Disability Arts Online

Blogs

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  Trish Wheatley's blog

  As well as being the director of DAO, Trish is also the project manager and co-producer for Freewheeling, the organisation producing Sue Austin's Unlimited commission 'Creating the Spectacle!' Here she blogs about her experiences of this ambitious, underwater wheelchair project.

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  Crippen's Blog

  Crippen ... probably now the best Disabled cartoonist in the world ... and you'll find him here on dao

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  Rich Downes

  Rich Downes is a Disability Equality and Advocacy Trainer, a practicing Advocate for a Disabled People's Organisation, an Activist and Photographer. He says: "I once wrote for life now I write in life. I'm looking forward to developing a blog presence with personality for DAO whilst delivering comment, reviews, photos and views on disability and how it's represented."

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  Nicole Hodges

  Nicole Fordham Hodges is a poet, and thrilled to be one of DAO's New Voices. In her blog, she would like to untangle her artistic process as if it were knotted string. She'd like to nudge her poetry out into the open, if it will come. She'd like to test the truth of her own and other people's work, by tapping them against each-other. She'd love to know who you are, and hear your comments on what she's written.

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  Gini

  Artist and wordsmith, whose work engages with issues of access, from acknowledged physical needs to perceived symbolic exclusions, Gini begins to explore how online accessibility might affect her arts practice.

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  Bernadette Cremin

  I am a published poet and performer. I am using DAO to blog about development of my work - in particular my one-woman show Altered Egos which was performed in the 2010 Brighton Fringe Festival.

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  Gary Thomas' blog

  Artist and Filmmaker Gary Thomas looks at the relationship between art and film, why it's sometimes uncomfortable, and how he deals with his own 'strands', (including disability), both personally and professionally. He'll also be writing about his own work as well as developing other projects, including films about the Olympics.

• Kaite O'Reilly

  Kaite O'Reilly is an award-winning playwright and a recipient of two Cultural Olympiad Commissions. She blogs about writing and the process of writing with a focus on four forthcoming productions, which revolve around disability issues.

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  Vince Laws Blog

  Vince Laws is a poet, artist, performer, campaigner. He writes poetry, performs poetry and make visual poetry: paintings, collage, posters, film, installations and recordings: “As an artist, I define what art is. As a poet, I define what a poem is. If my art can be anything from a painting to a concept, so can my poetry. I am a poem.”

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  Aidan Moesby' blog

  As a socially engaged Text Based Artist and Writer I am interested in the schisms and conflicts that exist between the personal and cultural agendas. I am fascinated by the way in which we both create and try to make sense of the worlds which we live in. I am interested in the experience of attempting to mediate diverse worlds, attempting to maintain an arts practice and navigate through the increasing complexities of the everyday.

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  Dolly Sen's Blog

  Dolly Sen is a writer, director, artist, filmmaker, poet, performer, playwright, mental health consultant, music-maker and public speaker. She has published eight books since 2002; has taken on performance roles at The Young Vic, the Royal Festival Hall,

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  Joe McConnell's blog

  Joe is a disabled Irish writer and emerging-better-late-than-never visual artist living in the UK since the 1970s. While increasingly alienated and terrified by the toxic la-di-da of the capitalist mainstream, he finds that being reborn as an artist makes life worth living again. Joe has also been blogging on the Creative Case for Diversity.

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  Tanya Raabe's Blog

  Visual Artist Tanya Raabe makes work around the theme of body image. Her blog concentrates on 'Revealing Culture: HeadOn' - an artwork and piece of research exploring identity, disability culture, in contemporary portraiture and the nude.

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  Joe Kelly's Blog

  Joe Kelly is former Director of Footsteps Arts, in Ealing, West London. He is a writer and campaigner around mental health issues.

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  Jon Adams' blog

  Jon Adams fine art practice draws upon a wide range of materials and processes which include photography, video, sound recording and digital sound and visual manipulation, 3D installations, traditional sculpture and illustration. Jon is a Research Fellow in Disability Arts within the Faculty of CCi at the University of Portsmouth. His work includes themes of hidden disability and positive dyslexia and Aspergers awareness combined with a subversive or geological context.

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  Melissa Mostyn's blog

  Melissa Mostyn-Thomas is a writer, journalist, visual arts practitioner and first-time deaf mother. She is embarking on a journey as a film-maker and scriptwriter inspired by her baby daughter Isobel. She blogs about her new adventure.

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  Penny Pepper's Blog

  Penny Pepper has been a writer and activist within the disability arts movement for 20 years or more. Her blog covers her latest spoken word performance amongst a variety of issues around what it means to be a disabled writer.

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  Accentuate blog

  Accentuate is the 2012 Legacy Programme for the South East. Accentuate consists of 15 ambitious projects which represent the arts, film, tourism, business, sport and heritage. The aim is to promote the talent of deaf and disabled people in whatever area they work in. This blog is from Our View - a group of talented deaf and disabled people who act as an internal steering group as well as have direct relationships with the individual projects. Accentuate is funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity whose mission is to support a wide range of innovative cultural and sporting activities, which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) has also invested significant financial support in Accentuate, as have the regional cultural agencies.

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  Signdance Theatre International

  Signdance Theatre International are an international dance, music, theatre company based at Bucks New University in South East England. David Bower and Isolte Avila blog the companies travels to festivals worldwide.

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  Gabby Ferro

  I am a 21 year old student at Kingston University. I study English Literature and Film. I will write about life as young woman with disabilities. I will include my interaction with film (my passion) and theatre events. Occasionally I will discuss music and trips I make to concerts, galleries and museums.

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  Editorial

  Colin Hambrook has been editing Disability Arts Online in one form or another since 2002. Increasingly he has been posting some of his own artistic output... as well as commenting on the work DAO is engaged with...

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  In Touch with Art

  In Touch with Art is Europe’s leading conference about museums, heritage and people with vision impairment. This blog discusses the perspectives on equal access to museums for people with vision impairment.

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  Ju Gosling's blog

  Ju Gosling aka ju90 is an artist who works mainly with digital lens-based media, as well as performance, text and sound. Ju situates her work largely within the theories and traditions of the international Disability Arts movement, and has gained an international reputation. In this Blog ju90 will focus on the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People as it relates to art, culture and sport.

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  Lung Ha's Blog

  Lung Ha’s Theatre Company are taking Around The World in 80 Days to theatres in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Actor Stephan Tait blogs about his role as Phileas Fogg

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  Alison Wilde's film and tv blog

  Alison Wilde has a PhD from the Centre for Disability Studies which focused on portrayals of disability in the media. Her dao blog contains discussion of contemporary films and the occasional bit of television. Alison spends much of her leisure time at the local cinema, providing her with plenty of material... good and bad and ugly.

• Candoco Dancer's blog

  Candoco Dance Company are a leading company of disabled and non disabled dancers who will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary next year. They are currently touring with their triple bill titled Renditions with works choreographed by Sarah Michelson, Emanuel Gat and Wendy Houstoun. Follow what the company and the dancers are up to with their weekly blog.

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  The Philosophical Ramblers Club

  Neal Pearce is a writer, poet, artist, Mouth of Open Doors/Universal locksmith/Cosmic Emissary, prophet (self-proclaimed!)... and obviously slightly mad too!

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  Simon Cooper blog

  Colour is the secret key to my work. I am an abstract artist and I break up images. I specialise in traditional and digital printmaking including painting. I am working on my latest image about my deafness.

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  Cirque-Nova Blog

  Jean-Marie Akkermann gives an account of Cirque Nova's circus skills training programme for disabled people

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  Anne Teahan's Blog

  ‘Sharing Cultures: Disability and Visibility’ is a project by Anne Teahan, researching disability arts in reference to an exhibition inspired by participation in VSA's 'Revealing Culture' - an international disability arts exhibition of 55 artists, which was on show at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington from 8 June - 29 August 2010. Her blog is a reflection on each day of a week spent in Washington and is the starting point for the research.

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  Rockinpaddy

  Rockinpaddy (John Kelly) introduces himself to DAO readers. A musician, facilitator and vocalist who will be singing in Graeae’s latest production Reasons To Be Cheerful.

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  Caroline Cardus' blog

  Visual Artist Caroline Cardus believes the hoops disabled people have to jump through in life are often inexplicable, unintentionally comical, or possess a weird logic only the person themselves is privy to. Caroline blogs about experiences in life that make her want to make Disability Art, and discusses the collaborative projects she is currently involved in.

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  Wendy McGowan's blog

  Wendy McGowan is currently doing a journalism course in Brighton. Her blog reports on the Fabrica Photographic Biennal exhibition of vernacular photography, selected by Martin Parr, on show at Fabrica Gallery, Brighton until 30 November 2010

• Umar Akhtar's Blog

  I am an event organiser, passionate about stimulating disability arts within the events scene. My blog explores the relationships of engaging disabled people in the arts from a non-disabled person perspective.

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  Sophie Partridge's Blog

  Sophie Partridge has performed in several productions with Graeae Theatre Company, including the award-winning Peeling and Flower Girls. She has worked with David Glass Ensemble, Theatre Resource and Theatre Workshop. She has a French Canadian Mum, an 82 year-old Dad, two sisters, one brother, various uncles, aunts and cousins, great friends, good PAs and several virtual dogs. What more does a Girl need?!