Forum’s closure suggests bleak future for disability arts

By Sunil Peck

Disabled artists say the demise of the London Disability Arts Forum (LDAF) could spell disaster for the disability arts scene.

The forum was set up in 1986 to develop and promote the work of disabled artists. It published its own magazine and staged the International Disability Film Festival.

But in December last year, the Arts Council England announced it did not intend to carry on funding LDAF.

Since then staff have been trying to find alternative sources of funding but LDAF went into liquidation and closed at the end of July.

The actor and writer Mat Fraser said he owed much of his own success to LDAF for helping him to develop his talent and skills as a disabled artist.

He said: "I would not be where I am today without LDAF. Without a dedicated magazine and organisation, disability arts will be left to fragment into the bitter-sweet ether."

He added: "What hope is there for young disabled artists without a dedicated disabled arts organisation?"

LDAF’s chief executive, Patricia Place, expressed sadness at the closure but said it did not mean the death of disability arts.

She added: "There's still work to be done and we are still committed to finding some way of carrying the magazine and the film festival forward into the future.

You may have heard the last of LDAF but maybe you haven’t heard the last of Art Disability Culture [the forum's magazine] or the London International Disability Film Festival."

David Watson, editor of the magazine and co-director of the film festival, told Disability Now that the future for disability arts could be bleak. But he said he was looking at options for sustaining both the magazine and festival.

He said an announcement would be posted on LDAF's website by the end of the year.

The artist and activist Ju Gosling said LDAF had been "instrumental" in nurturing her career because its magazine had enabled her to share her work with readers around the world.

She said that, although the forum had been based in London, it had served as a hub for disability artists around the country.

Tony Heaton (pictured), chief executive of the deaf and disability arts organisation Shape, described the end of LDAF as a "very sad loss" to the disability arts scene.

He added: "The disability arts movement needs physical institutions like magazines and arts organisations like LDAF to survive."

The disability arts critic Michael Shamash said that he was grateful to LDAF for giving him the chance to stimulate his creativity.

He said: "They gave me the opportunity to write about art and put my perspective as a disabled person into looking at art. They also made me think that the disabled artist’s perspective is incredibly valid."

The writer and performer Jim Mcsharry said it was “a tragedy” that LDAF was closing. He said LDAF had “lost direction”, but he added: “It’s failed because, in the end, disabled people are not involved in the real nuts and bolts of the funding process. In the arts, we are still going through a process of others doing it for us."
14 August, 2008