Arts and Culture Norway: joining the ‘disability revolution’ in the Norwegian arts sector

Case Study

Arts and Culture Norway is the main governmental operator for the implementation of Norwegian cultural policy. Here, Senior Advisor Kaja Tvedten Jorem describes the journey the organisation has been on over the last two years in discovering and attempting to remove some of the barriers for disabled artists in Norway's

White man in a wheelchair and two white women stand in front of a large photograph of someone smoking

Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer

Case Study

Queering the Crip, Cripping the Queer is an exhibition on queer/disability history, activism, and culture at the Scwules Museum, Berlin. It brings together work by over 20 international contemporary artists whose work explores the multiple historical, cultural, and political intersections of queerness and disability. Disability Arts International spoke to one

Polish disabled artists takeover Warsaw’s streets with ‘I am an Artist’ campaign

Case Study

Jestem Artysta (I am an artist) is a campaign commissioned by the British Council in collaboration with six professional Polish disabled artists. The campaign took over billboards, huge display screens and public spaces with images of disabled dancers, choreographers, theatre directors and performers in Warsaw's busiest locations. There was also a wide-reaching

Two performers stand on stage in front of a sea of lights

Harbourfront Centre, Toronto: making sure ‘everyone is imagined’

Case Study

Harbourfront Centre is an international centre for contemporary arts, culture and ideas, operating a 10-acre campus in Toronto, Canada. Joe Turnbull spoke to Iris Nemani, Chief Programming Officer at Harbourfont about its engagement with disabled artists and audiences over several years, culminating in CoMotion, its first international Deaf and Disability

El Alto: Bringing together disability arts from across the Americas

Case Study

El Alto is the British Council’s review of arts and culture in the Americas. For its second edition, the focus was on the d/Deaf and disability arts movement and ‘crip’ culture. El Alto was edited in partnership with Tangled Art + Disability (Canada) and 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos (Mexico).

A scene from a music concert. There is a band on the scene and a group of fans in front of it. On the scene, there are musicians, three of them are using wheelchairs. The songs are tanslated to sign language by the translator using hand gestures.

Małopolska Empathetic Culture programme, a regional approach to improving disabled access in Poland

Case Study, Organisations

Since 2016, the Małopolska Empathetic Culture project has strived to increase the presence of disabled people in the cultural life and institutions found within the Polish region of Małopolska. Managed and led by the Małopolska Culture Institute in Krakow (MIK), the goal of the project has been to encourage disabled

Photograph of a theatre crowd, some of whom are learning disabled and wearing ear defenders

Relaxed Performances: a comparative study across six countries

Case Study

Between April 2018 and April 2020, French-based organisation Ciné-ma différence commissioned a comparative survey of 16 organisations* delivering Relaxed-style Performances in France, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Switzerland. The resulting report also includes a toolkit with a series of recommendations so that other organisations can implement

Installation view of an exhibition. On the left of the image is a tree-shaped collage of many, many black and white images (it's not very clear as the images are small, but some are portraits of people) - they are lit in a sunshine yellow light. The floor of what is assumed to be a gallery is chrome, and reflects the rest of the room. 12 TV monitors make a wall on the right of the image, on 2 screens are an animation of a man drinking from a bottle, on another is a hand touching the screen, other screens are whited out or unclear.

Vital Capacities: Developing an accessible model for ‘digital residencies’

Case Study

Vital Capacities is a new purpose-built digital residency space, initiated by the UK’s videoclub, a platform for moving image artists, in collaboration with digital inclusion specialist Sarah Pickthall. It is intended to facilitate international exchange and provide the same opportunities as a physical residency. Curator, and Director of videoclub, Jamie

A learning disabled man ina silver body suit holds a glowing yellow circle on a stage

Art Without Limits: New Funding in Portugal

Case Study

Disability Arts journalist Paul F Cockburn speaks to Américo Rodrigues, Director of DGARTES (Portugal's arts council) and Maria Vlachou, Director of Associação Acesso Cultura, about new public funding in Portugal aimed at both supporting disabled artists and improving cultural access to wider audiences. Terra Amarela's Fala aos Bichos (2020). Photograph:

5 white classical singers in black attire perform in a gallery setting

Belfast International Arts Festival’s first foray into digital access

Case Study

Belfast International Arts Festival is a cross-arts annual festival which takes place in October, usually spread across multiple venues throughout the city. The coronavirus pandemic has forced the festival online for its 2020 iteration. Joe Turnbull speaks to members of the team about how they tackled digital access for the