Rising in Our Power

Online Artist Films and Talks 

​9 June, 16 June, 30 June 2025

In February 2025, the IN/Visible National Disabled Women's Arts Collective held a landmark artistic takeover of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA). The innovative partnership, which has been years in development, created an incredible insight into lesser known stories of disabled women as both artists and activists, performed live by 8 disabled women artists from all over the country, throughout the entire building, with an audience trail to follow. 

We'd now like to invite you further into the world of Rising in Our Power with films of the performances and talks from the artists about their inspiration, their artwork and their role in activism to bring about community space and social change. We worked with over 500 people in the lead up to the exhibition in workshops, art trolleys and at an Art and Social, but now it's time to scratch the surface and explore the depth of these artists works. 

There are three online events - three marvellous Mondays 9, 16 and 30 June  (2.00 - 3.30 pm BST) - where in three separate, different events, we will screen three of the artists filmed performances as they were performed live at MIMA, with each artist talking about their work. There will be time at the end for some questions and answers. 

We'd also love to share with you just how we made this event possible in terms of disability equity and accessibility in the hope there will be gems of all kinds to take away. The events also see the launch of our beautiful Dispatches - A Chronicle of Artistic Interventions by IN/Visible Disabled Women Artists at MIMA 2025.

Our audience for these events is as wide as the ocean - disabled artists, disabled community members, non-disabled artists, arts sector staff, academics, art students, researchers, curators, gallery owners/directors, people who love something different, live performance in gallery spaces fans, people who want to connect with us, people who need more exposure to access and disabled artists.  

Tickets are limited so we do advise booking early. We imagine that we will be able to release further tickets closer to the event so put yourself on the waiting list please if it appears fully booked. 

You can attend as many of the events as you would like to

Rising in Our Power Artist Films and Talks 1
Sharing from the landmark artistic intervention by the IN/Visible National Disabled Women's Arts Collective at MIMA
Online event Monday 9 June 2025. 2.00 - 3.30 pm
​

Photograph by Kev Howard Caroline Cardus performing at MIMA

Hosted by Vici Wreford-Sinnott

​Vici has been a leading figure in the Disability Arts movement for over thirty years. She is Artistic Director of Little Cog, a disabled-led theatre company in Tees Valley.  Her work has toured nationally and internationally and she has spoken about her unique model of cultural equity, Cultural Shift, all over the world. She was writer and director of Hen Night, commissioned by the BBC  which was one of the first pieces of broadcast drama by a disabled women-led team in the UK. A busy artist and activist for social change, Vici was recipient of the North East Art and Culture Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts.

As well as hosting, Vici will also be talking about her role in the project and her film. 

Samantha Blackburn

Samantha is a creative maker, producer, and presenter of outsider arts, working across multimedia including photography, textiles, embroidery, line drawing, live performance including music. 
In her work, she explores the themes of cultural identity, notions of ‘home’ and sense of belonging, mental health stigma and structural inequalities/oppression against working class people, disabled people, women, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Her creative practice is influenced by her lived experience of disability. 
​

Caroline Cardus

​Visual artist Caroline Cardus’s multi-disciplinary art practice includes public art installation, collage, painting and performance.
​Cardus draws upon her own and others' lived experience of disabling barriers. Her work focuses on creative activism sited from the point an individual is denied equitable participation in society, inviting the viewer to contemplate how it might feel to live in a world that doesn’t fit. 
She is known for her still-growing public art installation, The Way Ahead, which delivers frank, irreverent and powerful messages from disabled people in the form of UK road signs.

Book Tickets for Event 1

Rising in Our Power Artist Films and Talks 2
Sharing from the landmark artistic intervention by the IN/Visible National Disabled Women's Arts Collective at MIMA
​Online event Monday 16 June 2025. 2.00 - 3.30 pm

Photograph by Kev Howard. Pauline Heath performing at MIMA

Hosted by Vici Wreford-Sinnott as above

Pauline Heath

Pauline Heath is a trained actor having gained a Degree in Performing Arts in Newcastle and subsequently training and touring with Graeae Theatre Company. As part of Tyneside Disability Arts (TDA), Pauline worked on a number of productions with Get Off Our Backs Theatre Company, including the development of her idea for the play Feckless. Her poetry was published in two anthologies by Disabled writers, Sub Rosa and Transgression. Pauline was mentored by choreographer and dancer Caroline Bowditch to create a piece of physical theatre Hangin’ Around For A Man With A Pulse to open the month long disability arts Mimosa Festival in the North East. It led to cabaret and stand-up performances. She toured Scotland in Theatre Workshop Edinburgh’s production of Marat Sade; performed in the Paralympic Opening Ceremony directed by Jenny Sealey; and in the Great North Run Million Opening Ceremony directed by Bradley Hemmings. More recently Pauline crated a solo performance called NeverNeverland and her play Occupation was performed with an original music score by professional actors and a community chorus at ARC Stockton. Her visual art work has been exhibited across the country and online. Pauline was recently commissioned by the mental health charity Mind to deliver her Messages in a Bottle workshop at Peerfest in London, and she was an access advisor for Surface Area Dance Theatre. ​

JulieMac McNamara

JulieMac McNamara is an award-winning playwright, performer and documentary filmmaker passionate about social justice. She is a recipient of a Miegunyah Award from Melbourne University, 2019; Three Picture This...Film Festival Awards, 2018 Best of Festival, Best Documentary and 2017 Best Performance on screen; a South Bank Show Award, 2010; and her favourite - a DaDaFest Writers Award with ITV 2009. Her work has been produced on international stages, and her poetry and essays have been published in anthologies and non-fiction collections. And she still wakes up feeling like an imposter.

JulieMac is a survivor of the mental health and criminal justice systems, lives with a brain injury and a ridiculous sense of humour. When asked about her creative work, JulieMac said: 'I've written 18 plays and several monologues that have been staged, but I'm not finished with any of them. Nothing's perfect, it never will be, I start with my most desperate mistakes and then go for the jugular, fearlessly. You've got to stay curious, stay awake, stay alert and expect the unexpected. I'm currently writing about the art of failing spectacularly, in plain sight, with stigmatised ageing flesh and f**k 'em all attitude.

Dolly Sen

Dolly Sen has a brain of ill-repute. Because of this she is a writer, artist, performer and filmmaker.  Since 2004 she has exhibited and performed internationally. Her films have also been shown worldwide. Her journey as an artist has taken her up a tree in Regents Park, to California’s Death Row, to the Barbican, BFI, Tower Bridge, to sectioning the DWP,  and up a ladder to screw a lightbulb into the sky. Dolly’s creativity aims to put normality over her lap and slap its naughty arse.
Her most recent work challenged the narrative and archives of those labelled mad in her project Birdsong from Inobservable Worlds
She is working class, Queer, interested in disability and the madness given to us by the world.  She currently resides in Norwich in Norfolk. She/They.   www.dollysen.com

Book Tickets for Event 2

Rising in Our Power Artist Films and Talks 3
Sharing from the landmark artistic intervention by the IN/Visible National Disabled Women's Arts Collective at MIMA
​Online event Monday 30 June 2025. 2.00 - 3.30 pm

Photography by Kev Howard.  Michelle Baharier performing at MIMA

Hosted by Vici Wreford- Sinnott as above

Michelle Baharier

Michelle Baharier is an award-winning graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art and exchange student of the Städelschule Fine Art Academy in Frankfurt, Germany. She exhibits widely and her work is held in both public and private collections including digital portraits in the British Transport Museum. Sound Moves, in the Tate sound archive. Michelle is a recipient of the Glaxo Smith Kline Impact Award and the Julian Sullivan Award for ground-breaking work in the arts.
Michelle’s art addresses the many barriers that she and others face, some due to disability discrimination and prejudice. Her powerful paintings are vibrant, creating emotionally charged pieces. 
Michelle is best known for founding CoolTan Arts, an arts and mental health charity, famous for its Largactyl Shuffle Walks of which she was the co-founder. She ran Midnight Walks that took the audience on a vivacious live performance of myth and fact, from the powerhouse to the madhouse. 
Michelle is working with the Transport Museum again. She has been commissioned to paint the portraits of members of staff who are disabled, creating the first collection of disabled people’s contribution to the Museum’s work.
​Michelle regularly gives workshops and talks and is available for commissions.  Michellebaharier.co.uk

Lynne McFarlane

Lynne McFarlane (she/her) is an experienced poet and spoken word artist with an MA in Creative Writing from The Open University. She is a pioneer of disruptive kitchenalia and an age positive campaigner promoting age positivity in writing, performing and visual imageries. Ableism and disability terminology that seeks to define older women is rarely talked about and she is keen to open the conversation in a safe space where women can feel empowered and supported. Lynne is a founding member of LESS is MORE’s New Wave company, and in December 2024 occupied the main stage in Middlesbrough Town Hall with the soundscape “A Winters Chill”.

Book Tickets for Event 3