In practice, disability representation in the Visual Arts

This seminar from July 2024 explored disability representation in the visual arts sector; from lived experience of neurodivergence and disability, to further education, where art empowers young people as a tool for communication. Speakers explored what it means to be a curator working with artists who face barriers, and how these practices activate positive change. What do these changing spaces look like in practice?

Presentations with Matt Burrows (Exeter Phoenix), Anna Mankee-Williams (Falmouth University), Heather Peak (DASH) and Christopher Samuel (Artist).

About the Speakers

Matt Burrows
Matt Burrows is the Curator and Gallery Manager at Exeter Phoenix, a multi-artform contemporary arts venue in Devon, UK that specialises in working with emerging and mid-career artists. He has over 30 years of experience working with contemporary art in project management, exhibition making and curating roles, in commercial, public and community settings. He also takes on a variety of freelance consultancy projects, mentoring and lecturing roles.

Anna Mankee-Williams
Anna has worked at Falmouth University since 2017 focusing on research that brings art and health together in an interdisciplinary space. Previously Anna worked in the NHS for 22 years, and subsequently the Local Authority for 11 years developing the health and wellbeing and partnership agenda.

Anna’s research programmes include: The Connected Health Care project (bringing satellite technology into care homes to improve remote care and support), The South West Centre of Excellence Satellite Applications (optimising space technology within a health and wellbeing context), Springboard Studios (supporting students mental health through creative practice as they transition into employment), The Attune Project (exploring the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on young people’s mental health), CREATE – Creating research ecologies to advance transdisciplinary learning: Arts based programmes and the study of adolescent loneliness, Hear Me (a collaborative approach to capturing voices from a care home during Covid 19) and Reimagining Outpatients - Routes to Renewal in Outpatient Departments: A catalyst for change through autobiographical and transdisciplinary ethnography. Recent publications have focused on ethical issues in participatory arts, inequality and the digital divide, voices and research within care homes, unpaid carers and rurality and serious games within adolescent mental health.

Heather Peak:
Heather Peak is Artist/Artistic Director/CEO of DASH. DASH is a Disability Visual Arts organisation whose mission is to cultivate spaces for extraordinary artists. They work with artists, audiences, communities and organisations to challenge inequality and implement change.

Heather is also known for her work as one half of the artist duo Heather Peak and Ivan Morison and is a Visiting Professor of fine art at UniArts, Helsinki. She has exhibited widely across the UK, Europe, Australasia, North and South America and Asia. Her work has been commissioned by Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wysing Arts Centre, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Tate Modern, National Theatre of Wales, Vancouver Art Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and London’s Southbank Centre among many others. She also represented Wales at the 52nd Venice Biennial.
www.dasharts.org
www.peakmorison.org

Christopher Samuel
Christopher is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, often echoing the many facets of his own lived experience. Christopher’s work tells stories, often raising awareness of his experiences as a black disabled artist, missing representation within archives, and shared narratives from others in similar circumstances. This includes small detailed ink drawings, film, printing, research, and large installation-based work.

About Amanda

Amanda Lynch is a visual artist, researcher and curator, her special interests are within the Disability Arts Movement and in being an advocate for those who face barriers due to disability.

Amanda grew up on the outskirts of London and now lives in Somerset. She studied at Leicester at De Montfort University for a BA Fine Arts Degree and loved it so much that she stayed on to gain a Master’s in the Arts. Amanda trained in sculpture, using heavy large materials such as cement and plaster, before moving into working with assemblage and collage. Her practice is now research and activist-focused.

Part of the West of England Visual Arts Alliance (WEVAA), a three year programme that includes professional development, commissioning, and support and resources. Find out more here https://vasw.org.uk/wevaa.