information and links

Published: 18 March, 2020

Maps – a video poem by Abhishek Anicca. The latest contribution to our Rhizome project

Stay tuned for the next Outlandish Arts – Free House gig at the Red Rattler… ODDS-ON

 Outlandish Arts is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.