Background

Melody Shotade

Artist

Name: Melody Shotade

Creative practice/s: Armature Musician, Emerging Performing Artist, Facilitator, Producer, Writer

State: Victoria

Do you identify as disabled and/or Deaf and/or with disability?

YES

Other identity/ies?

POC

Why do you do what you do?

I believe the best way for me to make a positive change is creatively express and demonstrate stories from the human collective both in oral form and through action. This is also a way for me ( and hopefully others too) to reconnect to and amalgamate from my Nigerian and Irish heritages, as storytelling is a large part of their cultures.

Contacts:

melodyshotade.create@gmail.com

What are you looking for?

Likeminded people interested the art of creating art directly and indirectly; to make changes in accessibility and inclusion. I will also will settle for
Paid performance gigs, project funding, informal training/mentoring on access models.

What’s still with you from the workshops? What do you remember?

I think the workshops were a really great initiative that connected artists with disabilities to each other and facilitated great activities/conversations that allowed us to articulate some of the successes and challenges we encounter in the industry.

What’s the legacy for you - creatively or with contacts?

The workshops definitely cemented my relationships with various contacts and so I think that was the legacy for me.

What makes a good workshop for you?

Effective facilitators and participants who are engaged and willing to take risks and be vulnerable, surrendering to the creative process.

The arts industry and you - how do you feel about where you are professionally? Where would you like to be?

I’m in a very unique position in that I am only in my fifth year of professional practise but I am already generating enough work to support myself full time as a creative artist. In saying that, there are obviously many challenges and barriers that I have faced throughout my career but I feel like I am becoming more resilient as time goes on. I’ve just finished a successful season of my debut play Freefall, which was a culmination of a two-year residency program. It was very well-reviewed and I feel like it was seen as not just a work about disability so I am feeling very good about that. In terms of where I would like to be in the next couple of years, my passion for playwriting has definitely been ignited and I have ideas for what my next two plays will be.