The Olympics will be an opportunity not just for disabled sports people but for disabled artists, through the £3m Unlimited programme
If our disabled sportsmen and sportswomen are going to make an impact in the Paralympic Games in 2012, the artistic counterparts will challenge them neck and neck.
Certainly, if the enthusiasm with which the announcement of Unlimited was greeted is anything to go by.
“We have been rather slow to show inroads in the whole artistic area” said Jenny Sealey, the artistic director for Unlimited and of the theatre company for disabled peroformers, Graeae. “But, oh my god, are we rolling now!”
Unlimited is a £3m programme to create new work for the Cultural Olympiad, and as such will be the largest ever disability programme.
The money comes from a range of providers, including the Olympic Lottery Distributor, Arts Council England, the arts councils of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, London 2012 and the British Council.
There will be a £1.5m commission fund to support the work of disabled and deaf artists and arts organisations; a training and mentoring programme for the successful applicants, tailor-made for each individual’s needs; the commissioned work will be showcased in London and across the UK up to and including the Games; and, in a programme being set up by the British Council in a unique partnership with the UK arts councils, there will be collaborations to showcase the Unlimited work abroad, and promote an international debate among young people about disability rights.
It was the first announcement to be made by the new chairman of the new 2012 Cultural Olympiad Board, Tony Hall. “This is real history being made” he said. “There’s never been anything on this scale in the area before”.
In Beijing, he said, ours was he first organising committee to have disabled artists in the hand-p0ver ceremony. “The UK produces some of the best disability arts in the world, and by using the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games we can help the movement grow, foster young talent, enable collaboration between disabled and mainstream arts organisations and provide platforms to showcase excellence in the UKL and around the world.”
And if the project needs a cheerleader, he was doing it at the press launch at the Southbank Centre. Chris Holmes is the director of paralympic integration for 2012.
When he was 14 Holmes went to bed one night able to see and woke up next morning blind. He was still able to win a place at Cambridge and get a politics degree, while also becoming Britain’s most successful paralympic swimmer, winning nine gold medals in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney.
“Sport isn’t here for everyone in London 2012” he said, in between getting all those present to shout “Unlimited” gleefully. “There haven’t been similar challenges for disabled people, but now we will have a fantastic new dimension.”
Artists or organisations can apply for commission through the Arts Council England’s grants for the arts programme, and there are three funding rounds. The deadline for the first is January 4 next year with results on March 12; the second on October 1, results on December 23; and the last on 18 April 2011, results on July 8.
The commissions will go to work led by disabled or deaf people or organisations, and collaborations are being encouraged. Partnerships can be with mainstream presenting organisations, venues and events. The showcases will be at arts festivals, open weekends and at live sites across the UK.
Officers from the four arts councils will make the first assessments of bids and forward their assessments to a commission panel, half of which will have disabled representation.
Decisions will be made based on the standard grants or the arts criteria:
high quality that can be performance ready from late 2010
work that can make new partnerships with venues and events
work that corresponds to the three or values of Cultural Olympiad, of celebrating the UK’s internationalism and cultural diversity, of involving young people, and of generating a legacy.
The commission should reflect Olympic values, but do not have to be sport themes.
The effect on the disabled community will be deep and lasting, believes Jenny Sealey, who is herself deaf. “The disability community has been on tenterhooks waiting for Unlimited to be unleashed” she aid, because the arts crosses all boundaries that even sport can’t, and force change.
“It enables disabled people to strive for artistic expression, champion their own destiny and combat prejudice. Unlimited is an opportunity like no other for an extraordinary programme of art, performance and spectacle – a chance to speak to the world about the quality of what we do.”
“It’s engaging with things you’ve never engaged with before, never tried before” said Deb Williams, a disabled artist.
Or, to put it he way the newly reinstated culture minister Margaret Hodge did: “We’re going to see what disabled people can do, not what they can’t”.
