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UK Exchange
In Praise of Folly by Athina Vahla, Candoco Dance
Company in the UK
Sancha Donald, CEO of Accessible Arts, engaged with the arts and disability sector in the United Kingdom on a weeklong exchange in July 2009. Sancha visited a diverse group of professional and community organisations who provide access to the arts through inclusive and well-established practices.
"After a generous and informative week of dialogue, I am grateful for the time and assistance given to me. In the short and long term Accessible Arts will benefit from establishing ongoing connections with these organisations," explained Sancha.
Arts and Disability in the United Kingdom has developed over the past 30 years. It is centered on broad concepts of inclusion and provides opportunity for both an ‘arts and disability' approach to coexist alongside a ‘disability arts' focus. Partnerships, pathways, outreach and training programs are a feature of most organisations.
Relationships between organisations within the arts and disability sector are well informed and the profile of arts and disability groups in the mainstream arts sector are well recognised. Organisations aim for both mainstream audiences and integrated audiences.
In general organisations use good quality venues and facilities. Not all organisations have their own facilities but often have access to existing arts venues such as Sadlers Well's Theatre and London Contemporary Dance Centre. A number of arts and disability organisations own and operate their own facilities some of which are purpose built and comply with the highest standards in terms of access to premises.
The sector is sufficiently developed to be able to provide support and produce work for and with each other. This support is developed through the establishment of partnerships and commissions with either a shared venue or commissioned work. Commissioning work provides an opportunity to showcase work of emerging artists, take part in community activities; and to develop site-specific work.
Profiles
Mind the Gap
Mind the Gap is a professional touring theatre company based in Bradford, Yorkshire, which performs in the UK and internationally. The company offers training to people with learning disabilities to become professional actors, and fosters actors with learning disabilities to achieve their potential.
Mind the Gap is a dynamic centre that uses state of the art accessible facilities for theatre. The company includes eight members who are paid through the Disability benefit scheme as actors. An Actors' Agency for professional actors with learning disabilities helps with casting and actors work in radio, TV and internationally through the agency.
Term based Outreach theatre workshops are offered for young people who want to try acting and learn drama skills. Roadshow workshops are run across the UK, for people with learning disabilities to experience actor training courses.
Mind the Gap offers support to other organisations to assist people with learning disabilities through training, workshops and consultancy.
The company is funded by the Arts Council of England, local businesses, through touring, corporate training and commissions.
Chickenshed
Chickenshed production, Crime of the Century,
Edinburgh Fringe Festival August 09.
Chickenshed is a well-established inclusive theatre company based in London which produces a range of works from solo pieces to full-scale productions with casts of 250+ and a 20 piece strong band. They run Children's and Youth Theatre workshops, education courses, and community outreach projects including a network of satellite 'Sheds' across the country. This provides a well-established model for others seeking to establish sustainable outreach programs.
The company's practice encompasses original works devised in-house through workshops and adaptations of classic plays and stories. Melodies and lyrics composed by Chickenshed underpin all their work. They mainly work with in-house directors.
Chickenshed has a well developed Foundation Degree, and MA level course in Inclusive Performing Arts in conjunction with Middlesex University.
They do not receive government funding but have a substantial fundraising program and have a long history in being well served by a private patron.
Corali
Corali is a professional performance group, based in London, is made up of seven adults with learning disabilities. The company's artistic vision is to create unique performances which draw on the creativity, personalities and skills of its performers with learning disabilities, and to develop an aesthetic style which best expresses their ideas.
Corali create and tour highly visual performance work made in collaboration with artists with and without disability including photographers, musicians, filmmakers and artists. Works are shown in different settings such as galleries, theatres and unusual places like empty shop units.
Corali run regular workshops and outreach projects as well as in-service training and disability education workshops. A strong aspect of the professional development program is the training provided to venue partners.
Candoco
Who Shall Go To The Ball, Chorographers Arthur
Pita & Rafael Bonachela, Candoco 2007/2008
Repertory
Candoco Dance Company, is a contemporary dance company with seven dancers with and without disability. Candoco aims to produce creatively ambitious and exceptional contemporary dance performance that push boundaries and broaden people's perception of what dance is and who can dance.
Based in London, Candoco’s approach to establishing the company, raising their profile and attracting recurrent funding has been to work with internationally renowned professional choreographers, such as Rafael Bonachela, who was appointed the Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company in November 2008. Developing partnerships with companies such as London Contemporary Dance Company has also been a powerful strategy to strengthen the company.
The main aims of Candoco’s education work are "to develop a dance style suitable for non-disabled participants and those with physical and/or sensory disabilities" and "to provide further research and development in integrated contemporary dance through training for professional dance artists, teachers, and those working in the dance and education sectors.”
Candoco has established a partnership with the Royal Academy of Dance to train dance teachers, in an effort to overcome the shortage of opportunities for dancers with disabilities to train professionally.
The Art House
Karen Babyan in the studio
The Art House in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is an inclusive organisation offering support to all visual artists in the development of their professional practice and the realisation of their creative ambitions.
It was created in 1994, by a group of visual artists who campaigned for equality of access to opportunities for work, training and exhibiting for artists with and without disability.
The Art House is now a purpose-built accessible and supported studio space, offering 12 studios for long-term rent and two studios for short-term rent. It also offers state of the art accommodation in the form of an impressive three bedroom apartment with inter connecting accommodation for a carer. The whole facility features tactile and electronic technologies which provide 24-hour access.
The Art House also designs and manages ambitious projects including residencies, exhibitions, commissions and research, nationally and internationally, all in accessible settings.
The Art House speaks on behalf of all artists and represents their interests to funding and commissioning bodies, to training institutions, to galleries and venues, and to others. It campaigns for inclusive practice across the visual art sector.
It aims to be a facilitator, enabling artists to take up opportunities and to gain experience that will strengthen their creative practice and further their careers.
Drake Music Project
A St. Roses student plays blues guitar using
'MIDI Compass'
Drake Music is a music and technology organization in London, providing musicians with disability of all ages, routes into music and the cultural sector in general.
Since 1988 they have pioneered the use of Assistive Music Technology to make music accessible and have developed a wealth of innovative and creative approaches to teaching, learning and making music through a range of music and cross-art initiatives.
Drake Music’s work is delivered around three core areas of expertise: Learning and Participation; Research and Development; and Consultancy and Training. They work in partnership with schools, universities, arts organisations, local authorities, music services, software developers as well as individual artists, composers, musicians and music technologists.
STAGETEXT
STAGETEXT, a London based company established in 2000, provides captioning for theatres and other arts venues, to provide access to live performances for Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people.
The company also provides training in the delivery of live open captioning. This is a form of universal access, enabling Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people access to theatre on an equal basis as their hearing peers. Captioners are paid approx $900 for an initial show and $500 for a repeat performance. STAGETEXT would welcome the opportunity to train Australians in this technique.
Providing their services to venues on request, the specially developed software program that STAGETEXT uses is also capable of supporting speech-to-text transcription. Trained speech-to-text reporters output what is being said to a suitable display, for example a LED unit (commonly used in Australian theatres) or projected onto a screen using a multimedia projector (as used in conference halls or lecture theatres). Speech-to-text transcription enables Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people immediate access to follow and participate in, live public lectures and discussions where the text is not prepared in advance.
VocalEyes
VocalEyes, a London based company established in 1998, works on behalf of people who are blind or have low vision, to enhance engagement with the arts. To date VocalEyes has audio described more than 700 performances at 108 venues throughout the UK.
Audio description in theatre is a live verbal commentary providing information on the visual elements of a production as it unfolds. It describes action that is essential to the understanding of the play's story, as well as other visual information such as the style and design of a production, facial expressions, and visual jokes. This enables audience members who are blind or who have low vision, to fully experience the production in all its aesthetics. The description is delivered in between the dialogue of a performance and is received by the audience member wearing an easy to use lightweight headset.
VocalEyes is the largest organisation in the UK offering comprehensive description services, and more recently has expanded its work to include architecture, contemporary dance, visual arts and heritage and audio description for young people. The company works to ensure the highest standards of delivery and to promote increased access provision at every opportunity. Quality audio description provides a holistic experience including good information, staff training, pre show information, sets and costumes and access information, provided by trained professionals.
Further information
Contact the above organizations directly for more information or Sancha Donald, CEO, Accessible Arts, tel: 02 9251 6499 ext 102 or sdonald@aarts.net.au.