Jo Verrent, Senior Producer of the Unlimited festival, will look at barriers in modern society and try to answer questions including: Are cultural sectors world-wide elitist, hierarchical, gated? How can disabled people gain equal access to such structures?
Unlimited is the world’s largest commissioning programme for disabled artists, focusing on art that is disability-led, delivered by a team that is disability-led. It has influence at a national and international level, causing us to perceive the impact of disability on the arts differently.
The concept of “disability-led” is central to Unlimited. Artists and companies applying to the program describe how creative control within their work is led by disabled people, selection panels for decision making include a majority of disabled people, the staffing of the program has disabled people in the majority, as does the senior team. If a program is to support a specific focus area, then those with lived experience should be in control of any and all processes connected to it—but often this is perceived as a minority viewpoint.
Using Unlimited as a model, the purpose of this session is to provide a blueprint for change, recognizing international cultural difference and yet applicable globally at different scales and levels.
Jo Verrent is the senior producer for Unlimited, the world’s largest commissions program for disabled artists. Jo created a video installation — Take Me to Bed — with Luke Pell, which won Best Work in Festival in Limerick Light Moves and tours internationally. Working with Sarah Pickthall, she created SYNC — examining the interplay between disability and leadership which has run in UK, Australia and Korea. Jo has won both Cosmopolitan’s Woman of Achievement award and her village’s cup for making jam. She is on the Northern Advisory Panel for the Arts Council of England and regularly advises on access. Jo is a Clore Fellow.
