Disability Arts Culture & Human Rights | Accessibility

our new organization and future work plans

Background

The Stratford-based UK Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC) began the Together! project in 2009 at the suggestion of the late David Morris, Head of External Inclusion at London 2012 (and founder of the Liberty festival in his role as Mayor of London’s Disability Adviser). The aim was to organize a free festival of Disability Arts, Culture and Human Rights in the main Host Borough of Newham, to celebrate the Paralympics and to generate a lasting Legacy of Disability Arts activities in the borough, which has an extremely high proportion of residents with long-term health conditions and the lowest level of arts engagement in the UK.

Underpinning the work of Together! is Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. This gives disabled people the right to be resourced to organize and participate in our own cultural activities: and the right to access ‘mainstream’ art and culture on an equal basis, both as artists and as audience members.

To date Together! 2012 has been volunteer-led, headed by international artist Dr Ju Gosling aka ju90 as Artistic Director, with locally based artist Sarah Hughes as Poetry and Spoken Word Producer and young artist Malini Shah as Young Producer. The project has been mentored from the start by DaDaFest in Liverpool, the world’s leading international Disability Arts festival and a UKDPC member organisation.

“Together we can change our world”

‘Together’ is more than a title, it is also a concept that underpins our work: disabled people coming together whatever our medical labels; disabled people coming together with non-disabled people, including friends and families, carers, PAs, support workers and allies; disability organizations coming together with other groups and organisations; professional artists coming together with amateur/community artists and members of the community; residents coming together with visitors and others from outside the borough; and generally reaching out into the community and beyond to involve as many individuals and organizations as possible.

Official Together! 2012 festival partners include: East London NHS Foundation Trust; London Borough of Newham; Greater London Authority; Channel 4; University of East London; Eastside Community Heritage; Aston Mansfield; Newham NDP; Ramada Docklands; Better (Greenwich Leisure Ltd); Newham Chamber of Commerce; TUC; Advance; UK Disability History Month; Regard; DaDaFest; Cooltan Arts; Disability Arts Online; Picture This; Arts Disability Forum; KynnysKino; Festivals for All; Food Truly; and the Garden Café.

Together! 2012

In August 2012, less than three weeks before the Paralympics opened, our main festival venue, London Pleasure Gardens (opposite Excel) was forced to close. Many activities therefore had to be cancelled, including the Greater London Authority’s Liberty showcase. However, we were able to reschedule a number of activities elsewhere during the Paralympics, including ‘UKDPC House’, where visitors included representatives from Ghana and Kenya, two separate Chinese delegations, and Senator the Hon Jan McLucas, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers. The remainder of our community engagement activities were rescheduled for Disability History Month (22 November-22 December 2012).

Despite being unable to deliver the festival as planned, Together! 2012:

Created a participatory cultural programme, led entirely by volunteers, bringing together disabled people of all ages, from every impairment group and from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds;

Organised four exhibitions; two conferences; a three-day film festival; a winter craft sale and mail-art event; an LGBTea Party; and six events involving live performances including a Pop-Up Poetry Cafe;

Brought in nine international disabled artists and five UK-based disabled artists to share their work and act as role models;

Showcased the work and talents of 45 locally based disabled artists, in exhibitions at Eastside Community Heritage’s pop-up museum and gallery in Stratford in August and at the Hub for Disability History Month;

Involved 31 locally based disabled people in arts workshops covering poetry, storytelling, photography, film-making, wheelchair dance and crafts (as well as people from further afield);

Festival participants also created ten pieces of mail art for exhibition by Cooltan Arts, over 50 poems (many of which were performed live at our Pop-Up Cafe and have been published online), festive cards and decorations, and a short film funded by Channel 4 which will be available on our website shortly.

Delivered this work in 12 locations spread throughout the borough;

And produced this with 25 official partners, including the London Borough of Newham and East London NHS Foundation Trust.

The Legacy

As a result of the success of Together! 2012 and the overwhelming demand by participants for the work to continue, UKDPC is now working with the London Borough of Newham’s disabled micro-enterprise officer,

Lisa Taylor, to create a separate artist-led social enterprise (CIC), with continuing links to UKDPC. The work will continue to be underpinned by Article 30 of the UN Convention, with aims including:

Promoting and providing access to free high-quality, disabled-led arts events and activities for disabled people and their families, carers, PAs, support workers and companions, from Newham and beyond, particularly art and culture that reflects and relates to the experiences and world views of disabled people. This will include organizing events and activities directly; contracting to provide events and activities on behalf of third parties; and promoting events and activities organized by third parties.

Promoting activities where participants gain lasting benefits, including increased self-esteem and self-confidence and wider social networks, as well as increased skills and experience in the arts.

Promoting disabled artists and their work, both to disabled-majority and to inclusive audiences, in Newham, nationally, and internationally.

Promoting the development of and capacity building the Disability Arts sector in Newham, through the provision of support and expertise to existing disabled-led arts groups and the development of new groups and organizations.

Promoting the employment and self-employment of disabled people in the arts, including through the provision of employment, self-employment, training and volunteering opportunities, and the provision of opportunities to promote and sell artists’ and makers’ work.

Promoting access and inclusion for disabled people within ‘mainstream’ arts, including within arts education and training and through the provision of consultancy and training services, as well as campaigning and awareness-raising.

Promoting disabled people’s organizations, through joint working, the provision of activities at disabled-led events, and capacity building and other work to strengthen the sector, to ensure that disabled people have all of the support and services they require to be fully included in their communities and reach their full potential.

Promoting the wider values of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, empowering disabled people by providing role models and encouraging them to visualise themselves as achievers and leaders and valued members of the community.

Promoting Newham as the most diverse and accessible borough in the country, and facilitating it to become an international centre of excellence for Disability Arts.

Why Together!?

According to the Arts Council’s statistics, Newham has the lowest level of arts engagement in the UK — less than one in five residents participate in the arts annually. This is linked to the low level of cultural

activity taking place outside of Stratford, and the fact that many residents feel uncomfortable or are unable to travel outside of their immediate area.

Disabled people (and their families) are particularly limited in their cultural opportunities, due to access and other barriers, and nationally have an average engagement rate of 50% compared to 70% overall. With an overall engagement rate in the borough of less than 20%, the closure of the Greenhill Day Centre and the forthcoming closure of the Day Opportunities Service means that the level of engagement by disabled residents is likely to be less than 10% unless new activities and services are provided.

Disabled people also have the lowest incomes of any group in the UK, and with continuing cuts to benefits and to services such as Taxicard, paid-for activities are now out of the reach of most.

The Arts Council’s own statistics show that disabled artists are extremely disadvantaged too. Less than 3% of workers and less than 1% of freelance contractors in Arts Council-funded organizations are disabled. This inevitably affects organisations’ policies, practices and programming too, with disabled people seldom seeing our lives represented within the wider culture. Lack of employment opportunities, and the access barriers that disabled artists face in networking, make it extremely difficult for disabled people to make a career in the arts, even though many jobs are highly suited to them.

There are similar barriers to participating in voluntary arts, with lack of funding making the use of inaccessible venues extremely common, as well as impacting on the ability of the organizers to provide necessary adjustments such as BSL interpretation. Even where no such problems exist, the cultural sector’s lack of experience of working inclusively is reflected in the fact that fewer than 3% of volunteer performers at the Paralympic Ceremonies were disabled.

At the same time, when disabled people (and their carers) can come together they can provide invaluable support for each other on both personal and professional levels, and this is of growing importance with the closure of local services and day centres.

Disabled-led cultural activities also provide an opportunity for people who are newly disabled, or new to independent living, or new to the arts world, to meet and learn from people who are established in their careers and/or personal lives, as well as to see their lives and concerns represented.

In general, participating in the arts improves self-esteem, self-confidence, well-being and health, as well as teaching a wide range of practical and social skills. We believe that there is a direct link between the current low level of arts engagement in Newham and the fact that the borough contains some of the communities with the worst health in the UK.

Perhaps most importantly of all, showcasing disabled people’s abilities and achievements to the rest of the world has the ability to change attitudes and understanding, and thus to ‘change our world’.

Who We Are

The directors of Together! are all locally based disabled artists and service users. (We also have a Community Advisory Board made up of 15 locally based disabled people and carers.)

Georgia Drysdale, Operations Director [email protected]

Georgia has extensive administrative experience, including within the local authority and civil service as well as educational and charity settings. In 2012, Georgia organized the Transparent Concrete exhibition of work by artists with dyslexia, in addition to volunteering on the Together! 2012 festival. As an artist, Georgia specializes in textile-based work, using a wide variety of materials and techniques, and has a range of related qualifications.

Ju Gosling, Artistic Director [email protected] www.ju90.co.uk

Dr Ju Gosling aka ju90 was the first student in the country to present her PhD (in Communications and Image Studies) as a multi-media hypertext, and has gone on to achieve an international reputation for her creative work. Ju has also worked extensively as a media consultant for the Department of Health, Health Education Authority and other health bodies in the 1990s; trained as a Disability Equality trainer with Attitude is Everything, who promote disability access and inclusion within the live events industry; and has extensive experience with Shape Arts of advising and mentoring disabled artists to achieve their training, career and employment goals. As an artist, Ju works largely with digital lens-based media, but also with performance, text and sound, and situates her work mainly within the theories and traditions of the international Disability Arts movement. Her most recent exhibition, Abnormal: Towards a Scientific Model of Disability, was funded by the Wellcome Trust and toured nationally, finishing at the Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian Museum in 2011-12. The accompanying book, Abnormal: How Britain became body dysphoric and the key to a cure, is published by Bettany Press.

Sarah Hughes, Programme Director [email protected]

Sarah Hughes obtained her degree in Visual Arts at Middlesex University and qualified as a teacher at Leeds, followed by more than 15 years working in educational settings. Sarah is also experienced in working with small groups of service users and other vulnerable adults, and has additional social care experience. Sarah was the Poetry and Spoken Word Producer for the Together! 2012 festival, working closely with Cooltan Arts. As an artist, Sarah’s specialism is painting, particularly with acrylics.

Julie Newman, Company Chair julie@@together2012.org.uk

Julie Newman began her career as a nurse, and later gained a degree in social psychology and a post-graduate diploma in counselling and interpersonal behaviour, with additional qualifications as a trainer. She has since worked as an adult education lecturer, local authority community mental health worker and Disability Equality Officer. Since taking redundancy, Julie has gained substantial experience of third sector governance and finance, as well as a City & Guilds qualification in delivering Disability Equality Training in arts settings. As an artist, Julie’s specialisms are photography and film-making, including documentation, and she has a studio at Trinity Buoy Wharf.

Activities Plan 2013-2014

Weekly activities

Poetry Group: Wednesday mornings, Garden Café, Cundy Road, Custom House E16. Launched 6 March 2013. Led by: Sarah Hughes. Building on the success of the 2012 Poetry Week in association with Cooltan Arts, the Poetry group’s work will cover writing, illustrating, podcasting, publishing and performing poetry. As well as meeting weekly on a Wednesday morning, the group will make regular visits to poetry events across London, particularly those organized by Apples and Snakes at the Albany Empire in Deptford and Rich Mix in Bethnal Green. Here they will be able to observe and learn from other poets, as well as participating in open mike slots and gaining skills in running poetry events. The poetry group will publish an annual, illustrated anthology in Disability History Month, and will be responsible for the Pop-Up Poetry Café (see monthly activities below).

Craft Group: Garden Café, Cundy Road, Custom House E16. Already operational. Led by: Sarah Hughes. The group focuses on a different activity every few weeks, such as glass painting, jewellery making or mosaics. Members will be offered ongoing opportunities to show their work as part of the Together! exhibitions, and to make work to sell at our fairs and stalls at external events. They will also be invited to group visits to exhibitions (see below).

Textile Group: Vicarage Lane Community Centre, Stratford E15 (venue tbc). Led by: Georgia Drysdale. The group will explore a wide range of techniques, including a variety of printing techniques and stenciling. As well as meeting weekly, members will make regular visits to relevant exhibitions etc to understand the range of work being created internationally and the possibilities for their own work (Georgia has already arranged free entry for the group to the V&A exhibitions). Members will also be offered ongoing opportunities to show their work as part of the Together! exhibitions, and to make work to sell at our fairs and stalls at external events.

Drawing and Painting Group: Led by: Sarah Hughes, venue tbc. The group will explore a wide range of techniques and will range across portraiture, still life, landscape etc. As well as meeting weekly, members will make regular visits to exhibitions in order to extend their practice, working where possible with institutions’ education departments to obtain guided tours and access to education rooms for follow-up activities. Members will also be offered ongoing opportunities to show their work as part of the Together! exhibitions, and to make work to sell at our fairs and stalls at external events.

Wheelchair Dance Club: Friday afternoons, Balaam Leisure Centre, Plaistow E13 (venue tbc). Led by: Ju Gosling & Folk in Motion. The club will focus initially on ‘wolk’, a new form of adapted wheelchair dance created by Ju in 2011 in association with the English Folk Dance and Song Society and awarded the London 2012 Inspire Mark. ‘Wolk’ involves no upper body movement and is accessible to all wheelchair users, including those who need to be pushed. The club will have membership of the UK Wheelchair Dance Sport Association, who will provide visiting tutors. We will be seeking performance opportunities for the club in due course.

We will not be providing drama activities directly ourselves, but are supporting Act Up, Newham’s inclusive community theatre company, to secure funding and an ongoing rehearsal and performance venue, and will continue to work with them to build their capacity and to programme their performances.

Monthly activities

Photographers’ and Film-makers’ Group: Durning Hall (venue tbc). Building on the success of the photography and film-making workshops in 2012, the group will focus on a different topic each month, such as lighting, editing techniques and digital technology, and will make group visits to film festivals and other events to develop their skills and practice. Members will also make short films together; be responsible for documenting the work of Together! and streaming events; and will assist in programming the Together! Film Festival.

Pop-Up Poetry Café: The Pop-Up Poetry Café will move around the borough, creating a safe, fun social space for disabled people and their carers, PAs, support workers, families and friends. It will provide members of the poetry group with the opportunity to develop their performance and organizational skills, along with an open mike slot for newcomers and guest spots for visiting disabled poets. will be holding two sales a year (summer and winter), as well as taking a shared stall at external events. We will also be developing an online shop on our website.

Capacity building Disability Arts groups: We are already working with Act Up, the local inclusive community theatre group, to secure funding and venues; with Active Plus to create exhibition opportunities for their members; and with East End Hamlets to create selling opportunities for their work. We will continue to work closely with these and other disabled-led groups to capacity build, as well as helping to develop new groups.

Consultancy: The directors have a wide range of experience and expertise in related areas such as mentoring disabled artists for employment; specialist Disability Equality Training for the arts world; accessible event organization and planning; and accessible communications. This will generate additional income or be delivered as a core activity depending on the funding situation of the organizations and groups involved.

Campaigning and awareness raising: We will be promoting the inclusion of disabled artists and audience members to other arts organizations and arts activities providers, and raising awareness of the adjustments necessary to make inclusion a reality, wherever this is appropriate.

Delivering special projects and activities on behalf of third parties: We welcome enquiries from providers who wish to provide on-site arts activities aimed at disabled people and other socially excluded groups and who would like to commission us to deliver these. We will also be developing projects with different age groups and communities in partnership with others, such as the World AIDS Day project we are planning with Postive East (see the Together! Festival for details).

Partnerships

DaDaFest on Tour: This is a three-year partnership funded by the Arts Council England’s touring fund and led by the DaDaFest biennial international Disability Arts Festival in Liverpool, with the other partners being the Citadel venue in St Helen’s, Preston City Council and a new summer Disability Arts festival covering three counties in the Black Country. This will enable us to promote locally based disabled artists nationally and internationally, as well as to bring national and international disabled artists into Newham to act as role models and attract visitors. The three-year project will also involve developing four disabled young people from Newham as programmers and producers.

Creative People and Places: This is a three-year project to develop arts engagement levels in Newham, with the other partners being Aston-Mansfield, Stratford Rising and Newham NDP. The project reached the second stage of the Arts Council’s CPP fund in March, and we are waiting to hear if the bid has been successful.

Volunteering and Training

Semi-regular activities

Exhibitions: Our 2012 exhibition was a great success, featuring the work of 45 locally based disabled artists as it toured to venues in Stratford and Canning Town. We will continue to seek venues for this show, as we will with all subsequent exhibitions. (Newham has no dedicated visual arts venue, so we will be working across the public sector and business communities to find suitable spaces.) We will also be developing exhibitions around particular topics or themes, and showcasing the work of individual artists in more depth.

We are able to offer volunteer placements throughout the whole range of our activities. Volunteer roles range from supporting participants with opening and closing doors, taking coats on and off, fetching drinks etc, and facilitating participants with practical activities, to organizational and administrative roles.

Disabled people face considerable barriers in accessing arts training and education, particularly people with learning difficulties. Nationally over 50% of disabled adults have no qualifications at all; the percentage in Newham is likely to be considerably higher. We will therefore be registering two of the directors as assessors for the Arts Council’s Arts Awards scheme as soon as funding permits, and then offering the Award scheme to our participants and volunteers.

We are currently exploring the possibilities offered by Creative Apprenticeships in order to be able to formalize training further; we estimate that each placement will cost around £5000.

Together! Festival

The following activities are planned for Disability History Month 2013

(22 November-22 December 2013):

Together! Exhibition: 22 November-6 January 2013, The Hub, Star Lane, Canning Town E16 4PZ (venue tbc). This is an open-access exhibition by locally based disabled artists, whether they are amateur, community or professional artists, who are each invited to submit one piece. Group works are also included. The exhibition will then tour to other local venues in 2014. The exhibition’s private view will function as the festival’s launch event, in order to maximize exposure for the artists, and will include live performances.

Together! Arts Workshops: Various venues. The focus for one-day workshops will be on activities that are unavailable at other times of the year. Already planned are a story-telling workshop with Liz Porter and a stand-up comedy workshop with Clare Summerskill; we are in discussions with the British Para-Orchestra about a music workshop.

Live Performances: Funding permitting, we are already in discussions about a concert with the British Para-Orchestra, a one-woman show by Liz Porter and comedy with Laurence Clark. We also hope to schedule a performance by local company Act Up and to offer performance opportunities to other Newham-based artists.

Winter Sale: (23 or 30 November 2013, venue also tbc). Our Winter Sale enables disabled people to develop their employability skills, as well as resulting in increased self-esteem and self-confidence. Sales also provide (22 November-22 December 2013):

World AIDS Day: 1 December 2013. We are currently working with Positive East, the lead organization for HIV services in the borough, to develop an arts project resulting in an exhibition and event.

Local History Day: Venue and date tbc. This year’s history day will focus on the history of Newham’s institutions, as part of an ongoing project about the disability heritage of Newham being organized by the Disabled Reps Forum. UKDPC and Eastside Community Heritage are currently facilitating the development and submission of a Heritage Lottery Fund bid for this project.

Together! Film Festival: 6-8 December 2013, UEL Docklands Campus, The festival runs from 5-8pm on Friday and from 12-8pm on Saturday and Sunday, and features a wide range of films by and about disabled people including animation, artists’ films and videos, dramas and documentaries. We are applying to Channel 4 again this year for sponsorship.

Together! Fashion Week: 9-14 December 2013, various venues. Fashion Week will include a range of workshops including up-cycling and adapting clothing for disabled people, fashion photography, makeovers and modeling, and will culminate in the Together! Fashion Show on 14 December. We will also be running creative workshops throughout the autumn for disabled people, and a student project. Our partners in this project already include Models of Diversity, Caramel Rock and Newham College.

LGBTea Party: 15 December 2013, Vicarage Lane Community Centre, Stratford E15 (tbc). In association with Regard, the national LGBT disabled people’s organization. This event provides an opportunity for LGBT disabled residents to extend their social networks as well as to celebrate their own unique culture.

Winter Party: 19 December 2013, The Hub, Star Lane, Canning Town E16 4PZ (venue tbc). The festival will end with our Winter Party, combining alcohol-free refreshments with live performances and an open mike slot and another chance to view the Together! exhibition.