Disability Arts Online and British Council – Visual Arts and Disability in the UK: a snapshot in 2024

Reframed: Disability Aesthetics and Institutional Change in the Visual Arts was an online event on the 26th June 2024. It was presented by Disability Arts Online and the British Council, and curated by artist, curator and writer Aidan Moesby. It brought together professionals from Europe and beyond on two panels discussing the eponymous themes.

The significance of the British Council commissioning the event with Disability Arts Online in such a large international context should not be overlooked. It indicates an unprecedented interest in the visual arts and disability. What materialises remains to be seen, but this comes off the back of Shape Art’s exhibition Crip Arte Spazio: the DAM (Disability Arts Movement) in Venice and Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen showing at the Finnish Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Watch the event recording

Visual Arts and Disability in the UK: a snapshot in 2024 publication

Visual Arts and Disability in the UK snapshot in 2024Download the publication

This publication builds on the event. It includes four essays, each taking a different approach to reflecting upon the current state of disability in the visual arts in the UK.

Essay synopsis – Disability Arts is Dead: Long Live Disability Arts by Colin Hambrook

Disability Arts Online’s founding editor and disabled artist Colin Hambrook opens with an overview on the Disability Arts Movement’s history and direction of travel. He explores some of the key artists, support structures and changes that have led disability in the visual arts to where it is now. He also makes the case for disability as an aesthetic and curatorial concern which offers a unique take on the human condition not seen in the rest of the art world.

Black and white photograph showing a large installation artwork composed of thousands of charity collection canisters stacked into a pyramid. The canisters at the top are starting to fall, causing others to topple.
Tony Heaton, Shaken Not Stirred, performance photograph, 1991. Courtesy of the-ndaca.org CC-BY-NC

Essay synopsis – Accessing the Visual Arts: A Disabled Curator’s Perspective by Rachel Fleming-Mulford

Rachel Fleming-Mulford reflects on the experience of a period of research and development exploring how she could continue to work as a freelance curator with acquired access needs, given the barriers she faces. She goes on to highlight where good practice is occurring and where it has yet to evolve. Refreshingly, she takes an intersectional approach.

A cosy room with stools, bean bags, rugs and cushions. There is a table with craft materials and two floor lamps with white lampshades give the room a soft glow.
Chill Out Room. Courtesy of Wellcome Collection.

Essay synopsis – Thinking Outside the Tick Box: How the Sector Can Better Support Disabled, Neurodivergent and Self-Taught Artists by Jennifer Gilbert

Jennifer Gilbert presents a very personalised view from the perspective of being a gallerist and curator. She writes about the context and process of her current exhibition Kaleidoscopic Realms at Nottingham Castle which she co-curated with multidisciplinary artist Christopher Samuel. She discusses the development of a toolkit she co-produced for the Plus Tate Network: How Galleries and Museums Can Better Work With and Support Deaf, Disabled and/or Neurodivergent Artists. Gilbert is not afraid to ask difficult questions and calls for real accountability when it comes to lack of access.

4 speakers seated in a row on the stage. Behind is a large projection screen showing a photograph of a man standing in a white gallery space with colourful abstract paintings on the walls
RA panel discussion with Hettie Judah, Cathie Pilkington, Jennifer Gilbert and Yinka Shonibare, 2023. Photo: Molly Bretton

Essay synopsis – Can We Say the D Word Now? Towards a Disability Aesthetic Beyond the Experience of Barriers by Ashokkumar D Mistry

Ashokkumar D Mistry is an artist and writer concerned with the representation of disabled artists beyond the reductive aesthetic of using the disabled body as source material and product. Here, he wrestles with language and suggests the possibility of a new aesthetic developing in disability arts, beyond agitprop and art as activism. He challenges the seemingly small pool of artists who do get represented and the manner in which this is manifested. His struggle is almost palpable as he calls for increased nuance and understanding through his unapologetically neurodivergent approach.

A 3D cube frame made of pale wood sits in a white room. The artist, a white woman with short grey hair wearing dark clothing, crouches inside using both hands to spread dark paint on a canvas wall
Rachel Gadsden, Cube Restraint Action Art performance, 2023. Photo: Gadsden-Hayton

Download the publication PDF

Visual Arts and Disability in the UK snapshot in 2024 completeDownload

Listen to the publication audio recordings

Audio recording – Foreword

Audio recording – Introduction: Scope for Optimism by Aidan Moesby

Audio recording – Disability Arts is Dead: Long Live Disability Arts by Colin Hambrook

Audio recording – Accessing the Visual Arts: A Disabled Curator’s Perspective by Rachel Fleming-Mulford

Audio recording – Thinking Outside the Tick Box: How the Sector Can Better Support Disabled, Neurodivergent and Self-Taught Artists by Jennifer Gilbert

Audio recording – Can We Say the D Word Now? Towards a Disability Aesthetic Beyond the Experience of Barriers by Ashokkumar D Mistry

This report was commissioned by the British Council and produced by Disability Arts Online. Aside from the Foreword, the views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the British Council.