Transformers 2022

Image description -A brown parcel label placed on a pale blue felt background. The label reads - what is your category? and is outlined with a single black and red line. Artist Steph Fuller.

Artist Steph Fuller

We are delighted to be supporting Vici Wreford-Sinnott's Arts Council funded Transformers project, also working in partnership with ARC Stockton. This is her personal grant to create projects she is passionate about and have been identified by disabled artists she has discussed what gaps we feel there are.

In these everchanging times we need transformation in the arts, and a group of transformers to drive that change forward. This project provides UK based disabled artists with a series of new opportunities from playwriting to comedy to space for some of the crucial conversations of our times. We're blogging and sharing the content of those conversations to get our voices in the public domain.

IN/visible is a brand new disabled women's group for disabled women over 50. It's a wonderful space where we chat about important themes, connect with each other to reduce our isolation and make something creative each week to share in our IN/visible gallery. More details are below on all the projects, with links on the images to take you to the project page.

IN/visible
A series of 15 online workshops with disabled women over 50
Art, Conversation and Connection

Image description – a montage of craft images. Spectacles are placed on an open book, a collection of colourful yarns, a woman’s hand writing in a notebook, a close up of an old fashioned typewriter, a colourful patchwork quilt, a lot of containers with scissors, paintbrushes, coloured pens and pencils and rulers, some rolled up fabric, a close up on a paintbrush being used to paint a picture, a fountain pen placed over some handwriting, and a collection of paints.

Funny Ha Ha 2
6 comedy online writing workshops for disabled women plus a rehearsal and sharing

A red brick wall with the words Funny Ha Ha in green and an old fashioned microphone on a stand

The Great British Stage Swindle
Playwriting Course for Disabled Writers

Image description - Actor Jennifer Lisky is in the foreground with long dark hair tied up in two small buns and wearing cream linen trousers and waistcoat and a brown grandad collar shirt, and actor Colly Metcalfe is in the background with long curly hair up in a bun and wearing a brown linen skirt with lines from the script sewn onto it in patches, and a cream linen shirt. Jennifer is playing Pip and Colly is playing Mona, a Deaf mother and daughter. The set is a large cream canvas drape at the back with lines of the script sewn onto it in patches and a dining table and two chairs in the middle of the stage. Jennifer is performing in BSL.

Crucial Conversations with Disabled Artists
Creating Access Statements/Riders

A green slide reading Access this way with an arrow pointing right

Cultural Shift
A Crucial Conversation with venues about disability equality

Last year we ran a project called Half Way There which centred on disabled women over 50. Through our work and conversations, we realised that many of our voices were missing from public life, and although many of us are making massive contributions, we don't have many opportunities to meet with each other to share our experiences.

We thought about informal settings where women come together to chat while they are creating something whether its writing or crafting in some way. What a lovely thing to do - to be able to touch base and have a space just for us. You don't have to be remotely arty as we're going to try a few different things out, and if you are arty there will be lots to try too!

Following on from last year's first Funny Ha Ha project which created a comedy writing course for disabled women and culminated in a live online sharing to an incredibly supportive audience, including a representative from Channel Four, a new project has been created - this time it's a collective writing room rather than a course. We'll be inspired by a comedy practitioner at the beginning and then write together, talk about writing, performing and comedy, and generally make each other laugh.
We will be holding a sharing event at the end of the project and will promote booking for that closer to the time, so watch this space.

The Great British Stage Swindle is for disabled people new to playwriting, or people looking for a refresher and will explore a range of entry points to creating disabled-led plays. Vici Wreford-Sinnott, theatre/screenwriter and director will be joined by guest facilitators to explore accessible practice, disabled-led approaches, character, narrative, structure, disabled voices and accessible aesthetics.

A series of timely interactive conversations for disabled artists exploring the Creating Access Riders and their role in creating disability equality in art and culture. We talked about Just What is the New Normal?' What's happening for disabled artists and their careers with the return to largely 'in person' arts activity? What do we need decision makers, venues and organisations to consider to ensure disabled people are not yet again left behind as artists and audiences? We held another conversation Disabled Playwrights' Legacy in Print - Where Is It? with twenty disabled playwrights about the lack of a publishing legacy for our work and possible solutions to safeguard the work from the past and to increase both the profile and publishing opportunities for disabled playwrights.
Information on how to Add Your Voice to these conversations is also on this page.

Cultural Shift was a three year artistic, strategic, disabled-led project developed by Little Cog and ARC Stockton. Through this programme we developed a model of practice which we think is exciting and relevant to promoting disability equality in art and culture. We created this guide to explain what we did and what the impact has been since. We've also posed a series of questions which might help your venue to think about ways forward and actions you might take.

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Thank you so much to our funders and supporters

Little Cog
ARC Stockton
60 Dovecot Street
Stockton-On-Tees
TS18 1LL

E: [email protected]

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Transformers 2022

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