SESSION 10
ARTISTS MANIFESTO FOR ACCESS
Friday 3rd September, 11.30am - 1.30pm - Online
Access Coventry is a series of online training sessions targeted at professional artists and the small-scale independent arts sector based in Coventry and Warwickshire.
These training sessions are aimed at equipping artists with knowledge and practical strategies to provide for different audiences with different access needs.
Join us for this tenth and final session to explore what a Manifesto for Access might look like for the arts and cultural sector in Coventry.
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What are our aspirations for making events in the city truly accessible to audiences with different access needs? What can we, as artists and arts organisations across the city, commit to doing to make tangible and sustainable change? What do we need others to do – and how are we going to get them to do it?
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We want to create a strong and visible statement of intent that the wider cultural sector across the city – including decision makers and funders – can sign up to. A manifesto to inspire us all, that builds on and magnifies some of the great work already being done in the city. A commitment that shows our audiences that we are serious about access. Something to hold us to account.
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We need lots of perspectives to make this a city-owned manifesto – so do come along! We are particularly keen for people working in the arts and cultural sector who self-define as D/deaf, disabled or neurodivergent to be involved, to ensure that we are learning from, and responding to, lived experience.
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Our Keynote Speaker Is:
Dan Thompson
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Autistic artist and activist, Dan Thompson is an award-winning social artist, writer, and speaker living in Margate. His work is about people and places, and the stories that connect them. Dan is also interested in the creation of social capital, in activating abandoned or underused spaces, and in DIY approaches to art, culture and social action. He produced Coventry City Council's Void Space Strategy in 2009 and is a board member of Talking Birds. He is an experienced board member, having served with a-n for five years, representing 24,000 member artists. Dan has written a number of books on the activation of empty shops, including Pop Up Business For Dummies. He has also written for the Guardian and the Independent.
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By the end of the session we will have established the key elements that will be part of that Manifesto. This will be the beginning of a process which we will take further through F13, Talking Birds’ Nest Programme, the Attitudes and Access Forum (currently run by City of Culture Trust) and other networks – gathering feedback and refining, encouraging as many artists and organisations across the sector to sign up to the Manifesto, and supporting people to develop and share their own action plans.