Scottish Arts Council welcomes the European Year of Disabled People
31/12/2002
The Scottish Arts Council today stressed its commitment to the European Year of Disabled People by announcing a variety of activities throughout the coming year. Local and national events include a series of seminars, a one-day conference, specially-commissioned research together with dedicated funding programme. The seminars will take place throughout Scotland and focus on the themes of audience development, quality and integration. The year will culminate in a conference in December which will see dedicated arts practitioners, academics, and disabled people coming together to discuss issues of common interest.
The Scottish Arts Council plans to undertake research to look specifically at access to visual art galleries for disabled people. The study will look at what is currently provided by galleries for disabled people including the interpretation facilities, the education programmes, staff expertise in dealing with disabled people as well as the physical facilitates. This information will feed into the web-site Good Gallery website (www.goodgalleryguide.com) which disabled visitors can access when they want to visit a gallery. Other research will look at marketing to disabled audiences and developing audiences for disabled arts.
The Scottish Arts Council will examine its own policies to see if any of its practices are discriminatory. It will investigate the barriers that limit the participation of disabled people in the arts and take action to address these issues. They will also ringfence funding for arts organisations to support specific programmes and establish good practice examples in engaging disabled people.
Maggie Maxwell, Area Development Officer for the Scottish Arts Council commented, ‘The European Year of disabled people is an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of Scottish society. The Scottish Arts Council has actively embraced the theme and is undertaking a variety of activities and events to include people with a disability into main stream
Contact email(s)
media.office@scottisharts.org.uk
Issued by: Scottish Arts Council
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