Sector day: Cripping the Space

16%-24% of the population has a disability.

That group is currently inadequately represented in the current arts sector.

As an artist or organization, how do you work on accessibility in a sustainable way, both in the workplace and within the creation of a performance? Why is it important to facilitate work by/about disability? Where do you start and what is involved?

Crucial questions to which we try to offer practice-oriented answers on this day. International speakers such as Kaite O’Reilly, among others, come to inspire us with words of wisdom. Cripping the Space presents their charter to the industry. We eat together and offer info sessions shaped by Culture Desk.

SCHEDULE -under reservation-

10:30 – 10:00 Walk-in with coffee

11:00 – 12:00 Keynote Kaite O’Reilly

12:00 – 12:30 Q&A

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 14:00 Presentation Charter

14:00 – 14:30 Q&A

14:30 – 15:30 An info session on recruiting artists in a cultural organization

15:30 – 16:30 An info session on funding for more accessible cultural organizations and activities

Info session: hiring artists in a cultural organization

As a cultural organization you have to deal with various artists: everyone has taken a different route to get to your organization. You have to take into account not only that route, but also various backgrounds and their status. In this session, we’ll look at, among other things, what you need to consider when you want to compensate an artist for his/her/their performance and the method of compensation in conjunction with the type of income they may already be receiving (such as an income replacement allowance, benefit, art work allowance, living wage, etc.).

Info session: funding for more accessible cultural organizations and activities

Making your workplace, organization and cultural activities more accessible requires an additional investment. During this info session, we aim to help cultural organizations gain insights into additional funding opportunities and strategies to make their operations more accessible to people with disabilities.

In collaboration with Het TheaterFestival, Kunstenpunt, Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, Cultuurloket, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Lasso & DE SINGEL

• Kaite O’Reilly is a UK-based playwright and theatre maker who works internationally in disability arts and culture and so-called ‘mainstream’ culture. Her award-winning plays and performance work are innovative in form, aesthetics, and content, often experimenting with what she calls ‘alternative dramaturgies informed by a d/Deaf and disability perspective’ (embedded audio-description, bilingualism with spoken/visual languages, etc).

A self-identifying ‘crip’ and disability artist, awards include The Ted Hughes Award for New Works in Poetry (Persians, National Theatre Wales), The Peggy Ramsay Award (Yard, Bush Theatre, Theatre-Wales Award (peeling, Graeae Theatre Company). Her critically acclaimed plays on difference and disability Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors are published by Oberon.

She collaborates with Phillip Zarrilli of The Llanarth Group, who directed Cosy (2016), and the 9 Fridas (with Mobius Strip Theatre, Taiwan, in association with Hong Kong Repertory Company, 2014/2016). With Zarrilli and Jo Shapland, she co-created Told by the Wind for The Llanarth Group, which has toured extensively (Evora Festival, Portugal; Grotowski Institute, Poland; Dance Center, Chicago, USA; Theatre Babylon, Tokyo, Japan). This 60 minute dance-theatre explores the aesthetics of Quietude, and is available for further touring.

As fellow of international research centre ‘Interweaving Performance Cultures’  at Freie Universitat  in Berlin, she is reflecting on her practice, exploring how distinctive Deaf and disability cultures operate with, against, and/or in opposition to ‘mainstream’ or ‘dominant’ cultural paradigms. She is the patron of Disability Arts Cymru and  DaDa (Disability arts Deaf arts), and the editor of ‘FACE ON: Disability Arts in Ireland and Beyond’ (Arts Disability Ireland).