Crucial Conversations with disabled artists: Just What is the New Normal?

Crucial Conversations
Just What is the New Normal?

Background
This is the third in a series of Crucial Conversations with disabled artists. The first crucial conversation was with arts venues and organisations, presenting them with the Cultural Shift model of disabled-led practice in mainstream venues. We held a conversation about the role Access Riders can play in both easing the continued labour expected of disabled artists to explain and re-explain their access requirements to partners, venues, and commissioners. The more access riders we create, the more familiar the concept becomes to everyone, with a ripple effect towards increased accessibility in the arts. They can’t do that alone of course, but they can bring influence on the bigger picture. We also held a conversation co-hosted by legendary playwright Mark Ravenhill about the lack of legacy in print. News about that soon.
 
All the Crucial Conversations have connecting points, and ultimately have created a space for disabled artists from all communities to talk about key matters of the inequalities and exclusion we still experience, compounded by a ‘return’ to the real world during a global pandemic.  

This is the report of a 90 minute conversation and is quite long.
 
Why do we need to talk?
So why is this conversation about the ‘new normal’ happening? As someone who has been shielding for two years, along with millions of other people, I have protected myself and others. However, the way the arts sector is behaving when the pandemic is still raging is just not normal. The arts are facing some of the biggest moral dilemmas in living history. Attempting to work in art and culture before the pandemic, we were a long way from reaching anything like equality for disabled practitioners.
 
There seem to be other layers of things to consider now to avoid a two-tier arts sector. Spaces aren’t being created on big enough platforms for these conversations, with many disabled people saying that they feel silenced, ignored, guilty and worried about it affecting their careers if they speak out, so we are getting together anyway.

You can still get involved
This conversation is just a beginning and if you couldn’t make it along to the session it doesn’t mean you can’t contribute or get involved.  You are invited to contribute responses to the questions asked during the zoom. There is more information on this here
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A call for allyship
The responsibility is largely falling yet again onto the shoulders of disabled people to make our case. Aware of the emotional labour involved in talking about these matters in solution focussed ways, we decided to approach this conversation as reportage. And very much with a view to sharing this blog about the conversation with the wider arts world with an expectation of acknowledgement and action from publicly funded arts organisations.
 
**Cue** – acknowledgement and action please.
1. Share this blog with a comment of support on social media,
2. Get in touch to arrange a bigger conversation,
3. Take affirmative action supported by disabled people, and
4. See this as both a learning opportunity and an opportunity to create something ground-breaking for arts and culture as we move forward.
 
Joined up thinking strategies
We need a national plan of action with suitable support for venues and organisations to develop their understanding of disability equality in practice, and to pay, largely freelance, disabled artists and practitioners for their time and expertise. We need some joined up thinking and to develop some models of excellence not exclusion!
 
We saw for a while how the arts sector could adapt to new ways of working, learn new and relevant language, and respond to the needs of people in the pandemic. It even went a long way towards creating accessible opportunities online and disabled artists had access to people, events, and opportunities that they might not have had before. It was still far from perfect, but equality and access appeared to be finally on the agenda in many places. The voices of disabled campaigners were being heard in places that hadn’t previously listened. 

The return to real world events has been gradual, many venues offering social distancing and insisting on mask wearing, a handful continue to offer work online and there has been much talk of ‘new hybrid’ ways of working. 

And then what happened?
Suddenly the ‘pandemic is over’ and we have to ‘live with it’. Millions of people are still shielding, many silenced and shouted down, many afraid to speak out as the times feel hostile to disabled people. We feel written off by the language around inevitability and we are being left behind. Many disabled people have no choice but to return to unsafe environments for financial survival or have to fight hard for safer environments.

The moral dilemmas in facing the return need open discussion. There are legal obligations too.

Provocation -  Just what is it going to take to have an egalitarian cultural sector with the equal involvement of disabled people, reflecting our pluralistic nation? 
 
The conversation reportage
The following four questions were posed for our conversation and you can read the points raised below each one. Although the comments are anonymised, it was important to us that they remain in the voices of those in the conversation. They are not exhaustive but strongly indicate that the arts sector cannot brush us into the dust under the carpet.

1. What was the ‘old normal’ like for disabled artists?
2. How would you characterise the last two years (the pandemic) in terms of disabled artists experiences of the arts? What changes did you experience?
3. What moral (and legal) dilemmas are the arts facing, or not facing, up to?
4. What do we need to fully participate – audiences, participants, artists, leaders? The question is what should arts funders, decision makers and artists be thinking about to make sure those shielding and living with Long Covid can be included?

 
Everything has been gathered under headings and are presented as bullet points. It’s not scientific research but these conversations are important, and these voices need to be heard, with due consideration to the requirements of a whole community.

1. What was the old normal like for disabled artists?

• Having worked in the arts, we all know well what we have experienced, there is both a collective understanding and ongoing shock at the level of exclusion we experience. Publicly funded organisations need to trust that is has been completely unacceptable to date and we need meaningful change. We did not wish to pour over everything for our own well-being but people in the arts do need to know the discrimination carried out several times a day every day in the arts.
• We have always been underestimated, and continuously had to make the case for our worth in the arts sector. We have always had to prove ourselves, prove that audiences want to see us, and aren’t scared off by us. We have to prove more than anyone else that we have skill and talent, despite the fact that we have had to fight for equal access to our arts training, formal, informal and self-taught. There are inherent unconscious biases that we can’t possibly be good enough because we are perceived as faulty in some way.
• In the old normal, in a theatre context, access was on a couple of nights of BSL or captioning here and there during the run of a show. Come on this date or don’t come at all – what an invitation.  
• It was like a tick box exercise, the old normal. I rarely felt valued for just being me.
• A constant battle for a presence.
• So much happened in London as if it is the centre of everything. We’re expected to go to London, London doesn’t come to us. Regional, and particularly Northern voices generally and specifically disabled voices, struggle to be heard.
• Being ignored and erased
• Even before the pandemic hit it seemed to be very much based on access and trying to get access. Once a venue understands and creates access – what will they ‘do with us’ when we are in their buildings?
• The old normal travelling down to London or Manchester for auditions from the North East. A double-edged sword because of access requirements, cost and the pressure it puts on mental health as well.
• Disabled artists and audiences were consumers of art in the old normal, we supported each other’s work, we went to other people’s art as it helps shape us as artists creatively.
• I was already living in isolation with no real access support in place – images of me and my work were in the world but I wasn’t there with them, and often went uncredited. I was working to shift the narrative around disability and wheelchair users but this is not sustainable when access isn’t in place.
• Medical model thinking was everywhere in the old normal – a focus on individuals and their clinical diagnoses and a list of things a person can’t do rather than a list of barriers in society/the arts which need dismantling.
• Outright prejudice. An arts sector being told to be diverse without any significant training or understanding of what that actually involves, the level of support and education needed so as not to further damage marginalised people.
• Many cultural buildings and organisations have left a trail of hurt, exclusion and damaged relationships, often perpetuating ableism.  

 
2. How would you characterise the last two years (the pandemic) in terms of disabled artists experiences of the arts? What changes did you experience?  

Initially

• I felt like the rest of the world came into my lockdown world.
• The arts world had to think outside the box and adapt in ways disabled people have had to for years.
• We were having workshops, masterclasses, I was really enjoying the world of Zoom I can even remember all the promises that some organisations, they said, ‘This has really changed the landscape, we’re going to carry on with Zoom.' It hasn't.
• Opportunities did increase for some people for a while, but it feels like it’s going back to tick boxes again.  
• Not everyone could get online so we did some projects in the post and by ringing people
• Funders stepped in and listened to disabled people and saw that we were at additional disadvantage.

 
Campaigning voices

• Disabled artists gathered and campaigned and had a profile, it even felt like we were in demand for a while.
• We’re still processing how come we were invited onto national online panels, why disability and diversity was in such profile – but it feels like it was because it was all played out openly on twitter and online, and not behind the closed doors of buildings.
• Disabled people were forced to campaign and burnt out, the majority of the disability arts labour force is self-employed with absolutely no safety net or infrastructure of support. Overstretched ethical disabled-led arts organisations tried to offer support
• We Shall Not Be Removed – a campaigns group with over 700 members of both individuals and disabled-led organisations, was set up and delivered a twitter storm which helped raise the profile and was a call to end ableism in the arts.
• Disabled-led arts organisations created lots of small commission opportunities and allies supported

 
Changes in access

• It was quite strange watching the world deal with issues I’d been dealing with for five or six years.
• The other thing, my last big research project was in 2014-15. That was about using 360 VR technology to take artwork to people who were unable to access traditional arts venues.
• . Some places are working in a neurotypical way.
• It feels like places are working at an unsustainable speed, so they don’t consider disabled artists and accessible processes.
• The writer Alice Wong has a phrase - ‘access is love.' These things are a way of embracing the entire population instead of seeing it as a form of additional work. We need compassion with our equality. For too long equality, access and diversity have been associated with ‘failure’ in organisations and extra work. Organisations barely have time to meaningfully reflect on their values and principles which largely exist on pieces of paper and websites, and not in their practice.
• We saw some organisations not only championing access but presenting themselves as the experts and being heard which was frustrating. Things are celebrated more when a mainstream theatre does it than us.
• All of a sudden, the average world could make accommodations. Where’s the support and funding for those conversations that were had and the work that was made? That’s what we need to start holding organisations accountable for.  And funding bodies.

 
Digital/Online

• Digital output online was good – access seemed to be a priority and disabled people were listened to. There was a strength to our voices on social media – feels like it’s gone now.
• I had the opportunity to make some really creative work and explore the new mediums of sharing it, and then creating work with that specifically in mind. Reaching many people.
• International reach.
• For delivering training zoom it works well – it seems that venues will keep what is convenient for them.
• A world of digital DIY broadcast possibilities opened up for screen and radio/audio work
• I did my first ever spoken word on Zoom.
• twelve months ago, loads of people were streaming their stuff but now it’s gone back to the usual.
• move things online which was a really swift adaptation, but It felt as though a lot of places were still trying to work as if the pandemic hadn’t happened.
• There are some assumptions that doing an online event in itself was enough as a form of access.
• Zoom/online isn’t the only answer as we emerge – we need other things in place.
• I have to work on zoom for a while longer
• Zoom is not the answer to everything for everyone. It can be inaccessible, frustrating and should not be viewed as ‘the disabled peoples’ space’. We need real world experiences and opportunities we just need them to be safe.

 
Practice

• Disability Arts Online were doing some online Friday evening chats which were great
• something I’ve taken away is that with Zoom I’ve gained a stage which is free of institutions. Sometimes it took so long to get a relationship going now I feel there’s a potential to bypass that in a productive way
• a really interesting thread that’s emerging there about the institutions. About the arts as an institution in and of itself, the institutions within it, and some freedoms that we need.
• There was a lot of guesswork and a lot of uninformed work on access by some very large institutions – offering to pay disabled professionals either nothing or fees like £20 for significant advice about their access. Expecting disabled people to come and test out new digital access features out of gratitude and the professional expertise required for this completely overlooked.
• Some of the time I felt like a novelty item being trotted out to entertain the nice people. Earnest and sympathetic nods, facial expressions of disbelief all now swallowed up by the speed and overwork of the arts machine **waves – ‘I’m still here’**
• Disabled artists have a greater network now online, and we can create spaces like this to talk, otherwise everything would either be London-centric or difficult to get to.
• While zoom has many advantages, it does have its own artistic barriers – it’s hard to improvise and read people

 
Funding and Financial Sustainability

• Many disabled artists are not making a living as artists anyway and are on the breadline. Some of my friends have left the arts, skint, demoralised and exhausted.
• I think I got more work for a while, and I felt involved but that has all disappeared, things are regressing and all the new opportunities and relationships are gone.  
• I got projects going that I wanted to get off the ground off the ground – organisations changed the way and who they commissioned temporarily.
• Suddenly funders were willing to fund projects that weren’t just place-based.
• During lockdown I was never busier. Never more creative. Recently I’ve been excluded again.
• I know it’s been challenging in organisations and venues as well, but people were protected to some degree – many disabled people have had to leave the arts completely
• Venues are feeling pressured to get their old business model back on track and have lost sight of all the amazing access that could happen.
• There will be new business models for new consumption methods.

 
Safety

• Just what does a so-called hybrid model look like – we’ve heard a lot about it.
• I felt more secure when we had a proper lockdown than we do now.
• That’s a real pity for me as a consumer, who would gladly pay to see work online, and as an artist as we are influenced by work we see.
• Now, I’m completely out of the loop, very little on offer from venues and organisations online
• Even though funders were starting to relax the conditions of funding it took time for that to cascade down organisational hierarchies
• The guilt of not being able to go to friends’ or partners shows – you can feel peoples’ irritation and it’s just easier to forget about you
• I don’t want assumptions made about what I can and can’t go to, I don’t want my choice removed
• We don’t know where we are with masks, and social distancing and vaccinations – it’s clear the pandemic has not gone away, and so our choices seem like roulette – stay home and excluded and disappear, or risk long term health complications and even death. Can the venues not see this is an issue for artists and audiences alike?
• After the internet during the pandemic the thought of returning to a large audience in a theatre or arts centre terrifies me.

 
3. What moral (and legal) dilemmas are the arts facing, or not facing, up to?  

Returning during a pandemic

• Covid still going on. People are still getting it. You still have to be careful.
• We should be mindful of not automatically having a full theatre with everyone unmasked.
• Do they even listen to the world health organisation and scientists? It’s not all about government guidelines. Organisations have to take a position on this informed by their own values and principles to protect and support their communities.
• I think for me as well, a lot of them are in a dilemma about what to do if they stream work. Lots of the pandemic streamed work was free. People don’t seem to want to charge but if it gives me the option of not having to go to a venue, I will pay for a streaming ticket. A lot of organisations can’t quite get their head around that.
• The lack of access before was bad but now it’s appalling with all these new factors.
• There is quite a bit of guilt about remaining safe, and there are unspoken pressures, from both the arts and the personal side of life including family and friends. Return to normal without a fuss. People are being blinkered.

 
Accountability

• How can we hold organisations to account to ensure that creative output can still happen online and isn’t always place-based.
• Theatres are worried about how to get audiences in. Several places have mentioned not attracting disabled audiences back and then put it onto the artists as if it is our job to get audiences in. We were always expected to have a magic wand to get disabled audiences in, but it now feels more pressured, even when the work is for everyone
• Legal dilemmas - it’s not legal to compel a member of staff to get vaccinated. There might be situations where staff members are resistant vaccination but work in a public facing way. There’s difficulties around how do disabled or clinically vulnerable people get awareness of those risks so they can make their own judgements?
• It feels like a challenge to have those conversations with arts organisation in a transparent and honest way.
• An arts organisation wouldn’t be allowed to let an audience in if there was a risk of the roof falling in, surely there must be legal requirement to keep those of us who are extremely clinically vulnerable safe while maintaining our right of access under the DDA/Equality Act.

 
Penalties

• Most regional theatres, funded by the Arts Council, part of their funding is to support disability and access. If they’re not providing that, they should be penalised or told to do more.
• It’s been talked about for years, we just need to see it in action.
• We’d rather people wanted to be ‘equal’ to more fairly represent who we are

 
Solutions

• If it’s taught us anything, some things are not pandemic related at all. If you’re in York, you don’t want to have to travel to London to see a show. If you can pay to watch it online, they don’t want to grapple with those things.
• Need to consider reaching audiences at home in new ways and still have a business model around that. VR, although complicated, is a very real way of extending that access
• It doesn’t all have to be digital. There’s other ways of addressing Covid, and they could extend the safety guidance, offering people social distancing, specific ways of access the building and different activities. It needs thought and planning and most importantly- speaking to us.
• So we don’t develop a two-tier system. There has to be more than zoom access alone. I want to be able to go to a venue where it’s safe but I’d also like to be able to watch something without having to schlep to Sheffield for one night. We have to be careful that we don’t encourage a two-tier system. It’s cheaper for venues as well.
• I’m in a real dilemma whether I should just bite the bullet, get my best mask on and go to see a play or if I should continue to protect myself. That doesn’t give you the best place to start with from thinking about your own creativity. I want to be positive about it.
• I think 360 technology, it’s almost building the expectation that theatres and galleries will build that into their planning and funding and it becomes standard that there’s a package whereby you offer this to audiences who are unable to leave home.
• When in theatre spaces, we need to address the areas set aside for disabled audiences and improve choices available.

 
4. What do we need to fully participate – disabled audiences, participants, artists, leaders? The question is what should arts funders, decision makers and artists be thinking about to make sure those shielding and living with Long Covid can be included?
 

• High level public or group discussions, not isolated questionnaires or one to one conversations with ‘consultants’. Town Halls, round tables. But the people with the power will still have the power.
• I think they need to think about talking about a sustainable way forward for disabled artists and audiences. New levels of support and new models for audiences.
• I think as well, venues need to make it clear on their access information about whether access is reduced and why it’s reduced. I think it’s making sure the venues intentions are quite clear.
• Because of my depression I will need more support to go back to work. Probably a support worker. Are they thinking about accessible processes and how to support people? There is nothing out there.
• One thing that came out was recognising that project-based working methods can be very inaccessible to some people. The way they have a hard start and hard finish, often under a lot of pressure to do things quickly which excludes so many people. Explore accessible processes and time frames.
• People experience physical and sensory barriers. Barriers to information and neurotypical practices. Many stories of people having horrendous barriers, it’s the equivalent of me going to an interview with stairs and being blamed for not going up the stairs.
• I find having dyslexia is my biggest barrier now. Information overload, paperwork everywhere, trying to find information. The level of time, creativity and resilience needed, most people would just give up.
• Arts organisations who programme us and offer us commissions are not being supported and educated to understand disability equality, disability culture and access. Some kind of national infrastructure provided by disabled experts is required.
• One of the things we need to cover at some point is unconscious bias. Especially when it comes to arts centres. They’re overwhelmed trying to get everything back to normal. I’ve heard from others that they feel like they’re bothering arts centres at the worst time. They’re feeling excluded and dismissed.  We want everybody to feel that they’re not being excluded.

• It seems like people don’t want to even mention covid which is a bizarre dereliction of duty to all audiences – non-disabled people may also need to protect family members.
• We need to acknowledge it is still a pandemic for everyone in our communities and put measures in place around that.

 
 
Acknowledgements – this online meeting took place on Friday 11 March 2022. A massive thank you to the disabled artists who attended this conversation:  Sue, Austin, Mandy Colleran, Gareth Cutter, Honor Flaherty, Pauline Heath, Steph Robson and Tommy Watkin. Thank you to Black Robin for their separate comments for inclusion in the blog.
 
Thank you to all the disabled practitioners having conversations like this across the country and campaigning for an equal return to the arts for disabled artists, audiences, participants and staff.
 
Vici Wreford-Sinnott
March 2022
[email protected]

Funded by Arts Council England and supported by ARC Stockton. 
 
USEFUL LINKS
 
FROM LITTLE COG
 
Cultural Shift – Ideas for your venue and disabled people
 
A Guide to Developing Access Riders
 
Accessible Online Meetings
 
Social Model, Disability Equality Ethos, Crip-Taking
 
A guide to including disabled people in the performing arts.
 
 
FROM SUE AUSTIN – Multimedia, performance and installation artist
 
You can find out more about Sue’s work here:
 
www.wearefreewheeling.org.uk
www.immersedin360.com
 
Review written by Aruna D’Souza having seen ‘Creating the Spectacle!’ exhibited during Radical Love Exhibition, (The Ford Institute, New York, June to August 2019):
https://brooklynrail.org/2019/11/criticspage/Living-Without-Gravity
 
Featured TED speaker  - Ted talk  presented at Talk of The Day on TED.com:
https://www.ted.com/talks/sue_austin_deep_sea_diving_in_a_wheelchair/details?language=en