Funding links Use the following external links for information about possible sources of arts funding. Expand Access to WorkAn Access to Work grant can pay for practical support if you have a disability, health or mental health condition to help you: start working stay in work move into self-employment or start a business How much you get depends on your circumstances. The money doesn’t have to be paid back and will not affect your other benefits.ArtquestEverything a visual artist needs to know. Arts AwardsArts Awards support imaginative and experimental arts projects that investigate biomedical science. The scheme aims to: - stimulate interest, excitement and debate about biomedical science through the arts - examine the social, cultural, and ethical impact of biomedical science - support formal and informal learning - encourage new ways of thinking - encourage high quality interdisciplinary practice and collaborative partnerships in arts, science and/or education practice. All art forms are covered by the programme: dance, drama, performance arts, visual arts, music, film, craft, photography, creativewriting or digital media. Arts Council EnglandWe work to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in experiences that enrich people's lives. Grants for the arts are the activities carried out over a set period and which engage people in England arts activities and help artists and organisations in England carry out their work. This link takes you to the main funding page on the ACE website, which includes organisational funding. Below are links to areas of support for independent artists. Developing your creative practice: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/DYCP Project grants: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/projectgrants Arts Fundraising & PhilanthropyThe Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Programme offers people across the arts and cultural sector training, traineeships, coaching, and digital skills development to encourage innovative and effective practice in arts fundraising and encourage a more entrepreneurial approach to income generation.Creative Industry Finance - for creative organisationsCritical NetworkCritical Network lists residencies and grants together with opportunities for festivals, group shows and commissions. CrowdfunderCrowdfunder is a new way for people to pool small amounts of money to back a good idea or project. If you need funding for a project or idea, Crowdfunder really is a no-brainer. Crowdfunder aims to fund all sorts of crazy, arty, funny, ingenious and jaw-dropping projects. So if you are an artist, explorer, musician, writer, entreprenuer or thrill seeker get in touch and kick start your project with Crowdfunder today. Elephant Trust - small arts grants for individuals up to £2k Gane Trust - small grants to artists up to £1k Guidestar UK - Free directory where you can input different search criteria on charities that may give money. Help Musicians - We welcome musicians who play, create, sing or teach all styles of music and we are working hard to dispel the myth that we only help older classical musicians. We help musicians of all ages and all genres. Indie FundIndie Fund is a funding source for independent developers, created by a group of successful indies looking to encourage the next wave of game developers.J4B Community - Free funding directory for the voluntary & community sector; requires registration. PRS for Music FoundationPRS for Music Foundation is looking to support music creators, performaers and promoters who are involved in creatively adventurous of pioneering musical activity. It does this by offering a wide range of funding schemes for new music activity/ For full details of each scheme and how to apply.
Multi-Arts Centres Expand BarbicanTelephone: 0207 638 8891Website: http://www.barbican.org.uk/visitor-information/disability-access Battersea Art Centre Telephone: 020 7223 2223 Minicom: 020 7223 5311Email: [email protected] Website: https://www.bac.org.uk/content/39605/your_visit/access/access Cecil Sharp House Telephone: 020 7485 2206Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.efdss.org/efdss-contact-us/access RoundhouseTelephone (tickets): 0300 6789 222Website: http://help.roundhouse.org.uk/customer/en/portal/topics/693768-venue-accessibility/articles Southbank Centre Telephone: 0844 875 0073 (select option 2)Email: [email protected]Website: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visitor-info/access Stratford Circus Arts Centre Telephone: 020 8279 1080 Email: [email protected] Website: https://stratford-circus.com/visit/access-1/
Other links and resources Click here for a variety of links and resources of interest to those developing a creative career or practice. Expand Free Guides from Disability Rights UK Disability Rights UK (DRUK) have produced the following guides which you can read for free. Get Back 16 - our free of charge guide on education, training and employment options for disabled people http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/sites/default/files/pdf/GetBack16.pdf We have been commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to produce this new information guide on the education, training and employment opportunities available to people with a newly acquired disability or health condition. The guide entitled “Get back to where we do belong: An employment skills guide for people with newly acquired disabilities or health conditions” has been endorsed by Professor Dame Carol Black and includes the following information: what to expect from employers; advice and signposting on careers, education, training opportunities and welfare benefits; coping strategies and resilience. Personal stories are used throughout the guide. Please inform anyone who you think would benefit from the guide. We would also appreciate your feedback on how the guide has helped make a difference to you or your members by completing the very short survey on our website “This document should find its place on every employer’s and manager’s desk, or better, in their pocket.” Professor Dame Carol Black (Department of Health’s Expert Advisor on improving the welfare of working people). Good practice in supporting disabled learners: Disability Rights UK is developing a toolkit of resources for education providers to showcase good practice in supporting disabled learners to make the transition to internships and paid employment. The first set of materials has been published Our new Into Further Education guide published: http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/sites/default/files/pdf/IntoFE-11Apr2016.pdf This publication is for anyone with a health condition, learning difficulty or disability thinking about studying in further education in England. Into Further Education 2016 aims to answer common questions such as whether colleges will be accessible to disabled students, how to choose a course and what support will be available.
Adeolu Adesola Expand Adeolu works as a junior portfolio manager with Deutsche Alternative Asset Management having joined the wider Deutsche Bank Group in 2012 as a Graduate Analyst. He initially undertook a 1.5 year rotation program before a 2.5 years stint as credit analyst covering various sectors for the European Leveraged and Structured Finance and Dutch MidCap Leveraged Finance businesses in London. Adeolu is an avid supporter of the arts having had previous volunteer experience with Shakespeare’s Globe and the University of Warwick’s One World Week Music Festival.
Elinor Hayes Creative Producer: Content and Comms Expand I am Creative Producer for content and communications at Shape Arts. I am committed to the principles of accessibility, intersectionality, and equity as cornerstones of a viable cultural landscape. I have previously worked in commercial and public arts environments, including Wellcome Collection, Museum of London, Bold Tendencies, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art. I am part of the British Art Network's 2023 Emerging Curators Group.
Alex Cowan Head of Archives and Collection Expand I’ve worked as an archive researcher / producer since the early 1990s, working in TV, films and the museums and archives sectors. This included the BBC historical documentary series, “Disabled Century.” In 2014 I became project archivist on NDACA. Now I’m working in a similar role for the NDMAC project, locating potential depositors and developing the NDMAC offer. I enjoy helping to uncover histories and stories and making them accessible to wider audiences.
Owen Kimm Expand Owen is the Marketing and Communications Manager for visionary arts charity Creative Folkestone. He brings to the Shape board almost 10 years of experience from across the arts and culture sector having worked for organisations including Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture, Siobhan Davies Dance, Brunel’s ss Great Britain and more. Owen specialises in digital communications and helping organisations to become more digitally savvy and futureproof. He has a passion for improving access and opportunities for everyone to engage and enjoy the arts. Beyond the world of work, Owen is also a practising artist and musician, although he says that how good he is at either of those things is up for debate!
Jen Clarke Expand Jen Clarke is Legal Counsel at Red Bull Media House UK. Prior to moving in house, she sat in the music team at a London boutique media law firm after training as a solicitor in the City. Jen is a classically trained pianist, vocalist and experienced songwriter and performer. Before studying law she toured with indie bands internationally and released multiple recordings as a solo artist. In her spare time she enjoys yoga, attending visual art exhibitions, and supporting the local music scene. Her favourite London art gallery is the Tate Modern.
Jon Tibbits-Smyth Treasurer and Chair of Finance and HR Subcommittee Expand Jon Tibbits-Smyth is a qualified Charted Accountant. He has worked as an auditor predominately in the charities and social housing sectors for 14 years. He is currently an audit manager at BDO LLP. Jon has also been involved in the delivery of training on charity auditing and accounting matters and was involved in the publication of the Charity Administration Handbook (6th ed).
Michelle Duxbury Expand I am a largely self-taught, working-class, disabled artist based in Leeds. As a disabled person, who has struggled to find their feet in the art world, I hope to advocate for others who find themselves in a similar position, and I feel the best way to be able to do that is to get involved and do what I can to effect change and support organisations that are leading the way in making the art world a more accessible place for us all. I create art under the artist name alabamathirteen, my practice is focused around bodies, spaces and places, both public and private, and how we experience and occupy them both as individuals and as a society. Specifically referencing my own personal limitations navigating and negotiating the spaces and places I occupy as a disabled woman, underpinned by the notion of ‘non-conforming’ bodies as an act of defiance. I work predominantly with photography, embroidery and sound recordings. I am also an Artist Ambassador for Outside In, a national charity that aims to provide a platform for artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation.
Emily Roderick Assistant Producer Expand I am Assistant Producer across our NPO programme and additional projects, where I work directly with artists throughout the year in a variety of settings including support, marketing, access consultancy and curation. Previous experience includes arebyte Gallery, Compton Verney, Barbican and National Portrait Gallery.Outside of my work at Shape I am a practicing artist with a focus on socially-engaged works and performance. Currently I am completing a DYCP from Arts Council England.
Jon Dunicliff Expand I have over 30 years experience of partnership working across the public sector. This has ranged from national voluntary organisations, local authorities, and voluntary sector organisations managed, staffed, and controlled by Disabled People.My professional life has been focused on working with Disabled People. I have developed, implemented, managed, and commissioned a wide variety of projects that are at the cutting edge of service development.I am a Disabled Person, I have a strong commitment to social justice, and equal opportunities is an important part of my professional and personal life.I strongly believe that by asserting our place in the arts, we assert the importance of Disability Arts, our culture, and their relevance to the lives of both Disabled People and non-disabled people alike. I am delighted to be able to pursue this belief through my involvement with Shape.
Mandi Stewart Expand Mandi is a disabled artist who specialises in Printmaking. She currently lives between St Ives and London whilst studying a MA in Print at the Royal College of Art where she is a Leverhulme Scholar. Mandi is a largely self-taught artist who turned to printmaking later in life following life changing treatment for cancer. She had previous career as a Welfare Rights worker and a Social Worker. Mandi explores a range of autobiographical and political issues within her practice. Her current work considers identity and the body and through colour, cell, and helix type imagery. Mandi often uses collaged and personal materials within her work and there is frequently reference to disability arts. Mandi currently manages the Disabled Student Network Instagram at the RCA. She has helped develop the network during the past year and is passionate about promoting the work of disabled students and getting Disability Arts a bigger platform both in Universities and galleries. When she is not printmaking Mandi is either gardening, taking photos, or swimming.
Sarah Saunders Freelancer Expand I am the DAMS and Thesaurus consultant for Shape’s NDMAC, and the consultant for NDMAC Development and Delivery Phases. I am a consultant in photo and metadata management and media archiving for the museums and not-for-profit sectors. I helps organisations scope and implement online archive projects, engage communities, and preserve collections for the future.
Liam Hevey Freelancer Expand I work as Shape's Game Producer, creating and helping others create analogue games that engage with environmental, class, and material politics. As an in-house, multi-skilling creative producer, I also provide layout editing, graphic design, sound design, and more for Shape across several Shape projects, and have been lead-producer on Shape’s Transforming Leadership, NDACA, and NDMAC projects, too.
Rayvenn D'Clark Freelancer Expand Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark MA, FHEA is a Textu(r)al Sculptor and Counter-Intuitive Researcher assisting Shape Arts across a number of projects. Currently, she is working on the Shape Presents The DAM in Venice 2024, formerly contributing to the ACE-CRF + NDACA Project Bids which proposed solutions to Digital Adaptation, Marketing Tools Creation, and Placing across the organisation.
Messaging and intention Expand Being aware of your goals, intentions and how to communicate them is key to this process working successfully. This applies from the recruitment phase right through to the public celebration or acknowledgement of what has been created. If the intention is to increase disabled representation in your programme, then consider how you are communicating this representation to the public and stakeholders. Is there a reason why you commissioned a disabled artist in particular? If so, what was that reason? And will you be using the same language to report afterwards what took place as you plan to use to select disabled people in your programme? How does this language portray disabled people? Does it empower them? Clarity and continuity of messaging and intention is important, but so is the language you use when working with and talking about disabled people. Before you start any external communications, consider what it is you are actually representing, and how. Projects with a focus on social engagement are likely to support positive change. So what is that change? Who is leading on the change, and what are the dynamics involved? And how is all this represented? For example, there is a huge difference between making statements with a general message, such as: “We were delighted to further diversify our programme this year with bespoke commissions to people from under-represented communities” … and messages that are more specific, or focus on an individual, like: “We look back with great pride at a year of fantastic commissions, including a moving new work by blind artist G” Does this empower artist G? Or might it risk isolating them in some way? What is the reason to identify G as a blind artist rather than simply an artist? Does G describe the work they make as ‘moving’? If they don’t, then where does this idea come from? Try to be conscious of any bias in the language you use. Context is key, of course. Let’s say you commissioned artist G as one of a group of artists for a project: perhaps they all responded to the same call. Is there a reason why the disabled artist is identified as such, if the artists are not identified in a similar way with regards to protected characteristics like gender, age, ethnicity, or sexuality? There may be reasons to be transparent about targeting disabled people in particular for your commission - your organisation may wish to demonstrate how it is improving its accessibility and inclusivity - but beyond the recruitment phase, does the awarded artist want or need to be identified as disabled? In other words, if they do not define themselves by their health condition or impairment, why should you? And if they do use certain identifiers - for example, an artist might describe themselves as neurodivergent - in which context do they use such a term, and what is its relation to their practice and the way they describe their work, and its relation to the work they are being commissioned for? One way of approaching varied descriptions of disability and access is allowing artists and team members to share an Access Rider with you. Find out more about Access Riders To give another example: “This year we are commissioning three artists from Scotland and a disabled artist from England.” This automatically creates a two tier construct in the way that the disabled artist’s work will be approached or received. The reason we make this point is because often there are lower expectations around work made by disabled people. Whether consciously made or not, the public perception may be that the three works from Scotland are of a certain professional standard, while the work from England has something about it that requires a different kind of evaluation. Compare this to: “This year we are commissioning four artists from around the UK, three from Scotland and one from England.” This latter description creates a level playing field of expectation about the artists and their work. The follow-on question is likely to be, what if all four artists were disabled? “This year we are commissioning four disabled artists from around the UK, three from Scotland and one from England.” This certainly is factual, and treats each artist in the same way. It would work if you were meeting certain funding criteria, targeting support for disabled people, for example. The point is to be aware of the motivation for the commission, and how you achieve consistency of messaging that is helpful to disabled communities. As mentioned, there may be occasions where the artists are profiled individually. So, thought needs to go into whether the focus is justifiably on the artist being a disabled person versus their artistic work or ability. For example: “D, whose experiences as a wheelchair user informs his approach to film making…”’ This is a neutral description that tells us something useful to know and does not dramatise the fact of the artist being a wheelchair user. In another example: “H, a lifelong achiever, having being diagnosed as deaf at birth, paints large canvases using huge, heavy brush strokes…” Here, audiences are immediately taken into a stereotypical narrative about expectations of what people can or cannot do, even if it is unclear how their impairment or disability has any connection to their work. Returning to our four UK artists example again, dramatising the fact of them being disabled is certain to be counterproductive: “This year we are commissioning four incredibly inspiring disabled artists from around the UK, three from Scotland and one from England.” Whatever the intentions behind this kind of wording, setting people up as ‘incredibly inspiring’ places them in a charitable narrative that is usually divorced from reality. It also jeopardises the likelihood of their work being taken seriously (as professional artists) before it is viewed or experienced, thereby working against their career interests. Why? Because it suggests that we are evaluating them instead of their work. Where does the term ‘incredibly inspiring’ come from? Is this how they define themselves or their artistic practice? Another way of asking how language might empower them is to ask: in what ways can the messaging support their agency as artists? It is important to remember that (in the media and elsewhere) disabled people are often portrayed in using tropes, such as heroic people, superheroes, figures of inspiration, objects of pity, or objects of scorn, such as the 'benefits scrounger' stereotype. If your commission is founded to some degree on these notions, or chimes with this kind of language, it is quite possible that the commission, while perhaps useful to the awardee, can add to the barriers that disabled people face more widely. In order to ensure you are not reinforcing these unhelpful messages, consult with disabled people directly, or disability-led agencies such as Shape. The Social Model of Disability, which Shape works to, outlines ways to achieve consistency of message and build in language that empowers disabled people. Find out more about the Social Model
Overview Expand The field of access is changing all the time, in line with developments in how we use technology, and our evolving expectations and experiences of art and culture. In cinemas for example, more people are able to use glasses which show captions within them, rather than having to wait until a subtitled screening time, which is often at an inconvenient or unsociable hour. Gaming and interactive tools have become a greater feature of artistic works than before, and the shutdown of venues during the pandemic changed many people’s habits and behaviours. Some venues are adapting their programmes to build back audience numbers, and while there is a risk that things may return to inaccessible models from the past, it might also prove to be fertile ground for new collaborations, where works with embedded access are appreciated in ways they were not before.
Planning: identify the barriers Expand Consider the development of your project like a user journey. This is a technique commonly used in marketing and the development of services such as websites. Reflect on how an audience member or user might work or engage with the final outcome, and the various elements along this journey. Identify possible barriers they might face. This can be simpler and more effective than starting with a list of health issues and/or impairments and trying to map these against your project plans. You will need to identify which barriers apply to: your team (internal) your audience/users (external) These are likely to be different areas, involving different budget lines and resources. Considering barriers rather than impairments is an approach that works to the Social Model of Disability. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shape (@shapearts) Find out more about the Social Model What might the barriers be? Commonly identified barriers faced by both internal and external groups centre on: Team collaboration methods Team and partners relationship(s) Event logistics Event marketing (e.g. reaching target audiences, ticketing, and websites) Location practicalities (getting there, facilities, parking) Audience experience (interpretive tools, physical access, atmosphere, welcome, and inclusivity) Feedback and quality assessment Responsibility for public access in a host venue will need to be discussed with them, to clarify approaches, cost, and what the venue provides already, or wishes to build on. This will be covered in our audience access resource. Innovative or experimental approaches to access are explored in our access as a creative tool resource.
What do we mean by 'embedded access'? Expand Although there is no single 'standard' or method for access provision that venues and creatives work to, there are recognised areas of best practice. This can include: booking access support workers with suitable skills or qualifications working to professional standards in the way that access is managed and devised for a particular setting (with regard to building controls and regulated uses of public space) For the purposes of this resource, we can think of 'standard' access as the minimum access facilitation provided in response to the content of a work or event. When working with venues, it is likely some access provisions will already be available or in place, but this will vary according to location and event type. This does not mean that access is freely available everywhere or that you can alway rely on external partners to know in advance what best practice might be. Usually, access provision is only selectively available. By comparison, embedded access is a more proactive and pre-planned form of access provision, which considers the audience experience right from the concept stage or outset of the planning for a work or event. Embedding access into a performance or exhibition is about ensuring that the adjustments provided are not tokenistic (meaning they are only basic, added last-minute, or functionally unhelpful despite the appearance of support). Tokenistic access is often added in at the end of the planning process, meaning there is little time or budget left to make it work as well as it could have done if more consideration had been made earlier on to ensure the experience is seamless for your audience. It may even be woven or merged with the artistic purpose or vision so that the art and access are inseparable. In this case, rather than there being a 'core' or 'original' work from which accessible 'versions' are derived or created, the work itself has been made to be accessible throughout. For example, rather than creating a transcript for a film once it is complete, you might consider integrating captions - creative or otherwise - into the film itself (although having both is rarely a bad idea!). However, there may still be reasons for setting the work in a different environment to cater for different audience needs. An artwork or event which may be fully accessible for one community may still require some element of mediation to be accessible to others. You may also discover that some people's access needs are in conflict with other's, and it's worthwhile considering how to programme and plan around this to offer options for as many audiences as possible.
People: roles and responsibilities Expand People are the most essential element of any project. The team involved are integral to its success. Catering for the team's access needs will inform your choices around elements such as logistics and communications: this will form the project's foundations. Identifying roles is essential to ensuring your project runs smoothly and people know what their responsibilities are. At the planning stage, it is important to identify where access support comes into this. For example: you may be the lead artist working with a producer. You might require access support with managing your diary, organising meetings, keeping records and notes, or assistance with travel. Two things need doing here: 1. Establish your PA/access worker's role and look at whether this is to be funded within the project or by an external source such as Access to Work. 2. Define the producer's role, which likely includes various kinds of organising. This makes it clear which duties and responsibilities are your own and which are the producer's. The tasks that are your responsibility and require support from an access worker need to be defined and provided to the access worker in the form of a job description. Find out more about Access to Work
Access curation Expand Any form of access used to widen or deepen engagement with an artwork should be well thought out in order to minimise segregation of your audience, which can have the counterproductive impact of making people feel uninvolved or excluded. All forms of access can be thought of as an element of the overall curation that works to enhance the artistic experience from the viewpoint of its audience. In practice, we know this is not usually the case. However, in galleries in particular, the access and public facing teams are often left to work out how to manage accessibility for an event or exhibition because those responsible for the planning - curators or production teams - might not have considered it in advance. This can worsen the experience for both audiences who feel disregarded and staff who aren't confident in how best to support visitors. The process of embedding access does not assume that a venue has sole responsibility over ensuring events are accessible for audiences. Instead, embedded access might be the result of collaboration, co-production, or commission which involves extensive consideration of the audience experience as well as the aesthetic and artistic intentions of the artist. As more and more creative projects blur the lines between making and consuming art and cultural experiences, using access as a creative tool can allow artists and practitioners to combine what makes certain works accessible and what defines them as creative experiences.
What access support is available? Expand While Access to Work funding can make a huge difference to your career, qualifying for it, even when eligible, can take time. Some artists find that they depend on what access support the funder is available to provide upfront - for example, to complete the grant application itself - while they are waiting for Access to Work to confirm other support. This means you may need to factor in additional access support in your budget, ahead of knowing the outcome of your Access to Work application. All you can do is work with the situation as it is and follow up with your Access to Work application in order to avoid jeopardising your chances of receiving it now or in the future. This is because, if you receive support through Access to Work, the funds are restricted to your personal support costs, rather than those of the project. Other forms of access support for your team may come in the form of tweaks, amends, and flexibility - known as adjustments. For example, arranging meeting times to suit a team member who has difficulty concentrating at particular times of the day, or using a tool for communication that is accessible for all team members. As with your project tracking tools, certain communication platforms such as Zoom, Slack, or Discord can provide alternative ways of meeting and sharing information that might be more accessible than relying exclusively on text-based systems such as email. Access support workers are people who take on the responsibilities and duties that present barriers to the disabled person working on the project, functioning as support for their role. What these duties are will depend on the disabled person's role in the project and the barriers they anticipate facing. The support worker will be selected for the job according to their skills and experience. For some areas, they may need certain qualifications or to have passed particular checks, particularly if their role entails any personal care or support. Other roles where the support worker might need specific skills include communication support, such as speech to text reporting or sign language interpretation. If the access needs of the team are known, then barriers can be identified through discussion, and adjustments and provisions put in place before the project gets underway. The resources you need to do this may be external, like funding from Access to Work or elsewhere, but barriers might not always require funding to navigate, instead requiring a certain atmosphere or working relationship in order to best suit individual needs. It can be useful for yourself and your team to keep a record of individual access needs through the creation of Access Riders. Don't forget that the focus is on what support they require in order to do their job. Find out more about Access Riders It's important to remember that access needs can fluctuate. You should encourage honesty and openness while discussing the barriers you and your team face in order to best plan to support one another. Some people may have had negative experiences when disclosing their access needs in the past, possibly because their needs were misunderstood or the information held against them. You should bear this in mind and ensure discussions around individual access needs are sensitively handled. You will need to obtain their consent to hold personal information and keep it somewhere secure.
Individual or community? Expand There may be times when your commissioning opportunity is designed to reach a particular impairment group or community with a common link around barriers they face. This might be to broaden or diversify your organisation or programme, or to build on an existing framework of confidence and experience in your provision for disabled people. Valuable time and resources can be saved, and misunderstandings avoided, if that particular community has the opportunity to inform what ‘good’ looks like in terms of support. For example, your organisation may have gained confidence and raised its ambitions around working with deaf communities, and now wishes to commission a deaf artist to lead on a series of engagements with that community. This can be done through informal meetings or focus group-type research, or working with a deaf-led company as a partner. The latter approach, often thought of as a co-production approach, can yield numerous benefits, and removes the reliance on you having to work out for yourself the best route through, having canvassed a variety of viewpoints. This kind of discussion can also help you to determine your project’s legacy, so that the same community is not left hanging after the event is over. Disabled artists rightly have concerns that these kinds of processes serve a limited purpose, after which the artist is jettisoned and the community they are a part of no longer has a meaningful link to the venue or agency concerned. While it is true that no venue would be expected to endlessly re-commission the same artist or re-run the same project, thought should be given early on as to how to build on learnings or success in a meaningful rather than a tokenistic way. For example, artists might become associates of your venue or programme, continuing to provide input on selection panels or programming. Any access working party the venue draws ideas and information from could benefit from that community’s representation in the future.
People: communication Expand Good communication is essential to ensure your project runs smoothly and has the best chance of success. Taking the time to research accessible formats to match the communication requirements of the team will enable regular meetings and sharing of information to take place with fewer obstacles. Including review points to check on how the individual team members are progressing (as well as how well their tasks are progressing) can be a useful way of managing issues that often lie beneath the surface. Such issues can cause problems if left unattended or ignored. Giving people the opportunity to ask for support, extra time, clarification, or alternative working methods can add to the creative dynamic which drives the team and gels you together. When recruiting your team, asking how people usually manage their time, deadlines and pressure can be as useful as checking on access needs. This is because not everyone may be aware of the demands of the project at the beginning, and so may not feel a need to disclose certain things that are useful to know. Usually, people will have preferences about the way they have been managing their support needs in the past, and this insight can be valuable because it gives you an idea of what choices are available to ensure good team working. At a time when many people are using remote conferencing for meetings, it will also be important to use accessible tech tools. Zoom is a well known platform that is free to use for limited time sessions. Recordings can be made for those who prefer to recap or can't attend with the rest of the team and need to catch up later. You can add captions through services such as Otter.Ai and change the viewing set up to make it easier to view access support workers such as BSL interpreters. The more features you use, the more likely it is that you have to pay for the service, so do factor this into your access budget.
The information gap Expand What makes access ‘good’ may be thought of like a referee of a sports match: it is there to make the activity work, but the referee is not the focus of the match. Consideration will need to go into whether the ‘creative access’ elements you may be planning are at risk with competing with the work, or acting as a distraction, when the aim is to enhance the aesthetic experience. It can help to start the planning process by thinking of access as information. For example, for a deaf BSL user attending a screening or performance, the information they are missing is the dialogue - the spoken parts. A sign language interpreter therefore has the role of conveying this information to bridge the gap. In the case of a blind or partially sighted person, an audio describer can bridge the information gap by describing movements or changes to a setting that are not conveyed through sound or dialogue. By considering access as information, it becomes easier to consider where these gaps might arise and for whom they have an impact. Below are some examples of access curation in practice: If we were devising a performance piece with the intention of making it accessible to both deaf and blind/partially sighted audiences, then in considering how to bridge the information gaps, we could explore options to embed audio description, captioning, and signing. If the piece worked to a fixed script, then pre-recorded sign language interpretation and captions could appear in certain settings via projections. This could be done in a discrete way to match the style, era, or other aspect of the setting, or imaginatively, for example, with characters carrying small projectors with them that fire against walls or hangings as they move around the set. Alternatively the piece might be devised to include a BSL signer in the cast so that signed dialogue is inbuilt throughout. While audio description could be conveyed in a conventional way, through earpieces to those opting to use them, it’s also possible that conveying the features of a setting or key movements and changes could be embedded into dialogue or a soundtrack. The writer or dramaturge, as they begin to consider these approaches, may find themselves opting for a multi-access embedded result - or they may favour one route as the embedded route, and leave other access options to be included through discussion with the venue. It often depends on how seamlessly aspects of access can be embedded so as not to distract or overwhelm your audience or find alternative formats competing with the work itself. A blind artist devising an exhibition might have as their starting point the intention of displacing the visual, and promoting the experience of touch or sound. In factoring in the audience experience, they may wish to elevate the experience of visitors with a visual impairment, and the resulting show will be, for that particular community, accessible in a way that other exhibitions may not be. Addressing the access needs of people outside of that impairment group may then depend on their experience in this area, or on discussions with the host gallery or other collaborators. The issue of embedding access may often be about addressing existing curatorial rules or practice. For example, an artist might be casting a sculpture for a particular space where sounds travels well. The existing expectation may be that such a work is to be isolated in some way, but the artist may view this as an opportunity for a work to be both touched and even struck in a way that generates sound. On this basis, the work becomes accessible to wider groups of people who may have impairments, yet we know that these experiences may be different to one another and are not 100% translatable or interchangeable with another. For a deaf person, they may see, touch, and feel the reverberation of the struck work. For a blind or partially sighted person, they may touch and hear the work being struck, and to some degree be able to view it in the space, or wish to listen to descriptions of its appearance. Neither impairment group has the exact same experience of the work, yet it is clear that we are in a very different and much more highly engaged scenario than if the work was to be seen alone and kept slightly apart for the purposes of making room for people to circulate around it. If we then factor in accessible tours, and accessible formats for discussing the work or having a conversation with the artist, and then broadcasting some or all of this in accessible formats, then the potential for increased numbers of people to appreciate the work, and with deep levels of engagement, are high. [Include links to other resources for general further reading, both Shape and external] Once these approaches and ideas are noted, then the next step is to consider to what degree these approaches enhance the artistic aims of the artist or writer. Disabled creatives may well have an advantage here in bringing in their own lived experience to inform these decisions.
Systems to support planning Expand Systems can mean tools such as software and ways of organising information. An effective project relies not only on a good team working together but on having the tools in place to track and monitor your progress. Choosing the right systems can help with all these tasks and keep you on top of everything. If your team is spread out across locations, or working remotely, then digital systems will be central. Some questions to consider are: Do you have the right systems in place to do the jobs you need to do? For example, you may wish to use spreadsheets to monitor your budget and spending, but use a more flexible system to keep track of what tasks are complete or in progress. Software like Open Office contains free spreadsheet, presentation and word processing documents which work on most computer systems. Some tools, such as Trello, allow team members to keep lists tracking their work that use visual and audio content as well as text. These platforms are free to use (at the time of writing) but may charge for certain services or features. The same applies for software like Discord and Slack. Many people find Google Docs have good levels of accessibility, and with a Google account this opens up use of folder sharing and storage through Google Drive as well as virtual hangouts and calendar and email integration. Tapping into your team's creativity when organising your project can be a great way to make the most of the experience. Using systems that allow for everyone to contribute, no matter what format or media they prefer, supports this well. Above all, it supports the flow of ideas and communication. Are all these systems accessible to all the team? You may be fortunate in all your team being able to use the same tools, but sometimes this will not be the case. For example, the person tracking the budget may find spreadsheets accessible while other team members may not. When the team's access needs are known from the outset, it should be easier to create workarounds that ensure everyone is informed and supported, therefore able to do their tasks and support the wider team. In the case of spreadsheets, there is flexibility to redesign them with access needs and barriers in mind, but you may also prefer to visually represent the data through things like charts and infographics, or simply to talk through the material in conversation. It's all about what works for your team, so the right people have the right information at the right time.
Recruitment phase Expand Planning the artist’s route through the project, from selection to the execution of the work, will help you set out an accessible foundation for them. It will mean it is less likely that you will be reacting to events, and instead using your resources and energy to guide their course - as you would usually expect to do. Getting your recruitment or selection right is critical to the success of the commission. The commission should be founded on the quality of the resulting work or contribution, and to ensure this, the recruitment process should have the usual rigour to it. Part of this involves requiring the artist to have a certain amount of skill or experience. The main caveat we suggest you consider here is: Whether you are setting the bar at an appropriate level for disabled artistsor Or whether this is ruling out people who, with a certain amount of support, could deliver the commission equally as well, or better In particular, if you are running the commission in part to scout new and emerging talent, then some flexibility here can be rewarding for all concerned. The reason to say this is that there is a lack of high quality and accessible opportunities for disabled artists, giving them much less of a chance to broaden and deepen their experience. Disabled artists often find that their career starts to stall very early, when they come up against barriers to entry (finding a studio, financial issues, dealing with applications and processes), and end up applying for opportunities at a certain grade or level many years later than their non-disabled peers. In addition to this, it is important to ensure your call out is accessible to disabled candidates and that you provide comprehensive information phrased to encourage disabled artists to apply. Providing a range of application formats will reach people for whom purely text based documentation is inaccessible. Consider including visual material and audio versions of your documents, for example. Because of the reasons given above, many disabled artists may be apprehensive about applying, fearing they lack the talent or experience required, or they may not be clear on what the commission involves them doing, or if support is provided. Check out our Ways of Seeing resource Simple steps can include providing a contact number or email address offering support with an application. Using welcoming language that is clear in its intentions, around targeting disabled candidates. Also, consider ways that you could break information down regarding the commission, and allow for people to ask questions. For example, disabled people receiving benefits may have concerns about how commission payments might work alongside this. Apart from offering support with an application, you could run a session where access support is provided and someone in your team goes through what the commission involves and answers questions from potential candidates directly. It could be recorded in a way that benefits those unable to attend in person. There can be hidden benefits to doing this, in terms of understanding how clear your messaging is. Also, the questions you are asked at such an early stage, and by people who might be unfamiliar with you and your work, can be very instructive about areas of planning you may not have thought of previously. Learn about arranging accessible interviews and meetings Any application process can take time and be demanding for an individual, requiring some people to give up precious time and energy they might devote to other important areas. With no guarantee of success, this can be daunting for disabled people considering making any kind of application. One approach that is more supportive is to invite applications from a pool of candidates, and provide them with a fee to take account of their time, while offering them support and advice while they work up a proposal. The advantage of this is that it may introduce you to a variety of new artistic talent without the (often anonymous) admin process involved in a standard call out. Rather than all the focus being on one individual who may win the commission, it can help to connect you to a wider range of artists, and vice versa. There is a better risk and reward dynamic involved, and an opportunity for less experienced artists to gain valuable experience in creating a proposal that may help them in other areas, where they are applying for funding or describing their work to others. It may encourage them to apply where often they may not do so. If you plan things on a flexible basis, remember: this itself is a form of access support.
Checking on access needs Expand Even if you are asking people to identify as disabled in order to qualify for your scheme, it is their access needs in relation to the task at hand that is the focus of the access support. There is no point in asking if someone identifies as disabled and then not following up on it; equally you cannot assume you know someone’s access needs just because they identify themselves as disabled. Access support might include: Support developing and submitting an application Interview-stage access support such as live captions, BSL interpretation, or questions provided in advance Opportunities to familiarise themselves with the space and the team involved The more applicants know which actual processes are involved in the commission, the more straightforward they can be about discussing their access support needs. Successful applicants could also be asked to complete an access rider. If they are not used to this kind of form already, it can help them to identify their support needs in a structured way. Again, the support should be focused on the task or need at hand, rather than to make generalised statements which can be open to interpretation and may not be relevant for your project. It is also a way to avoid asking invasive personal questions about someone’s health: the focus is on support, not working out how someone’s mind and body works. Find out more about Access Riders In planning your access budget, consider the full cycle of the project and to what degree the artist may be involved in public-facing activities. As this is also an area where access support may be needed. Access support can come in a number of forms, and some of this may be delivered by people with specific skills sets or qualifications (for example sign language interpreters or PAs,) who usually charge at rates in line with their experience. The artist in question may have an existing person or people who provide them with support, or they may not. They may have some form of external funding in place to pay for such support (like Access to Work) or they may not. Artists may have preferences about the kind of support they receive. The key is to ask the questions without making prior assumptions. Open and honest discussions about this are not just useful, but essential to ensure a smooth path ahead. Check out our resource on developing an accessible project for some practical tips and suggestions: Developing an accessible project resource Some artists may have reason (based on previous negative experiences) to be hesitant about asking for support or guidance, and in some cases even fully disclosing their access needs. One way to standardise this process and prevent things slipping through the cracks, is to build an access support check into any review points or milestone meetings. This can be an opportunity to check in on any wider issues that might get overlooked when people are busy on the project. Having a main contact who oversees the relationship can be helpful to build in consistency. Again, thinking about how this is communicated, what budget do you have for access provision and do you know what kinds of access provision might be used by the people you are targeting? Consider how the process can be streamlined to achieve the same results. You may find that following it, you end up streamlining all your recruitment processes of this kind, no matter who you are targeting.
Disclosure Expand The process above outlines where people may need support along the project’s critical path. It is always better that the disabled person proposes the kind of support they need, and this is likely to be based on what has worked for them in the past. Earlier, we looked at the option of the access rider, which disabled applicants might find useful as a prompt to list access needs relating to the commission. You may find this useful as a way of keeping a record or note of what provision should be in place. Your budget will impose certain limits on what access provision is available and so as part of the streamlining process, look for win-wins and ways of making your access budget stretch further - and discuss them with the artist, of course. For example, if paying for the services of a support worker on a particular day, is it possible (without being counterproductive to anyone’s wellbeing) to group meetings or sessions together on that day, to prevent having to pay for a series of individual bookings, which are likely to be higher, when call-out and travel costs are factored in? Overall, the more planning is in hand, the easier it will be to identify opportunities to make the access budget stretch further. Over a period of time, you may find that one project incurs low access costs and in the next project these costs are much higher. Building in contingency funding for access in each project can help with unforeseen or escalated expenses.
Suggested steps Expand 1. Consider why the commission is taking place, and the sought-for benefits or outcomes for you and the disabled artist. What is the basis of the commission, and how will you frame your messaging in the recruitment and delivery phases to avoid common pitfalls around stereotyping? 2. Consult with disabled people/disability-led groups to inform yourself where you have knowledge gaps. The artist should be asked to identify their support needs and it is these needs that are to be addressed. Merely asking someone if they are disabled and then guessing or assuming what their access needs will cause problems. Equally, don’t expect the commissioned artist to know everything that you do not, or act as a consultant when they are principally a creative leading on a project. Identify the commission’s critical path and at what steps along it might an individual require access support, and in what form might this be provided. Support with completing an application may involve a very different kind of skill or input compared to communication support at meetings and events. Consider the different phases and what the artist is expected to do - what kind of facilities might they need and how much travel might be involved? How much of the process can be streamlined and can this feed back into streamlining the way you commission more generally? Build access costs into your budget on an informed basis - the panning above will help with this. Not sure what these costs might be? Revert to Point 2. Linking to Point 1, consider the commission’s legacy and how you might build on the results of the commission in terms of learning and confidence. While you should not expect the artist to haul in new audiences by virtue of their disabled identity, it may be that audiences you previously found hard to reach or did not have connection with at all, responded to the artist and their work. Monitoring audience responses in an accessible and imaginative way can provide key insights into ensuring these audiences return, combined with programming relevant to their interests of course. Every commission will have its high and lows on its way to bringing something new into the world. Using the commissioning process to try out new things, experiment, and take risks is likely to be integral to the way you work as a commissioner, or creative entity. Commissioning a disabled artist ought to be just the same process of blended excitement, creativity and planning, with support put in place as appropriate to keep things running smoothly. By taking a few additional planning steps and being prepared to ask the right questions, have an honest conversation here and there, the ‘risk’ element can remain centred in the work and its creative impact, not in the way you are delivering it. Interested in knowing more about the artists Shape supports? Browse our artist profiles Want to find out about the commissions and projects we've worked on before? Check out Shape's commissions Uncertain about starting out? Contact us to find out how we might be able to support you with consultancy and training. Email [email protected]
Promoting choice Expand The underlying philosophy of using access as a creative tool is that by providing options for your audience, regardless of impairment or status, you are, in turn, promoting their ability to choose for themselves. The Social Model of Disability states that it is not an individual's impairment that disables them but rather the built and social environment around them - in other words, it is other people who disable us through their attitudes, prejudice, or lack of consideration. By approaching accessibility in the arts with an open mind, honest outlook, and willingness to adapt, you are not only increasing the potential audience size and engagement of your project, but you are embedding a positive and affirming attitude around disability more broadly. You can think of autonomy - a person's capacity to make decisions for themselves - as a cornerstone of best practice when it comes to accessibility. You should aim to avoid segregating or sidelining accessible formats or accessible performances so as not to further push away a marginalised community. Choice is the goal, and you should consider from the outset of your work how you might provide options for individuals - whether disabled or not - to engage with your project in a way most comfortable and meaningful for them.