New FCP Partners Join Programme

The Future Curators Programme 2023-2026 is a residency programme for Disabled curators within visual arts institutions.

The new network partners are Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, John Hansard Gallery, Arts Catalyst and Disability Arts Online.

They join mac, MIMA and Wysing Arts Centre to develop the Future Curators Programme.

Each gallery will host a Disabled curator based within their space for a year (usually 1 day/week) plus a 3 month post residency period.

The programme has pointed up – and hopefully started to address – serious issues of access and representation for disabled people within the visual arts workforce. According to recent figures from Arts Council England, only 6% of permanent employees of regularly-funded visual arts organisations identify as disabled, compared with 21% of the working-age population*.

"Through years of working with disabled artists and seeking to make the visual arts sector more inclusive and accessible, it is clear to DASH that meaningful progress depends upon Disabled people taking positions of influence within visual arts organisations, rather than simply on well-meaning individual projects with limited long-term legacy.

The Future Curators Programme makes this meaningful change possible. Through the Curating Institutional Change events we hope to share our learning and explain how accessibility and inclusivity brings benefits to everyone – Disabled and non-Disabled people alike."

Mike Layward, Artistic Director of DASH