Beautiful day outside but today I'm unsettled and irritated. It's half term “hurrah!” It seems everyone is saying but working in early years is only some of the work I do. There's about a million other things I should be doing, that I don't really feel like, the sunshine is  beckoning... my angst and irritation is directed at the heavy broken bin that blocks the gate to the beautiful garden. The bin has been there for weeks uncollected by the council. It is put...

A funny thing happened the day we rested 20 or so disabled activists camped in Deans Yard, Westminster, to hear statements about the abolition of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) on the occasion of its 25th birthday. Then we made our way to the Department of Work and Pensions to sing Happy Birthday to the ILF, chant 'Free Our People', share cake and watch socialist magician, Ian Saville, make the letters ILF disappear in front of our very eyes. According to Ian, I is for Independence...

Upon a box she cries with heart, "My world you're smashing it apart. I've given birth within these walls, watched children grow, and run through halls from room to room, beneath this roof, our happiness was living proof that though they felt the urge to roam, they all return to this, their home. "This garden where we've scattered ash of my dear mum, an aunt that passed. The roses that we've planted here, in memory of our own, so dear. "And now you say that I must...

‘A Fistful of Froth’ it’s so bad it's good! Watch the video! SBC (SickBitchCrip) is fit and healthy but also understands she is lame and sick. It isn't fair that the state does not recognise her need to feed her devoted Chihuahuas on caviar and chips. The economic climate is against her and she knows we are living in dangerous times. An individual cannot be expected to use art as a support mechanism to live a good quality of life. This is a self-indulgent trait of...

“Women have to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves.  We have to step up as women and take the lead, and reach as high as humanly possible. That’s what I’m going to do, that’s my philosophy.”
- Beyoncé in her documentary ‘Life is but a dream’. I was really taken by the above quote as I was watching a BBC documentary about Beyoncé. She was talking about her performance on the Billboard chart show in the US, and said...

It is Friday morning at 9.20, and I’m invited to the Southbank Centre’s press preview of their Festival of Neighbourhood. The all-summer long celebration, running form the 1st of June till the end of September, is the third of a series of summer festivals that the Southbank Centre has put on together with MasterCard, after 2011’s Festival of Britain and 2012’s Festival of the World. As I am early, I have a quick stroll through the site – I know it fairly well, as...

Pallant House Gallery is delighted to announce that Outside In, its pioneering project aimed at those facing barriers to the art world, has won the Charity Awards 2013, the highest profile event in the charity calendar.

Heads Up, a series of films which have been produced as part of the Creative Case has been published today by Arts Council England through the Creative Case website which is managed by DAO. The 8 films feature a number of arts professionals and arts organisations who discuss their involvement with the Creative Case and what it means to them and are being released in two batches with the first four live now.  


Pallant House Gallery has, this week, announced that Outside In, its pioneering project aimed at those facing barriers to the art world, has been shortlisted for the Charity Awards 2013.

Alternative Guide to the Universe explores the work of self-taught artists and architects, fringe physicists and visionary inventors. Richard Downes lends a critical eye to the exhibition on show at the Hayward Gallery, London, until 26 August

The first major display of Japanese Outsider Art in the UK is showing at the Wellcome Collection until 30 June. The 46 artists represented are residents and day attendees in social welfare institutions across Japan. Nicole Fordham Hodges went to see and experience the power which is 'Souzou'. 

Is it possible to make compelling theatre out of a cardiac arrest? John O’Donoghue went to see Doug Devaney’ show, part of Brighton’s Five Pound Fringe.

Set up in 2008 Shape's annual Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary is one of the most significant opportunities for disabled visual artists in the UK, offering an opportunity to engage in a three month residency at a high profile gallery. John O'Donoghue reviews the work of the first four winners of the bursary.

Kati Francis Artistic Director of BeautifulMess talks to Tricia Howey from Narus Productions about Foxfood, a multi-sensory performance which took place at Brixton’s Lambeth Accord at the end of May. Foxfood is part of the larger Fox Project, which will include summer workshops for adults with learning difficulties inspired by Foxfood.

As part of DAO’s Diverse Perspectives programme, funded by Arts Council England, film-maker Dolly Sen was commissioned to produce a short documentary exploring the relationship Portugal Prints has with the Royal Academy of Arts access programme. 'Greenhouse of Hearts' highlights the inspired, dynamic work that this small project is delivering.

Sarah Hirst is currently in her 3rd and final year on a fine art degree. The theme of her work is about exploring the masks we wear in everyday life. Her gallery of Dream Watercolours represents work that came out of a project making work about experience of hallucinations.

Lynne Blackwood started writing in April 2012 after illness terminated her professional activity. She is of Anglo-Indian descent and her emotional heritage plays a strong part in her writing sensitivities, reflecting a mosaic of experiences and cultures. DAO is proud to present a series of her short stories.