Cultivating spaces for extraordinary artists
Future Curators Programme
The Future Curators Programme 2023-2026 is a residency programme for Disabled curators within visual arts institutions.
The new network partners Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, John Hansard Gallery, Arts Catalyst and Disability Arts Online have joined 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.
Even before the partners recruit and work with the artist curators, much work and learning will have been undertaken by the network partners and their staff teams.
Most recently, over 50 dash staff, board and FCP network partners have undertaken Autism Awareness Training (The Inside of Autism - with Austistic Advocate, Kieran Rose).
We will share news of activity and learning, as well as links to related information that our wider audiences may also find interesting.
Visit the Curators area of the DASH website for updates.
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, Former Artistic Director of DASH