Why barriers still remain for disabled artists

Disabled artists are still being excluded from opportunities despite Bristol's reputation as an inclusive city, campaigners say.

Deaf artist Cathy Mager, who set up Spectroscope in 2022 to create radical public installations by deaf and disabled people, said the city is lucky to have cultural institutions who value inclusion.

"Most arts organisations are committed to accessibility but there's a difference between access and showing work by deaf and disabled people," she said.

Jess Douek, a singer who has chronic pain, has won funding to create Bristol's first fully-accessible grassroots music venue so emerging disabled artists aren't "locked out of that rite of passage".

Mager, who is deaf, started projecting images of British Sign Language (BSL) onto a neighbour's house during the pandemic, which led to similar projects being commissioned at the Arnolfini and Bristol Light Festival.

Spectroscope provided an outlet for these installations and connected her with other disabled artists in the south west.

Earlier this month, it hosted a gathering for artists at Ham Green House in Pill, and is soon launching an artist residency at East Quay in Watchet.

"There are venues across the south west who are really interested in what we can do, but there's more that can be done definitely," Mager said.

"Bristol has always been open to difference; that's established in the culture of the city."

Mager said she is particularly grateful to the Watershed, which has been "a leading institution for ensuring deaf and disabled people can find a home here".

"There are lots of people doing great things in providing accessible spaces; perhaps there needs to be more disabled leadership," she said.

Too often work by disabled artists is seen as a side project rather than something that can have a broad appeal, she added.

"But we've shown that our work brings in audiences in a mainstream context."

She also called for more funding to help with patchy transport in the region's rural areas, which can isolate disabled people.

Raquel Meseguer Zafe, a professional dancer from Easton, developed chronic pain in her late 20s.

"I felt I was capable but was being excluded by the fact I can't be vertical all hours of the day that most people expect," she said.

After years of working out how to live well with pain, she began exploring the idea of resting in public.

In her project A Crash Course in Cloudspotting, audiences lay down together and listened to audio of disabled people's experiences.

"I've been trying to advocate for a resting spaces network since 2018, where arts and cultural venues could provide resting spaces," she said.

Meseguer Zafe is currently working on Juliet and Romeo, an upcoming show at Bristol Old Vic, where there is a resting space. There will also be shows with BSL interpretation and audio descriptions.

"The work being made by Bristol-based disabled artists is going all around the world," she said, thanks to "fearless" cultural institutions.

She points to the Watershed and Arnolfini, who offer beanbags and yoga mats to lie down on during screenings and in the gallery space.

But she says the success of disabled artists is at risk due to cuts to the government's Access to Work grants, which can remove barriers by paying for transport and support workers.

"The potential for us to keep working as we're working is under threat," she said.

Jess Douek, the lead singer of alternative metal band Mallavora, lives with chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia.

"Being a touring musician, everyone is stood up all the time, on stage, travelling long hours; the culture is roughing it - I realised early on that just wasn't going to be possible for me," she said.

"I wasn't prepared to give up on music so wanted to find a way of doing things differently so I could forge a career for myself."

Her band designed a way of touring that works for them, by hiring help and playing accessible venues that are welcoming to their disabled fans.

Douek said her band broke the record for the number of wheelchairs at a fully-accessible gig at the Exchange in May.

She said there are "amazing accessible venues in Bristol, but it's quite inconsistent".

She has secured Arts Council funding and partnered with the Exchange to create Bristol's first fully-accessible grassroots music venue to showcase emerging bands in a smaller space.

"I'm conscious that emerging disabled artists are locked out of that rite of passage," she said.

Quarterly gigs, networking events and a talent pathway with festivals and booking agencies will launch in early 2027.

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