To mark the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, BBC Arts, Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council Northern Ireland and Creative Scotland have launched a new Culture in Quarantine commissioning round to celebrate the work of disabled, D/deaf and neurodiverse artists.
Eight established disabled artists, including two from Wales, will be commissioned to create new video or audio works. These will be published on BBC platforms in 2021, with the aim of reaching audiences across the UK and worldwide. The Culture in Quarantine commissioning strand was established by BBC Arts during the Coronovirus lockdown earlier in the year and this round solely focusses on work by artists with disabilities.
November 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the UK’s landmark Disability Discrimination Act becoming law. However, this milestone comes in the context of Covid-19 and the unique and unprecedented additional challenges it poses for disabled people. As a consequence, many disabled artists face exceptional challenges in maintaining their artistic practice including shielding, loss of income and becoming invisible in wider society – issues highlighted by the recently formed UK Disability Arts Alliance’s campaign #WeShallNotBeRemoved.
Proposals should be for video or audio content. There is no specific editorial brief and artists can choose whether to creatively respond to the disabled experience of living through the pandemic or not. Culture in Quarantine wants to hear from the full diversity of exceptional and established disabled artists, working in any discipline.
The new Culture in Quarantine programme is being managed by The Space in partnership with Unlimited on behalf of Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of England, Arts Council Northern Ireland and Creative Scotland.
The deadline for applications is noon, Tuesday 12 January 2021.
For more information visit https://www.thespace.org/commissioning