It is commonly acknowledged that the UK has a thriving and relatively well-supported disability arts sector. Since the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) there has been a greater focus on disabled arts. Many disabled theatre and dance companies like Graeae and CandoCo are making the news – gaining profiles, reputations and awards, and not only in the disabled arts world. The revised and expanded DDA is due to come into effect in October this year and it is hoped that it will correct the weaknesses of the original act, and help to bring disabled people even greater equality.
From 1998 to 2003 Arts Council England invested £20 million in an initiative, The New Audiences Programme, ‘set up to encourage as many people as possible, from all backgrounds and every walk of life, to participate in and benefit from the arts.’ This included a focus on the disabled sector. There has been a big push in museums, galleries and heritage sites to creatively facilitate access for visually impaired people. A great deal is being done, across the board, not only to promote and demystify disabled art to the sighted, but also to ensure that disabled artists are able to fulfil their potential by giving them fair access, training and support. Last year was the European Year of Disabled People (EYDP) and it is clear that disabled art, in all its forms, is well and truly out of the closet. This is not just an artistic revolution it is a political advance.
An artist’s life, experiences and physical capabilities are all important aspects of their development, which in turn impact on their art. This is true whether you are looking at theatre, dance or visual arts, and whether you are disabled or not. However, when an artist puts themselves outside their own experience in order to express the world a different way, and to a different audience, it is another challenge entirely. Art and culture have been used by marginalised groups throughout history to make change.
Philip Patston, a respected New Zealand-based comedian and actor, sums it up, ‘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.’ So it is with interest that we celebrate the arrival of a new non-profit organisation BlindArt, which was launched in May this year. Sheri Khaymi, herself partially sighted, founded BlindArt to promote the involvement and enjoyment of visually impaired people – artists and audiences – in visual arts.
Although ultimately for the visually impaired, there is to be no segregation. BlindArts are committed to supporting artists from all sight spectrums – blind through to 20:20 vision. Beginning with a splash, their inaugural event is potentially massive – an open-juried competition where all artists are invited to submit up to three works to a panel of judges.
Sticking to their non-segregationist stance, any artist is welcome to enter for small fee. Artists are welcome to submit work in any medium – painting, photography, installation, sculpture – and in two or three-dimensions, after which 1000 works will be selected by the carefully chosen judges. The only, and crucial, condition is that the art itself is created with blind or partially sighted people in mind. There will be a cash prize and all the selected pictures will be offered for sale during an exhibition at the Royal College of Art. The judges are established and respected figures. They range from: Simon Labbett (Royal National Institute of the Blind); William Packer (Financial Times Art Critic); Frankie Rossi (Director of Graphics, Marlborough Fine Art); Gary Sargeant (Artist with a visual impairment); Professor Glynn Williams (Head of School of Fine Art. Royal College of Art) and of course Sheri Khayami. Khayami is eloquent in her hopes for the event, ‘as a severely visually impaired person, this exhibition represents my desire to confront with passion my visual depravation. The works that we will select for this exhibition will be designed to convey to the widest possible audience the aesthetic beauty of multi-sensory art. BlindArt’s aim is that all those attending our exhibition will experience perceptual crossovers of touch, taste, smell, sound and sight.’
There is much to admire in BlindArt’s vision and in the ambition of this event. It flings open doors and challenges the traditional divides between sighted and blind, asking us to question whether it is possible to visualise the world differently, to communicate in ways unexplored. However, the brief for the event is large. There are no boundaries, no parameters and only one rule: to create art with blind or partially sighted people in mind. In principle this is a liberating. In reality anyone, of any age, of any country, of any visual arts discipline can submit up to three works! The mind boggles. And how does even such range of judges begin to contemplate, let alone judge, the art which is shortly to be winging its way to them? This breadth of involvement from all areas of the greater artistic community will no doubt be inspirational. It will become, briefly, a body of ‘blind friendly’ art. Art created to be touched, explored and enjoyed by the visually impaired. And however good a museum’s latest touch tour or internet developments, and some of them are amazing – check out the Tate’s i-Map on online resource which allows you to download tactile materials – nothing compares to actually hearing, touching, smelling or even tasting a work of art.
In recent times with developments in technology, a more supportive legislation, and a better understanding of the issues facing the disabled, there has been an incredible surge in the disabled arts. Disabled people have more voice, are more mobile, organised and articulate and it’s heartening to see the abundant creativity and talent within this area. BlindArt is yet another contributor to the increasing dialogue between the sighted and visually impaired. Perhaps one day, instead of saying disabled artist, we will simply say artist.
Please see www.blindart.net for details of the competition and www.extant.org.uk; www.artscouncil.org.uk; www.newaudiences.org.uk; www.disability.gov.au and
www.tate.org.uk for further information.
