Appearing for one day only, artists from the Emergence pilot project will run live art events and talks exploring themes of power and narrative. Join them as they make zines, origami, mono printing and drawing. Pick up a free booklet featuring writing by the artists, and attend our book launch celebrating the power of communities to support each other and nurture creative talent.
Run in partnership with Disability Arts Online, this day-long programme of events is free, accessible and for all ages. British Sign Language support will be available throughout the day.
12.00–13.00 Artist talks
Artists from the Emergence Bursary Programme (Letty McHugh, Fae Kilburn and Lauren Saunders) will be speaking about the work they have made over the past 12 months and reflecting on how the opportunity has changed their practice.
British Sign Language and online live capitioning will be available on the day.
13.00–18.00 Participatory art-making
Artist Letty McHugh will be launching the participatory phase of her Emergence-funded Seaworthy Vessel Project, which uses seaworthiness as a metaphor for emotional resilience. Make an origami boat to add to the growing collaborative installation, and share your own thoughts on seaworthiness and journeys on the work to be displayed.
Join Fae Kilburn to create expressive monotypes on geometric pieces of paper, then display them on the wall with Fae’s work to create one large interlocking piece. How large can we make this collaborative print?
Lauren Saunders invites you to experiment with mark-making through the use of wall-based collage and sensory drawing exercises as part of her ongoing work exploring environmental philosophy and drawing.
Naomi Ronke, an illustration graduate from Leeds College of Art, will be working with interactive linocut prints that participants can reorder to change the narrative of the print series. There will also be a zine that collects and illustrates the stories of people of colour and their experiences of using the NHS.
Sam Metz invites you to experiment with different forms of mark making, encouraging use of repetitive mark making and gestures as a way of dissipating stress. Sam is interested particularly in alternative communication that is non-verbal and body-based, and as a neurodivergent artist with sensory processing differences, the objects Sam works with permit them to work in non-verbal ways.
Anita Roye is interested in encouraging experimentation and play, and will run a workshop which involves layering paint onto rolls of wallpaper. The paint will have a fluorescent quality, which will allow the surface to be lit from behind. This effect will be enhanced by using LED torches, revealing layers of mark making and colour.
16.00–18.00 Drinks reception and book launch
Join the Disability Arts Online team for a reception celebrating the launch of Electric Bodies, a book of transcription poetry and drawings inspired by the Disability Arts Movement by Allan Sutherland and Colin Hambrook. Allan will perform extracts from the book which has been created as a result of the D4D Connected Communities Project.
About Shape Arts
Shape Arts is a disability-led arts organisation which works to improve access to culture for disabled people by providing opportunities for disabled artists, training cultural institutions to be more open to disabled people, and through running participatory arts and development programmes.
About Disability Arts Online
Disability Arts Online is an arts organisation led by disabled people that occupies a unique global position with its UK-based website, social media network, partnership and consultancy work, artist development programmes, and vibrant community of disabled creatives.
Emergence is a pilot project designed to tackle the isolation and barriers faced by emerging disabled artists, run by the partners with bursary funding through a-n.
This event is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and D4D: Disability and Community, an AHRC Connected Communities project. We would like to thank Cass Art for generously supporting us with artist materials.