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British Council - Disability Arts International
Newsletter #12 Festivals: access to live music, disability specific festivals and a new resource
13 August 2018
Welcome to Disability Arts International, a website and digital newsletter from the British Council.
In this newsletter we celebrate festival season by exploring accessibility in live music, we consider the pros and cons of disability specific festivals, and we launch a new database of disability arts festivals across Europe. 
A crowd with their arms in the air at a music gig
Access to live music for disabled audiences: Glastonbury Festival & Band on the Wall
How can access to live music be improved for disabled audiences? Two contrasting organisations, Glastonbury Festival, the world's largest greenfield festival, and Band on the Wall, a 340-capacity venue in Manchester, outline two approaches and suggest ways any live music organisation can become more accessible. Both organisations have attained the 'Gold Standard' on Attitude is Everything's Charter of Best Practice. Attitude is Everything is a charity which works with venues and festivals to improve access provision across the industry. 
Disabled artists will ‘break through the glass ceiling’ with €4m international project
A four-year programme to bring disabled performing artists into the mainstream of the European cultural scene has been granted funding by Creative Europe, in the form of a partnership between seven major European theatre and dance organisations. The core partners of the project are British Council (UK), Onassis Cultural Centre (Greece), Holland Dance Festival (The Netherlands), Kampnagel (Germany); Per.Art (Serbia), Skånes Dansteater (Sweden) and Oriente Occidente (Italy).

Find out more about Europe Beyond Access
 
Vesna Mackovic in work overalls and a yellow builder's helmet
The vexed question of disability-specific festivals

What are the pros and cons of festivals that exclusively feature disabled artists? As we head into festival season, journalist Bella Todd considers the relative merits of disability-specific arts festivals, from the perspective of international artists, programmers and funders. Are festivals that exclusively feature disabled artists necessary redress to ‘mainstream’ underrepresentation or do they reinforce division and create a ghetto?


Read about the pros and cons of disability-specific festivals
Resource: European disability arts festivals
Disability Arts International has produced a database of festivals whose remit is primarily to support the presentation of, and discussion about, work made by disabled artists and/or inclusive companies. The database was compiled using a combination of desk research, recommendations from key partners and user-submitted entries.
A woman lying on a bench with headphones on
Resting Spaces Network: an artist-instigated access initiative
Having recently presented at the Communicating the Museum conference in Brussels,  UK artist Raquel Meseguer speaks to Trish Wheatley about her Dreams of Resting Spaces project, which seeks to change the rules of public spaces by inviting cultural institutions to consider making their venues more accessible for people who need to lie down.

Read more about Dreams of Resting Spaces
Group of men with arms aloft as glitter rains down on them
Country Profile: Ireland

In the latest of our series of country profiles, Pádraig Naughton, Director of Arts & Disability Ireland explores the history, development and current state of the arts and disability sector in Ireland.


 
Two men dance whilst in a tender embrace
Best of the net: Candoco Unspoken Spoken
Unspoken Spoken, directed and choreographed by Fin Walker, is a 17-minute film performed by disabled and non-disabled dancers, created in collaboration between Candoco Dance Company and the Space. Unspoken Spoken exposes the potential that exists when we dare to challenge the rules. 
A group of IETM delegates
In partnership with Unlimited, we're offering bursaries for D/deaf and disabled artists and producers to attend IETM (Informal European Theatre Meeting) in Munich – a major European performing arts networking event. IETM is a network of over 500 performing arts organisations and individuals working in contemporary performing arts across the world. We'd like as many people as possible to benefit form IETM's vast network, especially under-represented groups, to make sure that Britain is reflected in all its diversity on the world stage. The deadline for applications is Friday 24 August 2018 12:00 (BST)
Apply now for an IETM bursary
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