Shape Arts is a disability-led arts organisation working to remove barriers to creative excellence for disabled people by providing opportunities for disabled artists, training cultural institutions to be more open to disabled people, and through running participatory arts and development programmes.
* Shape Open * Adam Reynolds Award * Shape Collection * NDACA (the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive) * NDMAC (the National Disability Movement Archive and Collection) * Unlimited co-delivered with Artsadmin and Senior Producer, Jo Verrent
In addition to this, we provide access auditing and training services to arts organisations. Working across the UK and internationally, we deliver consultancy that works towards the improvement of cultural services for all disabled people. We find organisations who engage with us are better equipped and more confident in welcoming and working with diverse groups of all kinds, whether as participants, employees, or artists. All of Shape’s work is informed by the Social Model of Disability. You can read and download our Annual Reviews here.
Philosophy:
Our founding principle and philosophy is that all disabled people should have the opportunity to participate fully in arts and culture.
Vision:
an inspiring and inclusive arts sector, accessible to all.
Mission:
promote great art and inclusive practices, knowledge and learning, ensuring disabled people have active and influential roles in arts and culture - as leaders, artists, participants and audiences, as part of a skilled workforce.
Jason Wilsher-Mills, Pagan God Sculpture, 2020.
Our interaction with artists is central to our work and we support and help to empower disabled artists working across a range of creative disciplines. We provide professional development opportunities for artists, including mentoring schemes, workshops, talks and networking opportunities, and advice about raising your profile. We provide accessible exhibitions and showcase events, both live and online, where work can be received and recognised, challenged and championed, before diverse and growing audiences. We are dedicated to working with emerging as well as established disabled artists. We are committed to inclusion and diversity, working with people of all ages and from a range of cultural and economic backgrounds. We run a rigorous and critically acclaimed programme of commissions, bursaries, and awards, and are privileged to work with some of the boldest and best artistic and curatorial talent in the UK. Many of these award-winning artists go on to mentor younger or emerging artists within our programme. We champion high quality art that is ambitious, challenging, and intriguing. We celebrate the creative process as well as the finished product. We support the element of risk in making excellent art and we value creative ambition.
Though this year came to a close in a tumultuous and unprecedented manner, Shape’s commitment to inclusive and radical heritage and culture has not only remained steadfast, but evolved in an exciting and pioneering fashion. Our programme continues to be guided by the creatives we proudly support and underpinned by sector-leading approaches to accessibility, diversity and inclusion. While some of the change we have faced has been forced upon us from outside, some of it has evolved as a result of planning and consideration, and through the dedicated support of our team. The Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary evolved into the Adam Reynolds Award, marking the start of a new decade of supporting artistic excellence for mid-career disabled artists, and across the year both Sophie Hoyle and Jason Wilsher-Mills illustrate the best of those whose practices embody innovation alongside approaches that support and empower marginalised communities. Similarly, Unlimited has set a new course towards transitioning into a new organisation in the next two years, again drawing upon the support and hard work of the teams that deliver this landmark project that Shape leads on. The Shape Open once again offered a challenge to cultural audiences, centring artworks and voices engaged with critical perspectives on a disability-led theme. The 320 submissions we received from across the globe are a testament not only to the success and growing reach of the programme but to the need for such spaces in the art world and wider cultural communities. Our planned events at Tate Exchange were just a few days away from taking place when we took the decision to withdraw on grounds of safety. Later that month, of course, the country went into lockdown. This marked the change to digital-first delivery that has been the model we have used since then, and we are pleased to have been able to support disabled creatives through online platforms in a number of ways, developing resources as well as showcasing creative content. Ensuring that we continue to deliver high quality content in an accessible way remains our priority. These qualities have been an integral feature of our leading large-scale heritage projects, as we continue to innovate with the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive (the-ndaca.org) and begin development work on the National Disability Movement Archive and Collection (NDMAC). As ever, our foundation value of inclusion has informed how creative excellence should evolve, and this threads through our training and consultancy work, which over the year reached hundreds of cultural workers in organisations across the UK and overseas. In particular, we built on partnerships with colleagues in the United States and Asia, and in spite of the pandemic plan to continue to spread our influence as well as learn from leading schools of best practice and artistic excellence across the world. At the core of our programme, though, are the disabled creatives for whom this year has been a significant challenge. We hope that the coming year brings better news externally whilst from the inside we are resolved to continue to provide support and partnership towards breaking systemic barriers and championing a new generation of marginalised voices and artists. Finally, we would like to thank our supporters, donors, and funders who include Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and British Council. Our warm thanks go to Shape Open patron Yinka Shonibare CBE for his continued support and encouragement. Tony Heaton OBE, Shape Chair and David Hevey, Shape CEO
2019-20 was Shape’s second in a new five-year operational plan as a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), funded and supported by Arts Council England 2018-2023. (Arts Council England having extended the arrangement an additional year to 2023 due to Covid-19 pressures in 2020/21). Throughout the year, we have continued with our core work to develop the creative talent and agency of disabled artists, and we continue to support disabled creatives in all levels of the arts, creative and cultural industries, from those starting out to those in senior positions. We also strive to make the arts and cultural sectors fully inclusive to disabled people. Our principle is clear: we are in the business of breaking barriers to creative excellence. And we make impact. Our users are in the tens of thousands and our audiences are now in the tens of millions as we regularly featured in major reviews on the BBC and in other media. Our first major heritage project, the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive established itself in 2019/20 as the exemplar of new and diverse heritage. We extended the audience to above 6 million; saw the opening of the NDACA Wing for Learning at the Buckinghamshire New University in May 2019 with a huge growth in our online profile. Throughout the year we also saw artwork from the NDACA collection touring to the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool, the London College of Communication, and the MAC (the Midlands Arts Centre) in Birmingham. Unlimited 3 (UL3) continued its artistic development and commissioning programmes. We lobbied ACE regularly in 2019/20 to realise UL4, which became Unlimited Transition (ULT). We also lobbied large-scale partners such as Coventry City of Culture, to partner with Unlimited, again successfully. Several of our Unlimited artists featured in the landmark ITV idents series. Shape, with partners Artsadmin and Senior Producer Jo Verrent led the bid for the successful ULT extension (£1M). Across all our programme and projects, we continued to deliver a wide range of programme activity in arts and creative locations, both walk-in and online. We continue to influence widely and ‘punch above our weight’ as we continue the fight to open up the creative sectors to talented disabled and marginalised creatives and artists; promoting them to increase their profile and help lead change.
Kirkwood Brothers, Flowers, 2020.
Shape Open at Bow Arts, East London. The Adam Reynolds Award at the Baltic, Gateshead, with the Shortlist Exhibition at Baltic 39, Newcastle. Shape Collection works at locations including the MAC in Birmingham, the Grundy in Blackpool and the NDACA Wing at Buckinghamshire New University. Development of Emergence, the talent development pilot project supporting emerging disabled artists. Shape artists figuring prominently in the ITV Creates idents, reaching tens of millions in audiences. Shape Artists Network continued to support disabled artists through the development of resources and by connecting them to gallerists, publicists, sector experts and funders. We also saw the successful development of a set of new major projects which were confirmed in March 2020, including our second major heritage project, the National Disability Movement Archive and Collection (NDMAC) 2020 – 2025; an extension of our Unlimited project for another two years until 2022 ( Unlimited Transition), and our Shape Transforming Leadership project to run between 20202022. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in a swift pivot to remote working by Shape staff, remote Board and management meetings, and fully online and digital delivery planned for 2020/21. Increasing our ‘born digital’ work was already the direction of travel for Shape because of the quality of the digital work being produced by disabled creatives and the potential scale of the online users and audiences. We supported over 100 artists during the year, over 90% of whom identify as disabled. Artist profiles are a key feature of our website, social media, and other outputs.
Abi Palmer in Crip Casino, image courtesy of Jackie Hagan.
The 2019 main ARMB award went to artist Sophie Hoyle. Sophie received a £10,000 bursary and undertook an accompanying three-month residency, hosted by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art from 4 March – 31 May 2019. Sophie explores an intersectional approach to post-colonial, queer, feminist, anti-psychiatry, and disability issues in their practice, relating their personal experiences of being queer, non-binary, and part of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) diaspora to wider forms of structural violence. During their residency, Sophie utilised the time, space, and support to extend their research, creating spaces for exchange and collaboration with local activist groups and disabled artist communities. Sophie’s comment: “I’m feeling overwhelmed but really excited and looking forward to having time and space to expand on different elements of my practice, and to engage with communities in Gateshead. I feel honoured to have been part of such a great shortlist of artists who I feel are all making really important and urgent work and look forward to exhibiting with them next year.”
Following Sophie’s residency, we were particularly pleased that through Baltic’s enthusiasm for the award and programme, the 2019 shortlist exhibition took place at Baltic 39 Gallery, which hosted a discussion led by the exhibiting artists, and a live performance piece by Laura Lulika and Hang Linton that explicitly explored ‘queer, crip, and caregiving identities.’
Amy Rosa, Somnium 2019, Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary Shortlist Exhibition, Project Space at BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, © BALTIC 2019, Photo: Colin Davison
There were three main areas of activity for the Adam Reynolds Award (ARA) this year: the completion of Sophie Hoyle’s residency at the Baltic, Gateshead; the Shortlist Exhibition at Baltic 39 in Newcastle; and an evaluation of 10 years of the ARMB.
In keeping with previous years, a distinguished panel oversaw the selection of the shortlisted and winning artists, including 2018 ARMB recipient, Terence Birch; Shape CEO, David Hevey; and BALTIC Curator, Emma Dean. The ARMB shortlisted artists were: · Amy Rosa – working with elemental materials from woods, beaches and parks, Amy explores the act of shaping an installation intuitively, and creating sculptural spaces. · Leah Clements – based mostly in film and performance, but expanding to installation, Leah’s practice is concerned with the relationship between the psychological and the physical; emotional experiences; and blurry forms of consciousness. · Sophie Hoyle – Sophie explores an intersectional approach to post-colonial, queer, feminist, anti-psychiatry and disability issues. · Laura Lulika– working predominantly with video, sound and performance, Laura explores themes of gender, sexuality, sickness/ disability/ ‘cripness’ and performativity in the everyday. · Romily Alice Walden - Romily’s core practice is an interrogation of contemporary embodiment and its relation to the Post-Internet age. Questioning modern western society’s relationship with looking, being looked at, gendered hierarchies, disability and the body. In 2019-20, there were also the announcements of both the rebranding of the Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary to its new name, the Adam Reynolds Award, and the announcement of the 2020-21 recipient, Jason Wilsher Mills. It was later announced, too, that Jason is to be one of twenty international artists to display work at the Folkestone Triennial 2020 (subsequently rescheduled to 2021 due to Covid-19). Jason unveiled his first public sculpture commission, ‘A Totem for Hull,’ at the University of Hull this year, too. The work was unveiled by Hull-born actor and creator of cult-comedy, The League of Gentlemen, Reece Shearsmith. The project was developed through collaborative work with a range of disability groups and organisations in Hull, allowing local disabled people to explore the representation of disability in the region by retelling their personal stories. The commission was partnered with Artlink Hull who Shape supported in the establishment of the Square Peg residency for disabled artists, which is now an annual award (and which Jason won two years ago!)
“It really was an honour to be recognised by the prestigious panel and to top the evening off, to my delight, I sold the piece of work I exhibited. What a fantastic and inspiring evening. Since winning the open I continued to make and exhibit until lockdown arrived delaying many things for lots of us. However I have felt propelled to work and my practice continues to grow, exploring my health visually. I have been working on a year long project that I hope to exhibit and publish at some point in the near future. Winning The Shape Open gave me a sense of encouragement and supported my self belief to keep going which has been most valuable in these current times more than could have been predicted. Thank you Shape Arts.”
Shape CEO David Hevey, Catriona Faulkner, and Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA). Credit: Rachel Cherry
Catriona Faulkner’s work ‘Cycles’ 2019, image courtesy of artist. Image
Catriona Faulkner, winner of this year’s Shape Open:
This year’s Shape Open theme was ‘In Circles’. In the callout, we asked: ‘Are we going around in circles? Disability Arts and the mainstream have long run parallel to one another whilst rarely converging. The conversations surrounding this divide have seemingly circled but what has come of it? Where are our points of connection and commonality? How do we widen the conversation about disability and how do we continue to navigate society and diversify the lived experiences told, in particular those of disabled people? With the common axis of disability, do you feel like the same questions and answers are endlessly repeating?’. We had over 320 artists apply from across the globe, of which 40 were selected for the exhibition. Many of these artists were new to us; others had exhibited before and were more established; around a quarter had connections to us through a variety of Shape-supported strands such as NDACA, Unlimited, our youth programme Inspiring Futures, and the Shape gallery. We were delighted that Yinka Shonibare CBE, our patron, attended the exhibition opening at Bow Arts in September 2019, where he took part in the judging and announcement of this year’s awards. The winning artist was Catriona Faulkner, whose entry explored the cyclical nature of chronic illness and medication.
This year’s exhibiting artists were: Tony Allen, Richard Amm, Faith Bebbington, Coreen Bernard, Lizz Brady, Claire Callow, Sam Castell-Ward, Annie Ho Cooper, Daisy Cowley, Nikki Davidson-Bowman, Catriona Faulkner, Alice Rose Floyd, Steven Fraser, CL Gamble, Laura Graham, Michael Gurhy, Steven Hardy, Jack Haslam, Liam HassanBeserekumo, Tzipporah Johnston, Elora Kadir, Nihan Karim, Glynis Lamond, Carrie Mason, Campbell Mcconnell, Andrew McPhail, Jenny Meehan, Charlie J. Meyers, Bella Milroy, Aidan Moesby, Steve Musk, Elfrida Osbert, Alice Partington, Beau Rouse, Amna Sharif, Anne Smith, Mark Tamer, Andrea Vicentini, Aminder Viree, Ophir Yaron, Chan Chung Yuen
Image credit: Rachel Cherry.
Tate Exchange Our presence at Tate Exchange in early 2019, entitled FLUX/US, received very positive feedback in April following the event in March. The responses included those from the schools we had supported, including teachers and guardians of children at Rushey Green School, who had attended our programme and taken part in related creative sessions we supported. They gave the experience a five out of five! The 2019-20 year was to be our fourth consecutive engagement as a Tate Exchange partner, a prestigious and ground-breaking programme designed to be an open experiment exploring the role of art in society. We had planned to deliver a creative workshop programme led by artists from the Emergence Bursary Programme (Letty McHugh, Fae Kilburn and Lauren Saunders) who were due to speak about the work they have made over the past 12 months, reflecting on how the Emergence award has changed their practice. This event was to be delivered in collaboration with Disability Arts Online.
The Emergence artists: Letty McHugh is an artist and writer, with an MA in Creative Practice from Leeds College of Art. Influenced by Situationist theory and Object theory, Letty’s work is underpinned by the idea that the primary value of all objects is their ability to evidence human existence and communicate intangible emotions, memories and experiences. Fae Kilburn is a Birmingham based Printmaker, who has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her recent work consists of a series of mono print portraits exploring family, disability and identity. Whilst creating this work a softer colour pallet and new style emerged. In 2018 Fae was artist in residence at Kingsbrae International Residency for the Arts (KIRA), Canada where the quiet environment suited her and reinforced her creativity, influencing the style and size of her work. Lauren Saunders is an award-winning and socially-engaged interdisciplinary visual artist living & working in Hull, UK. Her work responds to philosophical questions by systematically dissecting, capturing, interrogating and translating thoughts and experiences through collage and by drawing in the expanded field. The intellectual, sensual and material sits in relation to the concepts, subjects, media, contexts and surfaces explored within her participatory practice. Supporting the programme, and profiled by Shape across website and social feeds as well as the Tate programme, were three other diverse emerging artists: Naomi Ronke , an illustration graduate from Leeds College of Art, is a Narrative Printmaker and Digital artist whose work predominantly focuses on Horror and Folklore. Creating both sequential and single image narrative based on a mixture of self-made briefs inspired by cultural and historical research or around commissioned stories. Sam Metz, an artist, educator, and researcher. They studied Architecture and Critical Theory (philosophy) at the University of Nottingham and previously trained in physical theatre. Based in Hull, Sam’s work researches, creates and reflects on the concept of what they refer to as ‘choreographic objects.’ ‘Choreographic objects’ are described by Sam as any work that has a relationship to the body and movement. This can be because of the work’s appearance or because of the method used to create it. Anita Roye is interested in the therapeutic value of art and encourages play and experimentation through play in her practice. Anita’s work is rooted in the English tradition of travelling, observing and working directly from the landscape; immersing herself in the sights and sounds, as well as capturing an emotional response that is felt then depicted within the layers of the canvas, creating a skin like surface. These large works are finished in her studio, using oil paints on top of the first acrylic layer.
However, it was with great regret that - owing to the developing situation regarding the Coronavirus and acknowledging the potential health risks to all involved - Shape and Disability Arts Online were forced to postpone the event until further notice. We did manage to achieve a number of outcomes in terms of providing support and profile raising for the artists involved by sharing content designed for the event online and inviting Naomi, Sam, and Anita to takeover our Instagram account.
Major artworks from the Shape Collection displayed at two major exhibitions in 2019/20, with Tom Shakespeare’s works prominently in the NDACA AT THE GRUNDY (13/7/19 – 7/9/19) and works from the Collection within the MAC Birmingham’s Art and Social Change exhibition curated by Anna Berry (11 Jan – 22 nd March 2020). Curator Anna Berry is a Shape-supported artist and ARMB Shortlist alumnus. James Lake’s Sitting Without Purpose, again a part of the Shape Collection, commenced its presence in the NDACA Wing in Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe, in May 2019, which subsequently became the object of much attention from students.
‘Scarecrow’ by N. Ronke, artwork courtesy of the artist.
Over the year we supported artists in a variety of capacities, including through project development and participation, one to one discussions, written and film based resources, mentoring, signposting and residency, showcasing and exhibition opportunities. Our wider work in liaising with cultural organisations is also an indirect form of support, through encouraging them to open up their programmes to disabled and marginalised creatives, as well as disabled visitors and participants. Some examples are listed below. We supported Unravelled, an arts organisation led by Polly Harknett and Caitlin Heffernan, in the development of an environmentally-focused exhibition, ‘PARADOX’ at London Wetlands Centre. Unravelled celebrates innovation in the arts by working across fine art and craft practice and by offering exhibition opportunities in spaces where artists and makers can explore how art can evoke histories, stories, and a sense of place. We were delighted that Anne Deeming was one of the five artists selected for the exhibition and we enjoyed exploring the curation of the exhibition’s access with Unravelled throughout the year. Unfortunately, the opening had to be postponed due to the pandemic, but following the lockdown both artists and curators were able to celebrate later in the year.
One way we are able to measure the value of our support is to track the progress of the creatives we support in the time beyond their first encounter with us. For each artist, a significant next step may be different in kind to the next artist, but of value to them. Below is a sample of what Shape alumni and associates have achieved or gone or to do in the year: Mark Tamer, who was selected for the Shape Open 2019 with his work, ‘The Black Sun,’ had his first solo show at Muse Gallery, London. Jamie Hale and Elinor Rowlands performed at the Hammersmith Lyric materials they had been working on since joining our writers’ workshops in 2017. Long-standing Shape Ally, Terry Smith, led Venice Agendas, a programme exploring issues in contemporary art and culture. CEO David Hevey supported HOP Projects in Folkestone, providing mentoring and guidance on their application to Arts Council England. HOP are developing a new, radical trance of interesting ‘diversity’ art works in Kent, informed by their own experiences as marginalised people. Their upcoming project is likely to reach over half a million people! We were delighted to see a number of Shape-supported artists commissioned for ITV Idents, shown as part of a year-long series profiling artists’ work during commercial breaks and reaching millions of viewers in the process. Artists chosen include Anna Berry, Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, and Faith Bebbington. Shape Open alumnus, Christopher Samuel, was one of a number of Shape-supported artists to show work at the Art B&B in Blackpool, having been awarded a commission through Unlimited, as was ARMB shortlist alumnus and Shape-supported artist at Tate Exchange, Romily Alice Walden. A number of disabled artists who we have supported through the years are set to be featured in a new BBC America series, Crip Tales, curated by Mat Fraser. Of these performers, Jackie Hagan was most recently supported by us at Tate Exchange in 2019. Emergence Pilot Project’s Lauren Saunders, who was involved in this year’s Tate Exchange programme, too, received our support in establishing The Critical Fish, a journal designed to build critical dialogues in the visual arts in Hull. We produced and published films to promote artist profiles, such as Sally Booth, Allan Sutherland, and Jess Thom. We reached tens of millions through David Hevey’s participation in the British Council’s Venice Biennale panel this year , advocating for the selection of Sonia Boyce as ‘the first Black woman to represent Great Britain at the prestigious Venice Biennale.’
Artist Fae Kilburn in the studio, image courtesy of the artist.
Our work with children and young people aims to raise the aspirations of young disabled people who are contemplating their futures and help them to formulate positive future plans, as well as to encourage wider arts and cultural engagement among young people. We prioritise engagements where young disabled people can connect with disabled artists who have a professional practice, and who can act as mentors and role models, and with arts organisations able to provide a high quality offer in terms of cultural education and career progression routes, or the opportunity to experience and enjoy great art. In all cases, we prioritise these quality principles in our work with young people: 1. Striving for excellence.
2. Being authentic. 3. Being exciting, inspiring and engaging. Three sketches of Chicago, courtesy of Sally Booth (page 20).
4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience. 5. Actively involving children and young people 6. Providing a sense of personal progression. 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging Our ‘Culture&’ trainee, Lydia, continued to work towards her diploma and supported us with our youth Twitter and other comms, as well as upskilling sessions led by Create Audiences (through our local Arts Council bridge organisation A New Direction). A large focus of this support is aimed at supporting the Cultural Education Challenge, ensuring marginalised groups do not miss out on the massive cultural offer of the capital. Throughout this year, we also continued to liaise with schools in regards to a forward programme of creative activity leading to Arts Award qualifications for disabled students, who attended our Shape Open exhibition and made creative works in response to its themes and messages.
Unlimited began 2019 with 26 brand new commissions across our three award strands, with £550,000 given to support six Emerging Artist Awards, ten Research and Development (R&D) Awards, and seven Main commission awards. Funded by Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, British Council, and Spirit of 2012, as well as Partnership Awards, working with Wellcome Collection, Farnham Maltings, Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust, GOSH Arts, and Forma. We received 270 applications, of which 50 were shortlisted, by a selection panel of arts industry professionals. These 26 awardees spanned a range of subjects and forms, from visual arts to photography, literature, music, theatre, and dance. The work commissioned by Unlimited continued to push the boundaries of innovation and ambition. From fictional armed resistance movements to Afro-futurist space church parties, the 2019 awardee cohort expanded the range of artforms Unlimited showcased more than ever. Across the year Unlimited also funded three Strategic Partnership Projects, some of which were co-commissioned through partnerships with The Art House in Wakefield and Great Ormond Street Hospital. We also funded seven additional projects this year through partnerships with the Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture, Blackpool Art B&B, Chapel Arts Studios, Marlborough Productions: New Queers on the Block, and Selina Thompson Ltd. 2019 was a busy year for Unlimited events. In September we held a series of Unlimited Connects events across England and Wales with the aim to connect disabled artists and organisations with each other for discussions and potential partnerships. We held four events in the latter half of 2019 with Sick Festival in Manchester, Frontline Dance in Stoke-on-Trent, Firstsite in Colchester, and Wiltshire Creative in Wiltshire. Each event addressed a different focus area for Unlimited and had a different theme of discussion. Artists were invited to present at ‘Pitch and Mix’ with other artists and local arts organisations.
Whilst we were forging new ally relationships with our Connects events one of our longest running partnerships came to an end in October 2019. Spirit of 2012 provided Unlimited with over one million pounds of funding across three years that helped to support 18 emerging artists commissions, mentoring opportunities, and four traineeships. The lasting impact of Unlimited’s work with Spirit of 2012 continues to be seen on the Unlimited Youtube channel in the ten videos we created during their time funding artists and trainees. Unlimited ended 2019 with plans to continue our Connects series in Wales. In the early part of 2020, our Connects events went to Wales Millennium Centre, The Torch Theatre Wales, Galeri Caernarfon, Ffwrnes Llanelli and Theatr Brycheiniog and held a virtual event with the Visual Arts Group in Wrexham. We had also received the fantastic news that the Unlimited programme had been extended thanks to further funding from Arts Council England. This means that Unlimited can continue to commission artists through until 2022. Throughout 2020, Unlimited has been committed to making sure disabled artists are able to continue creating and being supported. In the midst of uncertainty Unlimited has continued to grow and showcase new and exciting artworks, amplifying the work of Shape Arts and their mission to change the perception of disabled people.
Tarik Elmoutawakil’s ‘Brownton Abbey,’ photo by Tiu Makkonen.
In May 2019, we launched the NDACA Wing at Buckinghamshire New University, with a prestigious launch at which NDACA founder and Shape Chair, Tony Heaton OBE, was our key-note speaker. This event was a packed out success, with over 120 guests attending, including Arts Council England leadership. The launch event also had a symbolic accessioning of the ‘Tony Heaton’ portrait by Tanya Raabe-Webber. The Wing is proving to be a hit, with students ‘twerking’ off the James Lake work there, and serious scholars booking in for the archives. We wrote the Marketing Plan to make the Wing sustainable in May 2019, and planned to commence the NDACA Accessions Committee (podcast) to convene from June 2020 onwards, consisting of Tony Heaton OBE, Alex Cowan (NDACA Archivist) and others; this was postponed due to COVID-19 and will be an online model later in 2020. We secured NDACA AT THE GRUNDY, in which the artists in the NDACA collection, together with works from the Shape Collection, exhibited at the Grundy; this was very much about the great art of the Disability Arts Movement as collected by NDACA. The dates were July – September 2019. NDACA also reached over 5.34M+ in audiences: www.the-ndaca.org is now regularly top of the Google rankings. The online catalogue of 3,500 elements was completed in the year. We continued to promote project elements with our work supporting MAC in Birmingham, NDACA at The London College of Communication (LCC) and several other locations. The LCC NDACA presence was in the form of a large gallery of NDACA works, prints, and films, and a talk by Shape CEO and NDACA Project Director David Hevey. The event was profiled on LCC channels which are influential and wide-reaching: 3 million page views per year to the LCC website 25k+ Facebook likes 22k+ Instagram followers 20k+ Twitter followers The NDACA ‘What Is The Social Model’ animation on YouTube reached over 24k views for that single animation in the 2019/20 year. We also supported calls and enquiries from organisations such as The Peoples’ History Museum, who, with Shape as advisors, are developing Nothing About Us Without Us 2021. We ended the year having completed the NDACA Project Evaluation which was delivered to the National Heritage Lottery Fund in March 2020.
Artist Poppy Nash, image courtesy of artist.
This year, supporting The Literary Consultancy (TLC) as Diversity partner for the fourth year, we supported eight disabled writers to achieve a professional critique of their work and one writer to receive a year’s mentoring. Supported by the expertise of the author and Shape trustee Lois Keith OBE, we went through a rigorous selection process and put forward writers whose practice ranges across a variety of genres and themes. This support provides a valuable link across Shape’s wider programme, and many writers we have supported have gone on to achieve Unlimited commissions as well as to develop their creative careers in performance practice, authorship and theatre.
Improving access in the arts is one of Shape’s fundamental objectives, and to this end we have run valuable access and disability equality training and consultancy services for the sector for more than four decades. We had yet another busy year providing access audits and disability equality training nationally and supporting Arts Council England’s Creative Case for Diversity and internationally supporting ongoing strategic developments in wider Europe and Asia. We offer our services as tools for building inclusivity in the arts and cultural sectors, and for supporting organisational and regional change; our training sessions and resources range across a number of areas, including disability confidence, working with equality legislation and the social model of disability, unconscious bias, accessible marketing, event management, and more. In all, we provided direct professional training to 434 UK cultural workers directly, and 97 overseas cultural workers over the year. In doing this work, we supported 16 UK organisations directly through access consultancy and training, including Watermill Theatre, Tate, Blackheath Concert Halls, British Council, Wellcome Trust, Film Video Umbrella, Spread the Word, and Royal Collections Trust. Many of the settings in which we delivered this work were open to umbrella groups or clusters of cultural workers based in other cultural settings, so the impact of the sessions was able to ripple out across the sector at home and overseas, reaching over a hundred cultural institutions. As part of this, we supported the British Council in the creation of a new Digital Residency and an arts conference in Luton exploring access and disability in the locality. We provided informal advice to other cultural organisations via phone and email. By such means, we were able to provide informal advice, such as for example, suggesting ways of working better with D/deaf or blind and partially-sighted audiences and groups of disabled school children. We also supported an ex-Shape employee this year as a disabled creative wanting to gain experience as a Disability Equality Trainer. Becky led sessions inducting 17 Shape volunteers and Unlimited staff. Since lockdown, we have adapted our approach to training and consulting, continuing to support the cultural sector through virtual interventions and workshops. Our resources have been developed to be highly inclusive and reach out to diverse communities, many of whom have been struggling through 2020.
Working closely with the British Council, we continued to make links with overseas organisations, including ongoing access strategy support to the British Council’s British Pavilion in Venice. With British Council development funding, we continued our development of our own ambitions to realise a Disability Arts Movement Pavilion in Venice in 2022. We also worked with the British Council as one of the Art Residency Cultural Delegation organisations visiting Saudi Arabia as part of a British Council visual arts exchange. Our Unlimited project is also continuing its international reach, extending to 140 countries by 2019/20. We regularly receive international delegations and visitors to Shape, including recent delegations from Hong Kong. We met with the Museum of Tomorrow, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss improving accessibility in cultural settings and possible future collaborations. And we met with a delegation of cultural professionals from South Korea through the British Council, giving a presentation of the cultural landscape and disability-led arts from a Shape perspective. We were very happy to see the delegates again, along with support staff, when they visited the Shape Open exhibition during their visit. Stateside, artist Sally Booth visited the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to discuss her practice and, alongside Shape CEO David Hevey, engage students and cultural leaders in discussion about how we work and our influence on the UK cultural sector. You can see some of Sally’s sketches from the trip on page 20!
Year ended 31 March 2020
2020 ÂŁ
2019 ÂŁ
5,090
10,591
Debtors
151,677
308,461
Cash at bank and in hand
274,086
207,695
425,763
516,156
(287,867)
(244,131)
Net current assets
137,896
272,025
Total assets less current liabilities
142,986
282,616
Total net assets
142,986
282,616
99,321
194,337
Designated funds
5,090
15,051
General funds
38,575
73,228
43,665
88,279
142,986
282,616
Fixed assets: Tangible assets
Current assets:
Liabilities: Creditors: amounts due within one year
Represented by funds: Restricted income funds
Unrestricted income funds:
Total charity funds
Year ended 31 March 2020
2020 ÂŁ
2019 ÂŁ
289,462
288,458
-
7,662
184
227
Arts & Partnerships
598,898
1,536,224
Audiences and Engagement
34,462
40,403
-
-
923,006
1,872,974
5,867
63
Arts & Partnerships
964,512
1,793,600
Audiences and Engagement
75,291
70,431
Skills, Diversity and Leadership
16,966
7,265
1,062,636
1,871,359
(139,630)
1,615
Total funds brought forward
282,616
281,001
Total funds carried forward
142,986
282,616
Income from: Donations and legacies Activities for generating funds Investments
Charitable Activities:
Skills, Diversity and Leadership
Total Income Expenditure on: Raising Funds
Charitable Activities:
Total expenditure Net (expenditure) / income movement in funds
Sources of income 2019-20
ÂŁ
%
Revenue and statutory funders
688,415
75%
Charitable trusts, Lottery, individuals and events
181,063
20%
53,528
6%
923,006
100%
Earned and other income Total Income
Income Expenditure
Expenditure profile 2019-20 Generating funds Charitable : Arts & Partnerships
ÂŁ 5,867
% 1%
964,512
91%
Audiences and Engagement
75,291
7%
Skills, Diversity and Leadership
16,966
2%
1,062,636
100%
Total Expenditure
Photo Moments, 2020 ‘Brave Billy Boy’ by Jason Wilsher-Mills.
Our thanks go to all the organisations and individuals who fund, support and back us in so many ways, we really could not do without you!