Disability Arts Online

Over the coming months DAO intends to report on a range of events taking place under the Accentuate banner. Accentuate is funded by Legacy Trust UK which is creating a cultural and sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, SEEDA and the regional cultural agencies. Screen South is the home of Accentuate.

Led by artist Jon Adams, this initiative intends to start a dialogue and a series of conversations reflecting the real issues around disability, our fragility and the nature of Public Art.

Shape Animate Podcast: Julie McNamara tells an audience about her years of struggle as an artist, culminating in a painful moment of realisation and conflict.

Groundbreaking comedy performer, Maysoon Zayid, takes a break from her hectic schedule to talk to us about her craft.

Once a painter, always a painter! Kit Wells talk about life and painting in relation to his recent acrylics of urban wasteland and desolate places.

Jasna Nikolic is the first of six Outside In residency artists at Pallant House Gallery. Here, she talks about her work and influences.

What does the success of Heart n Soul mean for the rest of us in disability arts? Jon Pratty talks to Tony Panayiotou, Director of Diversity at Arts Council England, at the Heart n Soul MBE celebration party at Deptford Albany.

South London arts organisation Heart n Soul celebrated recent MBE awards to director Mark Williams and founder artist Pino Frumiento in the Queen's New Years Honours on Wednesday 31 March. Heart n Soul Now toasted the royal recognition at the Albany arts venue in Deptford, where the organisation has been based for 24 years.

Deaf actor David Bower stars in an innovative radio play accompanied by an online sign-theatre film of the drama. Catch it on BBC Radio 4 on 9 April 2010 at 2.15pm

Colin Hambrook profiles an upcoming play inspired by the life and times of legendary disabled performer, Ian Dury. Written by award-winning playwright Garry Robson of Fittings Multimedia Arts, the play is due to tour the UK from the beginning of April 2010.

London 2012 and Arts Council England have announced that over £400,000 of funding has been awarded to 10 commissions for Unlimited, the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad project - the UK’s largest programme celebrating arts, culture and sport by disabled and deaf people.

Artist and Writer Allan Sutherland talks about the work of artist Tony Heaton, part of the Shape Animate series of workshops.

Samuel Dore AKA Bursteardrum has been working as a film-maker, cameraman and editor since 2000. Colin Hambrook asked him a few questions in preparation for his talk and workshop as part of Shape's 'Animate' programme

Colin Hambrook talks with theatre practitioner Julie McNamara about her Animate talk at Shape on 4 March 2010. Animate explores the rich history of Disability Arts through talks and workshops.

CoolTan Arts, the London-based arts project working with mental health service users, launched three films at the British Film Institute on February 8, 2010. One film follows their pioneering Largactyl Shuffle late-night art and heritage walks round London.

Parliamentary Outreach have launched an innovative new initiative designed with mental health group, Rethink. Colin Hambrook reports on how the project is engaging with communities of disabled people, within the mental health arena, who have traditionally been disengaged from the democratic process.

Animate explores the rich history of Disability Arts through talks and workshops. Colin Hambrook asked visual artist Noemi Lakmaier about her plans for the second of these talks at Shape on 8 February 2010

Animate will explore the rich history of Disability Arts, through a programme of talks and workshops. Colin Hambrook asked Tony Heaton, sculptor and Chief Executive of Shape, what he plans to talk about himself, and what he is looking forward to hearing about from the artists leading these events?

Visual Artist Tanya Raabe is engaged in an exciting new multi-layered project exploring identity and disability culture in contemporary portraiture and the nude. Colin Hambrook interviewed her for dao.

Dao editor, Colin Hambrook spoke to Dada-South’s director Stevie Rice about the organisation’s role in Accentuate over the next couple of years.

Two Cultural Olympiad events, taking place during 2010, are aimed at opening up arts and culture to new audiences. Organisers want non-commercial organisations to get involved in developing and planning how these projects shape up.

The annual DaDaFest Awards are for many people the highlight of DaDaFest. This year’s awards were presented on 3 December 2009 at a black tie event at the Hilton, Liverpool.

Disability Arts Online has won its first national accolade. The site was highly commended at the Jodi Awards, announced December 2, 2009 at the Sackler Centre, V&A, in London. The national and international Jodi Awards celebrate the best use of digital technology in the service of access to culture for disabled people.

Colin Hambrook talks to Cast Offs co-writer Jack Thorne about a show that promises to be a milestone in television comedy drama. Eagerly awaited, Cast Offs airs at 11pm on Tuesday 24 November.

Oska Bright 2009 runs from Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 November 2009 with different screenings each day. As well as daily screenings Oska Bright includes Master Classes, mentoring sessions, a fabulous awards ceremony and a closing party with live music. The festival kick off with an inspiring workshops for people with learning disabilities wanting to learn how to make films.

Jon Pratty reports on Rethink Parliament, a new collaboration between Rethink, dao and Parliamentary Outreach launched this month by John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons.

Katherine Araniello and Aaron Williamson of the Disabled Avant Garde have published two new films satirising the current state of disability arts. Take a look and weep.

Liz Crow of Roaring Girl Productions tells us about the making of Resistance - a dual-screen moving image installation that will tour galleries and museums and is due to be launched on 17 November 2009 as major part of DaDaFest, Novas CUC Gallery, Liverpool.

Deaf and Disabled arts, culture and sports are right at the core of Unlimited, a new London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme worth £3m launched at South Bank Centre

This autumn Pallant House Gallery plays host to Jon Adams' retrospective 'The Goose on the Hill' from 13 October – 22 November 2009. The exhibition coincides with ‘Outside In’ - a major exhibition of Outsider Art.

Magpie Dance have been challenging their dancers through a series of workshops with the Siobhan Davies Dance Company. Eileen Strong reports.

The fourth decibel Performing Arts Showcase, takes place in Manchester from 15-18 September 2009. The showcase, run by Arts Council England offers promoters and national and international arts professionals a unique snapshot of England’s diverse performing arts talent.

'Outside In' is on show at Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex, 4 August – 8 November 2009. The exhibition provides a platform for artists who are marginalised due to health, disability or other social circumstances. Marc Steene, Head of Learning, explains some of the reasoning behind the competition, due to become a national event by 2011.

Paula Silva gives an overview of Flickering Darkness - a film installation premiered at the Chamber of Commerce in Bogota, by Juan delGado of Cremer Projects.

Allan Sutherland interviewes cult experimental film-maker Stephen Dwoskin during his retrospective at the BFI Southbank, London.

Liz Porter gives an overview of a pilot Parliamentary Outreach project developed in partnership with Essex County Council, The Women's Library, Rethink, Epping Forest Museum, and Southend Discovery Museum.

A Yorkshire project, coordinated by ADA inc, focusing on the creative responses of disabled artists to the complex overlaps between art, sport and disability.

Rachel Feldberg, Artistic Director of the Ilkley Literature Festival, discusses life, love and disability with Jo Verrent, director of ADA inc.

Caroline Cardus reports on Buckinghamshire's Cultural Olympiad project.

Late at Tate - an artist intervention in Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries - was recently curated by Vauxhall’s art laboratory, Beaconsfield. The concept behind the evening was the idea of creating a terminal space, with an array of arrival and departure points, in which only the surreal applied.

Caroline Cardus' Go Make! residency at Fort Brockhurst in Gosport, is the fourth in an ongoing series of bursaries for disabled and deaf artists, awarded by Dada-South. Colin Hambrook reports.

Gus Cummins is creating a variety of visual arts and media, inspired by his experience of epilepsy. The work ranges from painting to video and digital installations. Colin Hambrook asked Gus a few questions in preparation for seeing some of the work in NW

DAO asked Oska Bright about the world's first national festival of short films made by and for people with learning disabilities

Melissa Mostyn reviews Sophie Woolley's latest one-woman show When to Run?

James Aldridge explores his relationship to disability and impairment

A tribute to a great disability arts activist

Laurence Clark tours his latest stand-up show - on the condition that Jim Davidson isn't let in the theatre - until December 2005.

Joe McConnell, editor of DAIL Magazine, provides a look at the work of some of the disabled artists who received bursaries in 2004 from Artsadmin for work in digital media.

Mark Ware has created a play, a film and an exhibition that's influenced by his life after a stroke at the age of 39. Colin Hambrook talked to him about his creative journey.