National Year of Reading 2012

The NFSA is proud to support the National Year of Reading 2012, an Australian Government-funded program that benefits all Australians. Throughout the year, we are showcasing a range of activities that connect reading in an audiovisual and educational context. A new exhibition, Great Adaptations: words to images, will open at the end of August. It will explore the journey of novels as they become screenplays and eventually moving image artworks. We have also become the first national cultural institution to join the Wall of Hands. You too can help increase literacy amongst Indigenous children in the Northern Territory by donating to the Wall of Hands initiative.

NFSA National Year of Reading activities include:

• We are partnering with the National Library of Australia in launching e-Voss, an e-book to mark the centenary of the birth of Australia’s Nobel laureate in Literature winning author Patrick White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990).

• In July, we brought words to life in our Canberra-based school holiday program which explored the world of film scripts.

• In July, we became the first national cultural institution to participate in the Australian Literacy Foundation’s Wall of Hands campaign which helps people in Australia’s most marginalised communities gain literacy skills.

Throughout the year:

• You can listen to screenwriters talk about their craft in selections from the NFSA’s oral history collection.
• NFSA Connects will bring school students together with creative arts professionals to hear their stories and learn about their experiences.
• School Screen will present film versions of books on the national curriculum at school screenings across Australia.

Visit this site regularly to see what’s new as well as:

• Search our Collection to see what books have been made into films.
• Visit our National Access Centres in the state libraries in Hobart, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin, Perth as well as the Australian Mediatheque in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, and our own Library in Canberra.
• Access education resources at Australian Screen Online.
• Watch interviews with some of Australia’s greatest writers on our digital learning website Australian Biography, including Bruce Dawe, Anne Deveson, Donald Horne, Margaret Fulton, Ruby Langford Ginibi, Mungo McCallum and Elizabeth Riddell.
• Take a look at the National Year of Reading’s website and see the range of activities you can become involved in, in your local area.
• Share your activities and stories on the National Year of Reading’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
• Use a range of National Year of Reading resources at Wikispaces.