Can you tell us a bit about Disability Arts Cymru?

We provide opportunities advice and support for disabled artists from across Wales. Access is at the heart of everything we do and we’re particularly keen on finding opportunities for their careers to develop. We have a website, which includes an artists’ gallery for members to showcase their work for free, an annual art exhibition which tours Wales, and an annual poetry competition. In north Wales, we have an artists’ network meeting regularly, a Welsh-medium writers’ group which meets in Caernarfon, and an English-medium writers’ group that meets in Pwllheli.

What work do you do with older disabled adults?

A lot of our work is in partnership with other arts organisations where we provide support so that they feel confident to run projects for disabled artists. We do not ask people for their medical or disability history, only their access requirements. We have 365 members, 160 of which are over 50. Since the pandemic we have started delivering online sessions and our older members got far more engaged with us online than they ever have because they don’t have to leave their house. There were some issues such as having a good wifi connection or a computer and not trying to do everything on one’s phone. So we applied for funding to get people tablets and wifi boosters. Access to tablets has made a big difference to people who didn’t have access to them before.

There is a real mixture within the older DAC members as to how involved they are. Some join later in their lives because they have recently become disabled and find the support they receive hugely beneficial; others may be returning to a particular art form after retirement and have a second career. Some people have been artists all their lives, and are finding a new way of new way of working now they’re disabled.

DAC arts officers receive training and this enables them to work with a wide variety of people and age groups. There needs to be respect and a clear understanding of members’ requirements, suggesting opportunities but not forcing them.

What is important to you in terms of values?

• DAC is disability-led and focused to reflect and promote the lived experience of disabled/Deaf people.
• DAC recognises how the arts can be used to challenge the stereotyped and negative perceptions of disabled people, highlight inequalities, and support social justice alternatives.
• DAC uses the arts to educate, challenge attitudes, challenge and remove barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people to live independently and equally within society.
• DAC aims to be accessible and as barrier–free as possible when presenting, promoting and delivering all arts activities and communications.
• DAC embraces diversity and acknowledges the intersectionality and beauty of our identities, culture and expressions.
• DAC bases itself as a tri-lingual community (English, Welsh and British Sign Language), upholding the culture of Wales/Cymru, to be life-enhancing, encouraging well-being and happiness.
• DAC aims to be the standard bearer for the nation and seeks to be an exemplar of best practice here in Wales, the UK and internationally.

Exemplary projects

The Write Stuff

This was an ESF funded project for disabled writers across Wales. From Cardiff to Caernarfon there were 7 workshop groups who met regularly to work with a writer on this creative writing project. There were also two groups who worked from home with support from writers, one working in English and one in Welsh. There were 92 disabled participants. This project resulted in the publication of ‘Hidden Dragons’, the first anthology of poetry and prose by disabled writers in Wales. Edited by Allan Sutherland and Elin Ap Hywel and published by Parthian.

First Annual Art Exhibition

John Griffiths AM launched the exhibition at the Norwegian Church in December. In 2014 the exhibition toured to Llandrindod Wells and Gwynedd. The Annual Open Exhibition is now the bi-annual DAC Art Prize. The first one was awarded in 2020 and the winner was Roy Barry. This year’s Art Prize is funded by ACW and will tour to galleries across Wales from November 2022.

Little Sparks

The first Mental Health Arts Festival in Wales. Events included  seminars, open mic nights, MaDCaff events, theatre performances, artefact workshops, exhibitions in arts centres and mental health hospitals, and MADCaff events.

MADCaff

Musicians and writers performed at the events across Wales and due to the pandemic the final two events were held online and were very well attended. MadCaff events are stigma-busting events aim to break down the barriers faced by people who have experienced mental ill health. By showcasing the talents of those who live with mental illness in relaxed settings, the MADCaff events intend to change people’s thinking around mental health.

Crip Talks

A series of online discussions, following on from the success of screening the film Crip Camp. The events were well attended and were filmed so have been watched since. Subjects included: Dwarfism and the Ethics of Humour; the music industry; autism with Temple Grandin; the importance of the Welsh language; the curators stare and disability arts and young people.

Arts and Creative Biz

This project provided much needed tech support for isolated disabled artists. As well as equipment (tablets and wi-fi boosters) we also ran a mentoring programme and workshops on various aspects of artist development.

Ni Chawn Ein Dileu

We received funding from the EU Culture of Solidarity fund to provide online discussions between artists across Europe during the pandemic, to share experiences and opportunities. There were also artists commissions which can be seen on the nced.eu website.

The main change has been moving our work online; from ending producing physical copies of our newsletter to a more regular email version to the huge change due to Covid-19.   We are also now undertaking more partnership work with arts organisations across Wales.

Do you see your activities a type of creative social prescribing?

The benefits of attending arts activities have been known for a long time and this particularly came to the fore during our two Mental Health Arts Festivals. However, DAC is primarily focused on providing opportunities for disabled artists to develop their practice so that they are able to have a career in their chosen field.

What are the outcomes?

I run a monthly online writing group for my members, several of whom are older and quite isolated. Sometimes there are only 6 or 7 participants but they welcome the opportunity to meet like-minded people and share ideas. It might be the only time they can put aside to write whereas others use it to try out ideas they are working on.

When we used to run big public events there was always the chance that people wouldn’t be able to attend at the last minute but the majority enjoyed the opportunity to meet up with other disabled artists and share a live experience.

What do you do to meet participants’ engagement needs?

Each arts officer is responsible for the members engaged in their particular art form/s  and has regular contact with members with weekly emails and regular online meetings and 1-2-1 meetings when required.  The officers are therefore able to feed back to the rest of the team what sort of projects or opportunities members would like to happen and these form part of the decision making.

What takes a lot of time but is really important?

Quite a lot of time is spent ensuring that good, sufficient access is in place. It doesn’t matter if the event is online or in real life it needs to be accessible. For some projects we are able to request access requirement information well enough in advance to know exactly what needs to be booked but often it’s a case of providing access as you never know who might turn up. By access I mean captions, BSL interpretation, audio description and for a live event a wheelchair accessible venue.

Projects are generally more successful when participants know their access requirements are going to be met.