'Irregular' Art Schools: Methods for Supporting the Professional Development of Learning Disabled Artists

Over the past 20 years 'inclusive arts' has gained particular currency as a term describing the artwork created by learning disabled people via a collaboration model with professional facilitators. This approach to creating art has proved successful, resulting in a proliferation of specialist organisations and high-profile exhibitions; raising the profile of learning disabled people as artists, performers and curators. However, despite this momentum there remain few instances of learning disabled people being recognised as artists in their own right. Instead, they are producing and exhibiting as a cohort of artists represented by their respective organisations; comprising self-expression.

Yet during this same period, both learning disabled self-advocacy and reforms in social care policy have very strongly reflected the belief that learning disabled people should be treated as individuals, that social care support should be led by that person's specific needs and interests. While the rhetoric of person-centred approaches infuses social care policy, a major barrier to learning disabled artists in developing their practice is precisely getting the right tailored support in place. Ultimately, outside the context of inclusive art there are very few avenues for learning disabled artists to access personalised career development opportunities in comparison to their non-disabled counterparts.

This disparity is attributed to two different, yet inextricably connected domains which comprise the focus for this project. The first is the intersection of social care with arts policy and funding. The project will explore, in partnership with Leeds City Council, how the commitments made to person-centred support can be extended to better enable artistic endeavours and how the different domains of art and social care can be connected. The second, however, gets underneath the conceptual questions raised by inclusive art of 'autonomy', 'expertise', 'success' and 'quality'.

Via participatory action-research with learning disabled artists from partner inclusive arts studio Pyramid, this project will examine how contexts such as artist-led spaces, universities and publishing might be extended or diversified to better serve them. Phase 1 will see the redevelopment of social care support structures to best facilitate their inclusion. In phase 2, Pyramid artists will co-design an artist-led model of development with Assembly House, and in turn illuminate how artist-led spaces might address sector issues of access. During phase 3, the project will facilitate collaborative creative interventions between Pyramid artists and fine art students in University of Leeds' School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies. This will examine opportunities for learning disabled artists within the current structures of a vibrant art school, while assessing how ideas of artistic quality, criticality and expertise are understood across these contexts.

Alongside this core research, additional activities aim to further generate a transformational impact. 1) This project will facilitate social policy workshops, bringing together inclusive artists with social care practitioners at Leeds City Council to interrogate critical concepts underpinning social care policy, facilitating knowledge exchange. 2) To inclusively publish a special edition journal on inclusive art, experimenting with approaches to writing and peer reviewing to include learning disabled artists. 3) Leading inclusive art 'think-tanks', connecting facilitators to troubleshoot key sector issues in the UK, alongside 4) an international inclusive arts knowledge exchange. These combined approaches will allow us to 'crack open' persistent questions of inclusive artistic practice in ways which advance academic debates, and then return back to challenge and change the structures which are currently preventing learning disabled artists from flourishing.