The Future Curator Programme (FCP) is an England-wide programme to develop disabled curators and create a force for diverse change in the visual arts sector.
The challenge
There are no disabled curators in positions of influence within the visual arts, and the conventional routes to becoming a curator discriminate against disabled people due to poor education resulting in low confidence and class/socio-economic status.
The solution
To build upon the curatorial residency programme 2018-2021, where three hosts had curatorial residencies (Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art and Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire). With these three hosts plus three new hosts (Newlyn Art Gallery in Penzance, John Hansard Gallery in Southampton and Arts Catalyst Sheffield), plus Disability Arts Online as a digital and promotional partner, we now have an England-wide programme that any disabled artist should be no more than 100 miles from one of the hosts. The continuity of the programme, learning from the first residencies and the scale of the network will mean that the FCP will have a massive impact on the sector and create long term change.
The impact
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Six confident well connected disabled curators taking up roles of influence.
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Six hosts knowledgeable in disability equality in practice and influencing their networks.
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A programme that is an example of best practice of access and equality in all areas from callouts, interviews and working practices.
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The outcomes of the programme shared widely through a symposium, publications, blogs, web articles etc.
How is the new approach being sustained?
DASH is the lead partner and all partners are contributing to the finances of the programme. We are planning fundraising to cover some of the costs.
Lessons learned
We don’t know yet until the programme is complete. We have a programme evaluation report for 2018-2022.
Contact
Mike Layward, email: [email protected]