The Shape Open is our annual exhibition of artwork by disabled and non-disabled artists created in response to a disability-centred theme.
Read about our annual exhibition that centres around a disability-related theme as part of our creative programme. Read more
Get to know some of the artists we have exhibited so far in our Shape Open exhibition. Read more
The Shape Open 2021, 'All Bound Together?' exhibited critical perspectives on community and isolation from disabled and marginalised creatives as we emerged from lockdown. Read more
The Shape Open 2020: The Future is Loading... A digital exhibition creatively produced and curated by Shape Arts. Read more
The Shape Open 2019 exhibition, In Circles, asked whether progress for disabled artists is being made. Is our work counterproductive? Can we really shift institutional thinking? Read more
A retrospective of the past six years of the Shape Open, this exhibition re-examined a selection of key works, considering the history of disability policy and life for disabled people in a welfare state. Read more
Shape Open 2018: 'Collective Influence', what influences you? What power does influence have to provoke change, and what capacity does it have to affect society? Read more
Shape Open 2017: 'Power: The Politics of Disability', how do we creatively challenge the language of power, politics and disability? To what extent do we need art to be a form of political protest? Read more
Shape Open 2016: ‘My Life’, artists were asked to express their ideas, drawing on memory, nostalgia and processes of internal reflection. Read more
Shape Open 2014: '[In]visible', how does impairment affect our visibility within society? Do medical diagnoses, labels and changing definitions help or hinder our understanding of an individual’s lived experience? Read more
Shape Open 2013: 'Disability Re-assessed', framed against the backdrop of the 2012 Paralympics celebrations and cultural Olympiad commissioning. Read more
Shape Open 2012: 'Disability', our very first Shape Open welcomes work from both disabled and non-disabled artists. With work from abstract to the figurative, the personal to the political. Read more