Sepuloni meets disability advocates

Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni joins Tara Hook (20) at a painting...
Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni joins Tara Hook (20) at a painting session at Studio2, a small art studio in South Dunedin for people with disabilities. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON
Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni made a brief visit to Dunedin yesterday to hear about the things that are important to Otago’s disabled community before the creation of a new Ministry for Disabled People, on July 1.

She met representatives from the Disabled Persons Assembly and People First New Zealand, and said she was looking forward to sharing the information gleaned with Poto Williams, who was appointed the new Minister for Disability Issues earlier this week.

"My last visit was to Studio2, a small creative studio space where artists with disabilities are supported to create artwork, experiment with a range of mediums and materials, and develop their own artistic styles and profiles," Ms Sepuloni said.

Studio2 also operates its own art gallery - the Margaret Freeman Gallery - dedicated to supporting disabled artists to promote and share their work with the wider community.

The gallery received funding of $268,299 from round one of the Creative Spaces initiative funded by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

This funding has enabled Studio2 to increase the hours of the staff to extend the organisation’s services to 10 sessions over five days per week.

It also provides two staff members for each session so that Studio 2 can cater to more artists.

Taieri MP Ingrid Leary said it was great to be able to show the minister how the Creative Spaces funding was being used.

john.lewis@odt.co.nz

 

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