Ahead of the Curve

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

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

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

The new digital works created in Ahead of the Curve will be presented online as part of MAV’s Diasporas platform. The Ahead of the Curve commissions will 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 will 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.