Resources - Online

Visual artists

Unlimited Global Alchemy

Rachel Gadsden was awarded an International Unlimited  London 2012 Cultural Olympiad commission in January 2011 for her project Unlimited Global Alchemy which will be part of the London 2012 Festival.

Unlimited Global Alchemy is an artistic commission led by British visual artist Rachel Gadsden, in partnership with South African artist/activist Nondumiso Hlwele and the Bambanani Women’s Group (Khayelitsha Township, Cape Town, South Africa).

Unlimited Global Alchemy will create an exhibition of large-scale visual artworks in South Africa and in the UK that explore culturally diverse experiences alongside shared survival.

During London 2012, a film, an exhibition of artworks and a live multi media theatrical visual performance by Rachel with Nondumiso will celebrate life and present important life enhancing narratives to new audiences.
http://www.unlimitedglobalalchemy.com/

Mandie Saw

Mandie Saw works as a community artist. She describes her own arts practise as being very much influenced by the kitsch side of Catholicism. Her creative output covers everything from handmade books and printmaking to papier mache and photography.

Her website gives details of artscape - an arts project for adults in recovery from long and enduring mental distress, currently based in Petersfield, Hampshire
http://mandiesaw.org

Diversified ART creativity with conscience

The Gallery of Diversified ART accepts ongoing submissions of original works by diverse artists involved in social consciousness.

Diversified ART is a free educational resource where creative people are recognized for the contributions they make not only to the cultural growth of our communities, but for the countless ways creative individuals contribute to society and enrich our experience.

Diversified ART is  made possible by artists and teachers who volunteer their time – we are dedicated to helping creative people succeed and raising awareness on a variety of challenging social and environmental issues. This is about people helping people for the benefit of humanity.
http://anitadallar.wordpress.com/

Outside In Artists Gallery

Outside In was set up in 2006 to offer opportunities for marginalised artists. The main vehicle for Outside In is a biennial open art competition. 

Christine Finn: Leave Home Stay

Leave Home Stay has been an ongoing project since 2007 when artist, archaeologist and anthropologist, Christine Finn turned her family home in Deal, Kent, into an art exhibit - come excavation site.

In 2008 and 2009 Christine developed the work in Deal, further until in 2010 she moved her project to Haiti as she became involved in supporting the Haiti Hospital Appeal.

Dannielle Hodson

Outside In 2009 award winner Dannielle Hodson, makes paintings and drawings that have a powerful expressive quality that evoke her experience of having been incarcerated.

The artist works in a range of media with equal skill, often using text as much as a mark-making device, as a mode of conveying feelings along the journey of surviving difficult circumstances.
http://www.danniellehodson.com

Writers

Kaite O'Reilly

Kaite O’Reilly has won various awards for her work. She has two Cultural Olympiad productions planned for next year which will revolve around disability issues.She has begun a blog on writing and the process. In her current post she gives advice for writers early in their careers.
www.kaiteoreilly.wordpress.com

Penny Pepper

Seriously sensuous creativity

Adventures in the Dark and Light - blog for writer and spoken word artist.

"In the end, all these rampant words and tangling stories are my efforts to make sense of this crazy-dark, scary-light extraordinary thing called life."

"No matter what, I’ll work and write and write some more, to have you all thinking, laughing and wondering."
http://www.pennypepper.co.uk

Blogs

Artist & Film-maker Gary Thomas blog

Gary Thomas looks at the relationship between art & film, why it's sometimes uncomfortable, and how he deals with his own 'strands', (including disability), both personally & professionally.

He'll also be writing about his own work and on developing other projects, including films about the Olympics.
http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/Gary-Thomas

Anne Teahan: Sharing Cultures - disability and visibility

Artist Anne Teahan is undertaking a research project inspired by the 2010 Revealing Culture exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

Research will explores themes of disability within the work of 55 international artists, discussing and making work in response.

Zen Asylum

Beyond Choice, Beyond Reason - Choicelessness in Mental Health

A blog about the exclusion of all NHS mental health services from the NHS Patient Choice agenda. The blog asks readers to cast a vote on whether or not this is disability discrimination.
www.zenasylum.com

Dawn Willis Blog

Blog from a system survivor, which carries articles, blog links, press releases, comments and anything else relating to mental health issues.
http://dawnwillis.wordpress.com/

Music

Staff Benda Bilili

Staff Benda Bilili: eight inspiring street musicians from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Playing instruments improvised from scrap found in the street, they were dubbed by the Guardian as one of the most exciting live bands on the planet, when they toured the UK at the end of last year..

You can listen to some tracks from this truly inspirational band via links to videos and recordings on myspace and youtube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtVZhaZp6Ng
www.myspace.com/staffbendabilili

Heavy Load

Heavy Load - Lewes' answer to the Ramones - had a great year in 2010. It included recording a Channel 4 theme tune for the Cast Offs series, a Scottish tour, a crazy road trip to Denmark and playing in the hottest sweatiest pub in the world with Camden Calling.

Initially a music project that came out of Southdown Housing, Heavy Load are a punk band subject to the usual inflammatory mix of ego, fantasy, and desire. They're also, uniquely, made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities.

Go to their website for news of their latest gigs. Look out for their new 2011 release featuring a tranche of new songs - plus another 'Wild Things' compilation of acts from Asia and Africa.
www.heavyload.org

Shut up and Listen! Radio

Film and Media

Charlie Swinbourne presents My Song

My Song is a coming of age story starring Lara Steward, which follows Ellen, a young deaf girl stuck in the middle of the deaf and hearing worlds.
Feeling as if she doesn't fit in, Ellen learns sign language, attempting to enter the deaf world by taking part in a sign song competition in London. However Ellen is about to find her journey far more difficult than she first thought.

Since it was posted on youtube in late May, the film has had nearly 9,000 views
http://www.youtube.com/user/charlieswinbourne

The UK leads the world in accessible cinema.
Most popular cinemas now have facilities to screen the latest films with subtitles and audio description for people with hearing or sight loss.
For full listings go to www.yourlocalcinema.com

Oyster Project: Radio Lewes

The Oyster Project is a member led disabled persons self-help charity based in Lewes, East Sussex, founded and run by disabled people. 

The majority of our trustees and core project deliverers are people with disabilities and our activities, workshops and events take place throughout the year.

Oyster Project now have a music channel and a talk channel running 24/7 Check out the website to listen online or get yourself one of the DAB/IP radios and listen on a radio!! Advice available at the Drop In Cafe

Contact Oyster Project for latest events and programmes at 49b Cliffe High Street, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2AN
Phone: 01273 311417
co-ordinators@oysterproject.org.uk
www.oysterproject.org.uk

Madness Radio

Voices And Visions from Outside Mental Health brings you personal experiences of 'madness' from beyond conventional perspectives and mainstream treatments, and also features authors, advocates, scientists, and artists.

Madness Radio was launched in 2005 on Valley Free Radio in Massachusetts and has aired more than 100 shows since then. Hour long shows are produced once or twice monthly, and ask about the special 30-minute format that's available. Madness Radio also have a podcast and can be found on iTunes.
http://www.madnessradio.net

Testimony - Inside Stories of mental health care!

A mental Health media project which started in 1999 when over 50 users of the British Mental healthcare system were filmed talking about their experiences of care between the 1930s and 1985.

The interviews are now kept in the archives of the British Library, and are a valuable educational resource for anyone wishing to learn about institutional life from an inside perspective.

Now in its second phase, Testimony aims to use this material, both on this website and within a series of exhibitions and events, to increase understanding and challenge attitudes towards those who use mental health services.

You can use this website to research and develop your knowledge. The resource section gives you access to articles on the history of the asylum in the 20th Century and the growth of the Service User movement. Our archive section gives you access to all interview transcripts from the original Testimony archive. There is also an interactive community section, where you can discuss mental health related issues, and find out how you can get involved.
http://www.insidestories.org

Resistance: transforming the future

You can watch Liz Crow's keynote speech from a recent Disability Studies Conference in Lancaster

The hour-long talk, with questions from the audience, describes Aktion T4, the Nazi programme of mass-murder targeting disabled people, the Resistance installation, Resistance on the Fourth Plinth and discusses assisted suicide and medical ethics.

A transcript is also available to download
www.roaring-girl.com/productions/resistance-conversations/watch

Lots more information on the Resistance projects, including tour dates and historical resources, at:
www.roaring-girl.com/productions/

Submit your videos to the Voluntary Arts YouTube channel

Voluntary Arts has set up a YouTube channel. They have begun populating it with videos, in the hope that it will become a valuable showcase of much of the voluntary and amateur arts and crafts activity happening across the whole of the UK and Ireland.

To have your YouTube video featured, please send a link to info@voluntaryarts.org
To view the videos already featured, visit www.youtube.com/voluntaryarts

Campaigns

Lost Arts website highlights arts cuts

Lost Arts, has been set up to monitor cuts to the arts. 
The website is the joint initiative of the MU, Equity, BECTU, the Writers Guild of Great Britain, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), UNITE, Prospect and PCS, whose members will be directly affected by cuts to the arts.

The website will show, on a day by day basis, the accumulating amount of arts funding that the nation could be losing forever. The Lost Arts website will monitor cuts for the next three years to 2015, and will record and catalogue all of the projects, events, initiatives, performances, organisations and companies that will be lost due to the cuts in public funding; keep a running total of the money lost to the arts and; record the jobs under threat.

Anyone can submit information about how they have been affected at www.lost-arts.org

I Value the Arts

The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) public campaign 'I Value the Arts' has attracted over 9,000 supporters, but needs more

Three quarters of the adult population attend or participate in arts activities every year and an even higher proportion of young people. At a time of recession, more and more people are turning to the arts and culture.

Reduced opportunities to take part in the arts could have a major impact on the quality of people's lives and the vibrancy of their communities. As the Government is encouraging us all to get engaged and create a 'Big Society', the NCA believes it is important for those people who care about the arts to get involved in the decision-making about what their communities will look like. This campaign gives everyone who cares a chance to have their voice heard and collectively show that the arts provide a valued public service.

If you value the arts and want to have a say about the arts in your community please register your details. You will then be kept in touch with plans that could affect the arts nationally and in your area, with practical suggestions on what you can do to strengthen the case for the arts.
www.ivaluethearts.org.uk

Equality Act 2010 overview from NCVO

NCVO Workforce Development has compiled links to useful resources relating to the new Equality Act along with definitions of terms, to make it easier for voluntary organisations to understand the key points of the Act.

It would also be keen to hear about what challenges voluntary and community sector organisations envisage when implementing the new legislation, and if organisations require additional sector-specific guidance on the Act. Please let NCVO know your thoughts via the online discussion
http://tinyurl.com/2ay3hae

The Save the Arts campaign

The aim of the Save the Arts campaign is to encourage people to sign a petition which will be sent to the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

It has taken 50 years to create a vibrant arts culture in Britain that is the envy of the world and appeals to the government not to slash arts funding and risk destroying this long-term achievement and the social and economic benefits it brings to all.

Over a hundred leading artists including David Hockney, Damien Hirst, Anthony Caro, Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor, Richard Hamilton, Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley and Tracey Emin have joined the campaign to make the case against the proposed 25% cuts in government funding of the arts.

The campaign acknowledges that reasonable cuts and efficiencies are necessary but that the 25% cuts being proposed will destroy much of what has been achieved and will have a particularly damaging impact on smaller scale arts organisations, as well as on national and regional museums and their collections.

The first stage of the campaign presents a new video animation by artist David Shrigley highlighting the effect of the funding cuts and a new work by Jeremy Deller with Scott King and William Morris. Each week, the work of a different artist will be released. Mark Wallinger will present the next project.
http://savethearts-uk.blogspot.com/

Voice4Change England celebrates new independence

Projects

Accentuate

One vision, 15 Projects, 1000 days to create a cultural shift

Dr Tom Shakespeare talks to Accentuate Director, Esther Appleyard about what he feelings it would take for a cultural shift in attitudes towards disabled people to take place, in the advent of The Paralympics.

His message is that there is an opportunity for disabled people to be seen to be contributing to society given that systems of support are in place to allow disabled people to take part. The more disabled people are seen in the public eye, the more this will filter hrough into the ways disabled people are perceived.
www.accentuate-se.org

Citizens Online (COL)

Citizens Online is an independent UK Charity
COL is focused on ensuring that every member of society regardless of their income, educational attainment, skills and motivation has the opportunity to experience the social and economic benefits of the Internet and digital technologies.

The Charity’s programme 'Everybody Online has run for eight years targeting disadvantaged members of society to help them access the benefits of the Internet. Projects have run in 23 locations across the UK, helping over 100,000 people to get online.

The 'Access is a Human Right' campaign represents the charity’s belief that understanding and having the ability to use technology is a person’s fundamental right. Freedom of expression, education and participation can all be restricted by lack of access online. It is the duty of all to promote access and reduce restrictions on access.
For more information go to Citizens Online
www.citizensonline.org.uk

Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA)

The MeCCSA Disability Studies Network aims to support and promote the development of the research and teaching of Disability Studies within Media Studies and to provide a space to support and promote the work of disabled academics, lecturers, researchers and media practitioners working in Higher Education.

The network facilitates the sharing of information, develop and promote research and publication in the fields of media, film, music, communications and cultural studies in relation to disability, and will develop links and dialogues with other relevant networks.
www.meccsa.org.uk/

Access

Get a Plan

An online resource offering resources and guides to aid developing diversity action planning for your organisation
Action Planning can develop a positive approach to inclusive access for different groups. Action Planning is simply a way of auditing all aspects of your organisation and then determine what action you will take to improve what you can provide. Disability Action Planning focuses on access for disabled people, Diversity Action Planning covers access and inclusion for a range of diverse groups.

Action Planning is not about improving only one aspect of what you provide, it is being holistic and looking at how inclusion and access impacts on the whole of your organisation

To find out more and sign up to quarterly ebulletins, go to www.getaplan.org.uk

Sarah Playforth

Access, Diversity & Equality Consultancy
Sussex-based service providing consultancy and training in disability access, diversity and equality for corporations, small businesses, local government and health trusts.

Embedding diversity and equality of access into your organisation is a sure way to maximise the users of your services and increase profits.
To find out more contact Sarah via her website at www.sarahplayforth.com

Training

Broadcast Opportunities with Redstone FM

A local community radio station for the Redhill, Reigate, and Horley area in Surrey.
Redstone FM organises radio training courses, specialising in giving training to blind or partially sighted people - and other disabled people. thye current course is full - but contact them to be considered for a future course.

They have broadcast rights, using 6 temporary licenses issued by the media regulator, Ofcom.
07933 430199
redstone.fm@btinternet.com
www.redstone.fm