Ahead of the Curve

The Ahead of the Curve Commissions was a call out for young and emerging artists of colour living around Melbourne, to create new digital artworks that responded to social challenges, including COVID-19.

These commissions empowered young storytellers, makers and creators within our diverse communities to create works that:

• show their strength and resilience in the face of adversity
• explore health and wellbeing and
• draw from their lived experiences.

MAV offered a range of Ahead of the Curve commission tiers to suit community aspirations and individual capacity. As well as financial support, MAV offered the following support to participating artists and communities:

• professional and creative development workshops
• networking and mentoring
• production and administrative assistance.

These new digital works created in Ahead of the Curve are presented on the MAV website (under the section Artwork Commissions). The Ahead of the Curve commissions highlight the way the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded inequity and disadvantage for communities of colour in Victoria.

Supported by The Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, the Ahead of the Curve commissions challenge prevailing narratives of CALD communities as vulnerable and helpless and explore how diversity and community can also be protective factors; enabling communities to address the social determinants of health inequity and disadvantage.