Festival: Disrupt Disability Arts
7 - 11 Mar 2024 (Past)
Online and in-person at the Project Arts Centre, 39 Essex St East, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
From 7 to the 11 March, Ireland’s new annual disability arts festival will take centre stage. Disrupt Disability Arts Festival is a vibrant celebration of disability art, curated by and for the disability community.
Immerse yourself in a rich diversity of voices from the disability arts community. The festival line up includes theatre, dance, literature-based performance and visual arts, all delivered through a range of accessible engagement formats in relaxed spaces.
This unique festival is designed to deepen understanding and appreciation for the richness of experiences and perspectives that define disability in Ireland. Disrupt Disability Arts Festival actively dismantles barriers to artistic engagement faced by both artists and audiences with lived experience of disability.
Highlights of the programme include a special performance for International Women’s Day: ‘Dis-Gender; Disability and Gender Identity’ brings together a lineup of artists to explore gender politics specifically related to disability. Another highlight is ‘Embodiment; Disability and the Body in Art’ which will examine the portrayal of disabled bodies in artistic contexts featuring new and existing work from Alison Clarke and Louise Bruton.
Guided by the principles of the social model of disability, Disrupt Disability Arts Festival is a disability-led and disability-focused event. It foregrounds quality artistic practices while challenging prevailing notions about disability. Disrupt Disability Arts Festival is a space for connection between the Irish disability community and wider society, opening dialogue and creating shared experiences.
The festival’s hybrid events (in-person and online) open up the programme to wider disability communities, but also to carers and national arts audiences who may face economic or geographical barriers.
Join the inaugural Disrupt Disability Arts Festival from 7 to 11 March 2024 at Project Arts Centre and online. The visual art exhibition and online programme continue until 20 April. Come on a journey that goes beyond the ordinary, transcends boundaries and reshapes narratives around disability and the arts.
Festival Opening Party
07 March, 6 pm
Free, Ticketed
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description)
Join us to celebrate the launch of this year’s Disrupt Disability Arts Festival!
There will be a preview of the ‘Distinct’ exhibition, as well as the opportunity to meet the festival team and participating artists. Artist Suzanne Walsh will perform an adaptation of ‘Lazarus Lingua’ commissioned as part of the festival opening – Free but ticketed.
Opening Performance: Lazarus Lingua by Suzanne Walsh
07 March, 6 pm
Free, Ticketed
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description, Open Captioning, Relaxed Performance)
Lazarus Lingua is a recitation of the Latin names of extinct animals from 4000 BC to the present day, from when Latin was a living language. The names recited are drawn from biological taxonomy systems and descriptions of species that have been devised by humans. It is also an invocation of the dead, in particular those species now extinct.
Distinct Exhibition
07 Mar – 20 Apr, 11am to 5pm
Free
(Audio Description, Relaxed Entry)
‘Distinct’ explores the climate crisis through the perspective of disability.
Showing new and reformulated works by Cecilia Bullo, Yvonne Condon, Richard Forrest, Michelle Hall, Vera Klute, Ruth Le Gear, Jane McCormack, David Parnell, Aisling Reina, Katherine Sankey and Suzanne Walsh, Distinct coincides with the launch of Disrupt Disability Arts Festival, Ireland’s new annual disability-led and disability-focused arts festival.
A Workshop with Michelle Hall
8 March, 2pm
Free, Ticketed
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description, Open Captioning, Relaxed Performance)
Join artist Michelle Hall for a talk exploring her use of natural materials in performances.
Michelle Hall is a neurodivergent visual artist and educator based in Dublin. Recent exhibitions include ‘Remembering the Future’ at VISUAL Carlow 2023 and solo show ‘(R)OARS’ at Draíocht Gallery in 2022.
Dis-Gender; Disability and Gender Identity
8 March, 7:15pm
€16/€13, selected free tickets available
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description, Open Captioning, Relaxed Performance)
Disability, gender and gender identity are inextricably linked.
For International Women’s Day, we present the work of some incredible artists who disrupt the status quo and explore these themes in their work. Featuring Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, Kathy O’Leary, Mairéad Folan and Them Fatale.
Workshop with Aisling Reina (pictured above)
9 March, 2 pm
Free, Ticketed
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description, Open Captioning, Relaxed Performance)
Join Aisling Reina for a zine-making workshop for the trans community exploring disability and climate action. They have facilitated workshops for trans-disabled people as part of Rest Rooms in Dublin Fringe Festival and created performance art on the intersection of disability, sexual violence and the Irish state for Chronic Collective in Pallas Studio.
Embodiment; Disability and the body in art
9 March, 6pm
€16/€13, selected free tickets available
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description, Open Captioning, Relaxed Performance)
An evening of work which is a frank, humorous and moving account of the disabled body in art.
Featuring the work of Alison Clarke, Tobi Balogun and Louise Bruton, followed by a panel discussion on the theme of the disabled body in art and self-care.
Festival Closing Party
9 March, 8pm
Free, ticketed
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description, Open Captioning, Relaxed Performance)
A celebration of disability with DJ Renn Miano, DJ Roo Honeychild and live music performances. Disconnect is a chance for the community to come together and socialise, dance and connect with each other! Come join us – Everybody is very welcome!
The Vanishing Point
8th March, 5 – 6pm
Free, ticketed
(Irish Sign Language Interpreting, Audio Description, Open Captioning, Relaxed Performance)
In association with Creative Brain Week, Disrupt Disability Arts Festival presents ‘The Vanishing Point’, an experimental conversation with Christopher Bailey, Head of Arts and Health at the World Health Organisation. Monsters, imagination and resilience. Bailey talks about his sight loss journey and what he has gained along the way.
Creative Brain Week, 4-9th March 2024 is a pioneering event that illustrates innovation at the intersection of arts and brain science, including creative approaches to health.
Disrupt Disability Festival is programmed with accessibility in mind. An updated list of events as well as the full list of the accessibility measures for each performance is available on the festival website.
If you have any questions related to accessibility, please do not hesitate to contact us at access@projectartscentre.ie or call 01 8819 613. Please refer to our disclaimer on the Project Arts Centre website for COVID-19 Safety Policy.You can find the latest information about Project’s accessibility here.
Images courtesy of Disrupt, Project Arts Centre, AlanJames Burns, Suzanne Walsh, Aisling Reina, and Michelle Hall.
Upcoming Events
17 Oct - 21 Nov 2024
Visual Art: Accessible Tours at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Autumn 2024