Call out for deaf, disabled or neurodivergent artists
Workshop for Accentuate's pilot Arts in Health project
Apply by
Friday 7th March 2025
(end of day)
Workshop (tbc)
Thursday 27th March or
PM of Friday 28th March 2025
Accentuate, Screen South’s disabled-led programme, is looking for up to 6 deaf, disabled or neurodivergent artists to join us in a workshop to discuss our pilot Arts in Health project, whose working title is Uncomfortable Bedfellows: An arts-led exploration into the challenges faced by disabled people in healthcare environments.
Further information on the project, workshop and how to apply can be found by scrolling down the page. Alternatively, the full call out is available to download, using the buttons below. We have also made this information available in BSL.
Please note that the workshop dates in the BSL video below are incorrect. The correct proposed date for the workshop is either Thursday 27th March or PM of Friday 28th March 2025.
Please note that the workshop dates in the BSL video above are incorrect. The correct proposed date for the workshop is either Thursday 27th March or PM of Friday 28th March 2025.
Background to the Project
What does it feel like for a disabled person to encounter healthcare settings such as hospitals? For many disabled people there are significant challenges in healthcare environments because they are generally designed for “normal bodies” with an emphasis on curing or rehabilitating people. Additionally, there is a problematic division between the medical and social models of disability, with the medical model often reducing disabled people to their medical diagnosis and positioning disabled people’s life experiences as rooted in deficit.
We are seeking to develop a new project, Uncomfortable Bedfellows. This will be a short pilot project taking place over 6 workshops where a disabled artist will use creative activities to encourage dialogue about, and exploration of, the experience of disabled people in hospital. The aims of this pilot project are as follows:
- To support staff to work more confidently with disabled patients
- To improve staff understanding of the needs of deaf, disabled or neurodivergent people when they are in hospital
- To enhance the experience of disabled users of the hospital by creating an arts intervention that reflects and values their lived experience
Artist Online-Workshop Details
As part of the planning for this pilot project we would like to hold an online workshop as a scoping opportunity to explore what the participating artists think about the pilot project, and what reflections they have about the concept, based on their own experiences – either as users of medical spaces, or as artists working in these spaces.
- The workshop will last 2.5 hours, which will include at least two breaks.
- The fee offered per participant for this workshop is £100.
- We will ask all participants to share their access needs ahead of the meeting so that we can meet those accordingly.
- The workshop will be facilitated by Head of Accentuate Programme, Esther Fox.
- The workshop is likely to take place on Thursday 27th March or PM of Friday 28th March 2025 (to be confirmed).
Who we are looking for
- We are looking for deaf, disabled or neurodivergent artists who have an interest in working in arts and health settings, even if they haven’t done so before, as we are also interested in finding out what the barriers might be.
- We are also interested in artists whose practice might explore the challenges of medicine and science, in relation to the disabled lived experience.
- Although experience of working with co-producers and disabled communities isn’t essential at this stage, due to the nature of this pilot project ultimately being participatory, we are also interested in hearing from deaf, disabled or neurodivergent artists who have experience of facilitating and working on arts-based projects in community spaces (ideally, health care spaces, such as hospitals) with disabled participants.
How to Apply
Please get in touch either with a short, written statement (no more than 500 words) about why you’d like to be involved with this consultation workshop and your relevant experience. Or you can send us a short 3 min film, or a video in BSL, responding with your interest and experience.
Please contact us on info@accentuateuk.org by the end of Friday 7th March 2025.
Contact us
If you would like to discuss this opportunity with a member of the Accentuate team then please contact us on:
info@accentuateuk.org
01303 259 777
