| | Inspired in Australia
 by Rebecca Stant
veryone has a creative side, which is the founding principle of INSPIRE WEBSITE at www.inspire.melb.net
We started five years ago when we got fed up with the lack of mainstream sites to show off a person’s creativity without having to detail the artist’s ‘overcoming’ a seemingly insurmountable physical/mental hardship. You know the ‘Writer Produces Entire 6 Volume Work Despite Being Comatose’ kind of story. Of course, every person who makes some contribution to the artistic world while under adverse circumstances should receive and does deserve full credit for doing so.
So Inspire was born. It started in early 1995 as Inspire Magazine (quarterly publication) and was only available in a printed (b/w) format. The first issue was only five pages long, but a few people saw it and were interested. Most of the contributors and all of the staff members have a disability themselves, so we’re on the same wavelength.
In 1998 we changed our name to ’Inspire Fanzine’, which we felt was a more accurate description of what we were - not glossy or colour like people imagine when they think of a magazine.
We expanded onto the net at the end of last year, and we’re reaching a lot more people so we hope to stick around. The quarterly publications have ceased and we’ve decided to publish a ‘best of’ issue at the end of each year (compilation of different contributions for the year). We’re still running on voluntary contributions, but because the internet operates in colour, we can reproduce artwork in their full glory.
Anyone can logon to our website, but to view all the different creative expression categories/contributions requires membership. This process is totally FREE and easy, and it gives you access to heaps more. We accept almost any article, review, recipe, poem, photo of artwork, cartoon, biography etc that you care to send. If you don’t feel that any of our existing columns suit you, we don’t have any objections to creating one for you or running your article as a stand-alone piece. We’re trying to be diverse and interesting so the more contributions the better. The only stuff we won’t post are really offensive stuff, medical articles and personal attacks on people. We exist and thrive on the positive feedback and input we receive by the disability community at home and throughout the world. It’s definitely a group effort.
We are dedicated to the idea that all people no matter how physically, mentally or emotionally disabled are capable of producing work of a high artistic standard and can enjoy their own experiences while being challenged by other people’s creative responses. We’re such a relaxed group of people and a fun site. If you’re a little curious or have an original poem, story or some artwork lying around, consider sending it to us so we can show it off for you. Remember, you don’t have to be a professional writer/artist to contribute. Our email address is contactus@inspire.melb.net so get in touch and help us stay interesting, or you can snail mail us at PO Box 209, Kingsbury VIC 3083, AUSTRALIA. Return postage is appreciated.
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