Creative Minds North Theatre & Performing Arts

Creative Minds North is disablility led conference questioning how learning disabled art is talked about, created and presented.

Mind The Gap (Bradford); DIY Theatre (Manchester); Lawnmower Theatre (Newcastle); Tin Arts (Durham); More Music (Morecambe); Blue Room at the Bluecoat Gallery (Liverpool); Dark Horse Theatre UK (Huddersfield); Prism Arts (Lancaster) and Headway Arts (Northumberland)

The conference will continue the discussion about how art is created by learning disabled people and the way this art is talked about, created and presented.

There will be workshops, accessible debates, and the chance to hear key success stories, showing how far learning disability-led art has already come. There will be talks and presentations by songsmith extraordinaire Jez Colborne and actor Sarah Gordy, famous for her TV roles in Upstairs, Downstairs, Call the Midwife and Holby City. Also featured is artist Leslie Thompson, whose exhibition at Manchester Contemporary in September was a critical and financial success, and dancer George Williams from Middlesbrough who, in 2016, became the first dancer with a learning disability to perform with the National Youth Dance Company on the main stage at Sadler’s Wells in London.

The main themes for our first conference of 2017 are:

– How do we create great art?

– What does the term professional mean?

– How can the work be best described and discussed?

– How can we help the wider arts world to commission work?

At the conference you can see performance, film and visual work and take part in discussions. Artists will present their work and there will be opportunities to talk or address the conference themes in a variety of accessible ways.

Creative Minds brings together learning disabled artists and performers and a range of people from the wider arts world to look at quality, leadership, inclusion and collaboration.

If you have any questions about group bookings or access issues please contact the Venture Arts team on [email protected] or call on 0161 232 1223.

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