Eight innovative artistic projects from D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists have been awarded funding from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
The projects, which include a sign language hip hop drama, a café with sculptures to sit alongside and illuminated trees raising awareness of pollution, are each receiving a grant through the Mayor’s Liberty Open Call fund and will be included in Lewisham’s programme as London Borough of Culture 2022.
The £70,000 Liberty fund was established by the Mayor to support and celebrate D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse artists, who have been disproportionately affected by the impact of COVID-19.
The grants of between £3,000 and £10,000 will support the artists to research and develop their innovative works for the public to enjoy and put on workshops with the local community.
The winners of the grants are:
- Bim Ajadi’s Here/Not Here – a hip hop drama exploring the relationship between British Sign Language, Krump dance, football and Visual Vernacular
- Rachel Bagshaw’s Trio – a dance theatre production, combining choreography, projected captioning and live audio description
- Stephen Bailey’s LIFE/dream – a stage exploration of repurposing traditional stories to respond to the lived experience of those with a perceived learning disability
- D-Fuse’s Respira-Trees – an installation of trees that change colour as air pollution levels change
- David Johnson’s Sanctuary Café - a café that includes life-sized concrete cast human figures to sit alongside
- Teresa Howard’s GHOSTWOOD – an immersive virtual reality experience bringing an ancient oak woodland to life
- Local Senses: mapping in Lewisham - a series of focused walks using tactile card forms and sensory reflections designed to capture smell, sound and terrain
- Nina Thomas’s [Captioning Lewisham] – displaying captions of real or imagined experiences across public spaces in a walking trail
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said “I’m delighted to support these eight outstanding artistic projects from our capital’s D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the artistic community and it’s important that we provide opportunities for these immensely talented artists to develop and demonstrate their work. Lewisham’s year as my next London Borough of Culture provides the perfect platform for them to work alongside the local community and bring their work to a large audience.”
Fleur Donelly-Jackson, Liberty Advisory Group member, said: “I'm looking forward to seeing the winners of the Liberty Open Call realise their artistic creations and inspire a wide range of audiences to connect with the theme of cultural activism. It has been a pleasure to read the many thought-provoking applications and not easy to whittle down to this selection. The winners each push boundaries, bring quality, innovation, and ambition to their work. I'm delighted that we can support them."
Bim Ajadi, artist, said: “We are delighted to be working with Liberty to develop our live production Here/Not Here, combining sign language, Visual Vernacular (the choreographic and poetic form of sign), sport and dance. Our themes of space, co-operation and the importance of finding a place to belong are a great fit with the Liberty Festival and Lewisham Borough of Culture 2022.”
Linda Rocco, Liberty Creative Producer, said: “The volume and high standard of applications received for the Liberty Open Call demonstrate the ambition of the D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent community to produce high-quality artistic research with a strong sense of urgency. I'm excited to be supporting the eight winners in this journey towards developing their vision, while embedding accessible and inclusive practices as part of the process. A thank you also to those who did not make it to the final shortlist; may you never lose your creative spirit, and we wish you every success.”
Rachel Harris, Senior Producer at Lewisham Council said: “We are thrilled to welcome these eight inspiring projects to the Liberty Festival and to Lewisham’s forthcoming year of as the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture. Working across a range of art forms and techniques, we were impressed by the artists’ curiosity, rigour and playfulness, combining ambition and innovation with strong roots in our community. We look forward to supporting their vision to reflect, re-frame and re-shape our world in new and surprising ways.”
Notes to editors
For more information visit: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/arts-and-culture/liberty-open-call-rd-grants-ddeaf-and-disabled-artists
About Lewisham, London Borough of Culture 2022
Lewisham is proud to be The Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture 2022. An ambitious year-long programme of events will celebrate the borough’s diverse neighbourhoods, communities and stories. With a call to action on the climate emergency, the programme will put critical issues at its heart, amplifying voices and creating a lasting legacy to inspire positive change. From venues to parks and street corners, thousands of people will participate across the year, harnessing Lewisham’s proud history of activism through music, dance, public art and more. Inspired by the UK City and European Capital of Culture programmes, the Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture award puts culture at the heart of local communities, to empower and transform lives. The inaugural London Borough of Culture was Waltham Forest in 2019, followed by Brent in 2020.