User:SandraHnS/sandbox

Disability Arts Online is an online platform which celebrates disability arts and features blogs, news, reviews, creative writing and writers writing about disability and the arts.

History:
Disability Arts Online was created by artist Colin Hambrook in 2004 who wanted to create an online space where deaf and disabled artists could talk about issues they faced in the arts sector and find support with like-minded people. It was originally set up as a channel on Arts Council England's website in 2002, but then was registered as an independent organisation in 2004.

Work:
Disability Art Online provides information about all aspects of disability arts happening in the UK. It creates opportunities for disabled artists and organisations to share their work and features guest bloggers and critics. There are two parts to DAO's work:

It provides news, reviews and interviews about disability arts. It also features blogs, projects, listings and a directory of deaf and disability-related links for web-based projects, artists and organisations. Its writers are predominantly disabled.

As an organisation Disability Arts Online also commissions artworks and films and is involved in a number of projects:

Viewfinder launched in July 2015, is an 18-month commissioning, digital media and sector development programme funded by Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts, run in partnership with Wikimedia UK, Sick! Festival, SPILL Festival, Carousel, the New Wolsey Theatre, Culture 24 and Goldsmiths Disability Research Centre. It includes new artist commissions and a new video channel. It also includes a series of workshops to train disabled artists to write pieces on high profile disabled artists and develop their writing skills for publication. In addition the trainees will attend editathon training days to produce Wikipedia entries on UK disabled artists.

Disability Arts Online has a media partnership with Unlimited, a three-year project (2014-16) which offers commissions to disabled artists to develop, produce and show high quality work. The programme includes biennial festivals at Southbank Centre in London (2014 and 2016) and the opportunity for artists to showcase their work across the country through partnerships with venues and organisations. Disability Arts reports and reviews all of Unlimited activities as well as publicising the artists and their work. It also gives artists a space to blog about their work.

DAO is also working in partnership with the NDACA (National Disability Arts Cultural Archive) which will be preserve the story of the UK based Disability Arts Movement. The archive will tell the stories of the development of the movement from its origins in the 1970s to the early 2000s. A digital archive documenting the history will be created preserving and cataloguing over 1000 pieces of artwork, print and film created by disabled people and their collaborators.