DaDa’s 40th anniversary arts festival will be ‘rage-filled’ demonstration of battle for disability equality

A disability arts organisation that became an “international game-changer” is to celebrate its 40^th anniversary with a “rage”-filled international festival programme, to demonstrate how disabled people still often face neglect and discrimination.

DaDa has chosen “RAGE” as the theme for next year’s DaDaFest International 40 festival, after disabled artists spoke of their frustration at the “continued uphill battle for equity and inclusion”.

Zoe Partington, DaDa’s interim chief executive, said too many decisions were “still taken without involving disabled people”, who were often “neglected, ignored and discriminated against at the highest levels”.

She pointed to “huge” waiting-lists for Access to Work; the lack of accessible transport; a failure to provide mental health support for people with chronic health conditions; and continuing problems with disability benefits assessments.

But she also pointed to failures within the arts and culture sector, which was “still not employing disabled people at every level”, and had funding systems so “onerous you need a PhD to fill the forms in”.

Partington said disabled artists and disabled communities were “raging that the gaps in society are still so wide, and we are still so far from equity and representation at all levels in art, culture and heritage”.

DaDa is now celebrating 40 years of “artistic excellence, activism, advocacy, creativity, collaboration, conversation and celebration”, she said.

Liverpool-based DaDa was founded by John McGrath and Mandy Colleran in 1984 as Arts Integrated Merseyside, then a branch of Shape Arts, before it became the independent North West Disability Arts Forum (NWDAF) in 1986 and was then renamed DaDa in 2008.

DaDaFest was launched in 2001 to promote disabled artists in mainstream venues and present their work as having equal artistic value and political and social impact, and featured artists from across the UK, and soon also attracted international artists.

It also worked to remove barriers for disabled audience members by offering British Sign Language translation, audio description, and support with transport to and from venues.

Among its successes have been supporting Liverpool City Council on policies around access to services and transport; helping ensure the redevelopment of Liverpool’s Everyman led to it becoming one of the most accessible theatres in the country; working with the city’s Unity Theatre for more than 20 years on changing perceptions of disabled artists; and sharing expertise internationally, most recently on projects in Indonesia and Brazil.

Ruth Fabby, the charity’s former long-serving chief executive and artistic director, and now a DaDa patron, said DaDaFest had caused a “cultural shift” across Liverpool’s arts venues, but also “quickly became an international game changer for disability and Deaf arts”.

She told Disability News Service that DaDaFest allowed “great and risky work informed by the living experience of disability, with the underlining principle that ‘no-one’ should be unable to access the arts”, with “effort, planning and budget” invested to ensure access was “a creative priority”.

Fabby, now an arts consultant, performer and writer, said: “The festival showcased the work of artists who were unable to get into the usual venues, creating opportunities for so many, from [actor and broadcaster] Liz Carr, [comedian and writer] Laurence Clark to [dancer and choreographer] Claire Cunningham.

“I didn’t realise how we led with this until I visited another [US] disability arts festival and saw access was by and large not even considered.”

Across 13 DaDaFests since 2001, other artists featuring in the festivals have included musician Dame Evelyn Glennie, comedian Francesca Martinez, poet Amina Atiq, theatre-maker and comedian Jess Thom, artists Tony Heaton and Rachel Gadsden, and artist-activists Bobby Baker and Liz Crow.

International artists have come from countries such as Indonesia, India, Mali, Congo and South Africa.

Partington said DaDa wanted its festival to “continue to provide an equal, radical and open space for artists to flourish, share work and debate the solutions to the issues we face together through artistic excellence, expression and engagement, to offer valuable networking opportunities for disabled artists… [and] provide a high-profile UK platform exclusively for new and existing work by disabled artists and activists”.

DaDaFest International 40 will run from 8 to 31 March 2025.

Picture: A performance of Liz Carr’s Assisted Suicide: The Musical, at DaDaFest in 2016. Picture by DaDa.

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