NEWS
New Flowers for Disabled Artists
Among the 50 new 2024 United States Artists Fellows are disabled artists Jerron Herman (Dance) and Yo-Yo Lin (Media), both of whom were also awardees in the Disability Futures Fellowship, USA’s collaboration with the Ford and Mellon Foundations. This annual cohort has featured disabled artists consistently in the past several years.
The Whitney Biennial 2024, Even Better Than the Real Thing, also features several disabled artists: JJJJJerome Ellis, People Who Stutter Create, Carolyn Lazard (also featured in the 2019 Biennial), Tourmaline, and Constantina Zavitsanos.
Unlimited announced the 12 artists who have been awarded Bradford 2025 Year of Culture Micro Commissions: Chris Campbell, Emily Susanne Lloyd, Emma Adams, Helen Davies, Letty McHugh, Lorraine Brown and Charlotte Jones, Matt Verguson, Michael Barret and Shi Blank, Anita Dans, and Ry Gibson Moss.
The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts announced the first round of grants for 2024, including many organizations who are working on disability arts programs: Arms Wide Open (El Cajon, CA), Houston Family Arts Center (Houston, TX), Strindberg Laboratory (Glendale, CA), 3Arts (Chicago, IL), Dance Place (Washington, DC), Infinity Dance Theater (New York, NY), Alpha Workshops (New York, NY), Black Hills Works (Rapid City, SD), Art Access/VSA Arts of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT), AXS Lab (Long Island City, NY), Creative Identity (Anaheim, CA), Guitars Over Guns Organization (Miami, FL), EPIC Players (Brooklyn, NY), Piven Theatre Workshop (Evanston, IL), and Universal Access Productions/Arizona Theatre Matters (Glendale, AZ).
Not New News
The awards of the art worlds confer status on a radically few number of brilliant artists and in so doing, risk maintaining ableist structures. 🙃
The NEA is Funding Subminimum Wages for Disabled Workers
There’s one more organization among the NEA grantees listed above that are working on disability arts projects: SpArc Services (Philadelphia, PA). SpArc, like many organizations in The Arc’s network, has a federal 14(c) waiver to pay disabled workers subminimum wages. No artist - no one - should be paid less than the least.
Tomorrow, the NEA is hosting a big-tent conference at the White House called “Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities,” where leaders will continue to elaborate their “whole-of-government” approach to supporting arts and culture. Tlingit and Unangax̂ artist Nicholas Galanin captured many artists’ feelings when he declined his invitation: “There can be no ‘Healing, Bridging, and Thriving’ until these words apply to all human beings.”
Here’s a whole-of-government idea: If the Department of Labor issues a 14(c) waiver, that organization should not be eligible for NEA funds or any other kind of public funding. Check out www.EndSubminimumWage.org for more about this issue - and feel free to get in touch (you can reply directly to this email) if you think you can help.
CALLS
Artist Aislinn Thomas, curator Ellyn Walker, and the Blackwood Gallery are seeking proposals for Quiet Parade, “a sensory-friendly, float-based ensemble that experiments with unconventional approaches to celebration.” Apply by Feb. 2. More here.
New Disabled South is hiring a Georgia Health Justice Organizer and an Alabama Field Organizer. More here.
Touretteshero is seeking UK-based disabled creatives for its 2024 Young Artists Development Programme. Apply by Feb. 9. More here.
The National League of Cities is seeking an early professional, graduate-level, or experienced undergraduate fellow for a contract research position about arts and culture as tools for improved health and wellbeing. Apply ASAP. More here.
Disabled Hikers is looking for stories with a “unique perspective on disability and the outdoors.” More here.
EVENTS
Neurodiversity and Museums Today: Panel Discussion at Tate
Thursday, Feb. 1, 1 - 2:30pm ET, online
This event will bring together institutional representatives from across the globe to discuss what art institutions are currently offering neurodivergent or disabled audiences, what these audiences want from museums and institutions, and how can institutions be more accommodating for these audiences. The panel discussion will be chaired by artist and consultant Jack Ky Tan. The panellists include Kate Adams, Cathelijne Denekamp, Marcus Dickey-Horley, and Rebecca McGinnis.
Reading: Diver Beneath the Street
Wednesday, January 31, 7:30 - 8.30pm ET, on Zoom (passcode 191792)
Petra Kuppers will read from her new poetry collection, Diver Beneath the Street. A Reading for Goddard College's MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts.
The Remote Film Club: Blueberry Blood and Bubblegum Veins
Thursday, Feb. 1, 2pm ET, on Zoom
For our February meeting, we are honored to have filmmaker and artist Charlie Fitz, join us as we view and discuss their short film “Blueberry Blood and Bubblegum Veins.” The short film (12 min) is “a modern folktale film piece about a shielder who decides to build a friend.”