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The third Creative Minds conference held in Ipswich on 28 October tackles the question of why learning disabled artists continue to be under-represented in the arts.

Creative Minds is led by learning disabled artists and performers. It encourages a day of debate and discussion. Attendees include artists, venues, arts organisations and critics. It aims to unpick the complexities that surround under-representation, and to identify and address the barriers between learning disabled arts and the wider arts world.

We were fed up with not being treated as proper artists and performers. It was talked about as therapy not art. 

Sarah Watson, chair of trustees at Carousel, and one of the original Creative Minds steering committee members

For the first time, the conference includes a panel chaired by and including learning disabled artists, as well as those from the wider arts world. The intent is to create an opportunity for candid debate about the barriers to access, and ways they can be overcome.

Key topics to be debated by the panel include:

  • How we define quality in learning disabled arts
  • The relationship between the learning disabled arts sector and the wider arts world
  • How learning disabled artists and performers can be supported to make quality work
  • Should we view learning disabled performances and exhibitions in the same way we view ‘mainstream’ work

To produce the conference Carousel worked with some of the East’s leading learning disability arts organisations: ActOne ArtsBase, Razed Roof Theatre Company, Suffolk Artlink and Zinc Arts, and DanceEast.

Creative Minds is a national project led by Carousel, one of our National Portfolio Organisations. It provides an important catalyst to get people in the arts sector talking about the work produced by learning disabled artists and recognition that it is good and of a high quality. At its core is the ambition to change people’s ideas and perceptions about learning disabled artists and their work.

We know that the work created by learning disabled artists and performers is not significantly represented in the wider arts world and it is only by having an accessible discussion between learning disabled artists and performers and representatives of the wider arts world that we can begin to understand why that is. 

Gus Garside, National Coordinator for Creative Minds

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