The Art of Rights

Opening hours: Wednesdays - Fridays from 10am – 3pm, with guided tours from the Shape Arts team running on Wednesdays. 

Entry is free and open to all.

High Wycombe’s Brunel Engine Shed has officially re-opened following Buckinghamshire New University’s restoration of the Victorian structure, showcasing a brand new exhibition from Shape Arts' National Disability Movement Archive and Collection: The Art of Rights.

Curated by David Hevey, the exhibition tells stories of how disabled people have fought for rights and visibility, as well as displaying protest art parodying mainstream or ‘normative’ culture. 

One featured artist Caroline Cardus’ collection The Way Ahead, on loan from the Shape Collection, subverts classic road signs to highlight the mainstream marginalisation of disabled people through a series of striking and provocative traffic signs displayed throughout the Engine Shed. Also on display are huge protest banners and activists' t-shirts featuring defiant slogans.

The exhibition is the first to feature in the historic Engine Shed following BNU's investment in the Grade II listed building and its refurbishment by Bucks Council. 

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Access information

The Engine Shed exhibition has seating available among the artwork. The building is a 2 minute walk from High Wycombe station, which is step-free from street to platform. 

The venue has level access and disabled toilets on-site. There is no induction loop available.

The nearest Changing Places facilities are in Eden Shopping Centre, which is an 11 minute walk, 3 minute drive, or 5 minute bus journey from the venue.

An overview audio description of the installation is available via QR code on site, or embedded below.

Banner image: Caroline Cardus The Way Ahead, credit Andy Barker. Description: An installation photograph of an artwork positioned in front of a bright window. Mounted to the floor on metal pipes and lined in a row are six road signs, except what they symbolise has been playfully subverted. From left to right, they are: A symbol of a bus with a wheelchair user chained to it, underneath of which is a text sign reading 'Stop crips ahead!'; a sign mimicing a direction or junction sign, with the title 'Equality?' instead of the name of the junction, and options beneath of 'Man on the moon 1969' in one direction and 'full access to public transport 2020' in another; a sign reading 'more parking spaces' with a parking symbol; a pictograph of a nuclear family where one child is a wheelchair user, accompanied by a text sign reading 'the new nuclear family'; pictographs of a person speaking directly into a hearing loop icon, accompanied by text reading 'Don't shout at deaf people, you will make them deafer' and finally a sign reading 'forwards in every direction' accompanied by a sign with 7 arrows all pointing in conflicting directions.