Arts and disability

The Arts Council uses the term ‘arts and disability’ to encompass a range of arts practices and activities involving people with disabilities both as practitioners and as audience members.  It embraces inclusive and collaborative practices, disability arts, deaf arts and advocacy.

The Arts Council works to the social model of disability and across artforms. It envisages the involvement and engagement of people with disabilities in the arts at all levels as practitioners, participants, employees, audiences, advisors, and board members, following principles of access and equality based on affirming cultural and human rights as well as entitlements. 

For the last three years, the Arts Council has been engaged in a local capacity building initiative in partnership with Arts and Disability Ireland (ADI) and selected local authorities. The Arts and Disability Networking (ADN) initiative was first piloted in partnership with Mayo County Council Arts Office in 2009/2010 and has since been rolled out in Galway city and county. The third phase will take place in Cork City in 2012. The model aims to enhance access and opportunities for artists with disabilities with the advice and support of peers and national partners. It takes account of the specificity of local needs and resources and is built on four key elements:

• The delivery of Disability Equality Training to venues and individual artists
• The provision of support to venues and individual artists in developing access audits and extending the scope of arts and disability practices in the county
• The presentation of high quality, professional, contemporary arts and disability work in a local venue (or venues)
• The generation and dissemination of resources relating to good practice.
  

There are a number of key agencies, funded by us, who have a central role in supporting these areas of work including: Arts and Disability Ireland and Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent. Other funded organisations such as venues, local authority arts officers, festivals, and production companies have an important role in improving access through programming arts and disability work and targeting people with disabilities as artists, participants and audiences. 

The Arts Council offers a wide range of financial supports across artforms and arts practices, including Arts and Disability. Those supports, direct and indirect, that are available are described in detail in financial support.  They include bursaries, projects, and travel and training awards as well as specific schemes such as the Arts and disability awards scheme, which is managed externally by ADF and co-funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.  The scheme offers bursaries for artists with disabilities on a 32-county basis.  In addition, the Artist in the community scheme, offers opportunities for artists and groups to work alongside each other in the making of collaborative art.  It is externally managed by Create.

The arts and disability resource pack - Shift in Perspective (PDF, 1.43 MB) - is the result of a partnership between the Arts Council, Arts & Disability Ireland (ADI), Mayo County Council, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and South Tipperary County Council. It grew out of the partner organisations’ work to develop innovative approaches in high quality contemporary arts and disability practice, and to make arts venues more accessible to artists and audiences with disabilities.

The material is based on three specific initiatives: the Arts and Disability Networking Pilot, the Altered Images exhibition, and an audio description and captioning programme for theatre. The resource pack aims to capture the learning from these initiatives and share its practical application with artists and all who work in professional and community-based venues, galleries, theatres and related arts organisations.