There’s not doubt about it. The UK has a strong disability arts sector, and one which is growing increasingly prominent, with organisations like Graeae theatre and dance company, CandoCo, rising to become well-known names outside the disability arts umbrella. Intense debates surrounding issues such as access and equality have also helped push the cause for disabled people in the arts. But while these discussions have played an integral part in developing policies and raising awareness, the focus of a major UK disability arts festival taking place later this year will be to celebrate the work itself.
Moya Harris is the Director of Equata, a regional Disability Arts Development Agency for the south west of England. But she has a lot more than training and consultancy work on her plate at the moment, having taken on the challenge of pulling together the main arts festival and conference in the UK for the European Year of Disabled People.
Above and Beyond isn’t taking place until September, but the programme is already pretty much in place. Commenting on whether the festival will tackle issues around the practice of disabled people in the arts in the UK, Harris says… well, no, actually.
‘One of the things that I have been aware of, in disability arts in this country, is that there has been a lot of debate about where it [disability arts] is going and where it’s been, and you know, the historical context,’ Harris observes. She adds that although a lot more does need to happen for the sector to progress, there’s already been an ‘awful lot’ of debate and discussion.
‘It’s what I call navel-gazing, and there’s only so much of it that anyone can do,’ Harris says. ‘And I thought: let’s celebrate, let’s have fun, let’s look at some art. Let’s enjoy ourselves.’
Two years ago, Harris was in the Canadian city of Vancouver, taking part in a disability arts event known as kickstART!. She observes that, generally, people working in the disability sector in the UK are familiar with most of the developments and artistic work going on around them, but Harris found the Canadian festival suddenly opened her up to a whole other world of disability performance.
‘I saw a lot of disability arts performers who I had never seen before, never heard of before, and as far as I knew, had never performed in the UK before,’ Harris recalls. ‘There were a lot of parallels with development of work in the UK, [but] there were also a lot of differences. I just thought it would be really interesting to explore some of that, and I thought the best way of doing that actually [would be] to bring them over here.’
As it happened, 2003 was the European Year of Disabled People (EYDP), which not only provided an ideal opportunity to hold a major international event, but also to tap into new pots of money to support it. Arts Council England funded the venture through the Regional Arts Lottery Programme, while further financial assistance was sought and secured through the UK Government, which topped up the European Commission’s £550,000 contribution with an extra £2 million for EYDP projects.
The three-day Above and Beyond festival will include international performers from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA, Guinea and Singapore, appearing alongside a host of UK talent. Evening concerts and a cabaret, as well as day-time performances, make up the showcase strand, while a number of symposia are also included in the programme.
Funding definitions, such as social inclusion, cultural diversity, access and participation – and whether these terms need to be clarified – will be discussed, while another session will be devoted exclusively to learning difficulties. The issue of how ‘mainstream’ disability arts should go, and if progressing this far will weaken the power and identity of performers and artists, is an additional symposium, while a global network of disabled artists currently in its early stages will be the focus of another session.
Philip Patston, a New Zealand-based comedian and actor who is leading the global network discussion, is a ‘key’ figure at the festival, Harris notes. She met Patston at kickstART! in 2001, and the two have kept in contact since, with plans for Patston to help with the final preparations before the festival opens in September.
Speaking on the phone from his Auckland base, Patston explains he has recently been awarded a Social Entrepreneurial Grant from the New Zealand Government to travel to the UK and take part in the festival. The grant will also support his own work towards holding an international festival of disability arts in New Zealand in 2004.
Patston has established an online guild of disabled people, www.igodap.org, which he admits is pretty low-key at the moment – with about 130 members – but the session at Above and Beyond is designed as a platform from which to gather ideas to move the project forward.
Patston is a well-known comedian and actor in his home country, appearing regularly on a television comedy series, as well as performing live in comedy and arts festivals in New Zealand and Australia. Oh, and he runs a consultancy service based around issues of diversity, called Diversity Works.
It’s clear from our conversation that the disability arts sector is vastly different in New Zealand, in terms of access and audiences, but Patston points out that a lot of the time it is simply an issue of critical mass. He hopes the online guild will go some way toward addressing the obstacles facing disabled people in New Zealand, by establishing such a critical mass.
But some of the issues Patston points to are, to a degree, universal. In discussions about performance by disabled people appealing to a mainstream audience, a topic featured in the Above and Beyond symposium programme, Patston pulls no punches in telling it like it is.
‘I think what disabled art has suffered from is that there’s a mainstream depiction that because we’re disabled, our art, or our performance, is going to be somehow less “quality” than [that of] non-disabled people,’ Patston observes. The challenge, as he sees it, is to get people actually seeing the work. ‘Once people get there, they realise that what we are doing is as good, if not better, than mainstream art,’ he remarks.
Patston takes the example of a dance company he works with, Touch Compass: ‘They [Touch Compass] do stuff which I think is quite progressive on a global basis. And yet it’s really hard… When you say some dancers are disabled, people are put off by that. Or scared that they might be embarrassed. Or, they think [the performance] is going to be [lacking in] quality.’
Advocacy and education will play a role in changing these kinds of attitudes, Patston points out, however, adding: ‘Some of it is just about dragging people along!’
But Patston remains optimistic that the future is looking bright for disability arts. Just consider the historical path trodden by groups who have been marginalised in any way, whether on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation. Art and culture are often major role-players, when its comes to driving change.
‘I just think that if you look at minority groups and you look at how they progress from a position of disempowerment to empowerment, art and culture is one of the indicators of the building of culture… If you look at disabled people, we are finally becoming part of that – the stage of actually rising and creating an identity for ourselves. Part of that is the growing of our arts scene and culture, and I think we will see a great increase in that in five or ten years.’
‘Above and Beyond’ takes place at Cheltenham Town Hall, September 19-21. For more information and booking details, email Wendy Hancock, administrator, Above and Beyond, or call 01884 829265 Minicom 01884 829267. Discounts are available for delegates who book by June 6.
