In theory, anyone can be an artist!
For a lot of people who learn differently or think differently (learning disabled or neurodivergent people), it has not been easy to become a professional artist.
On Disjunction, there is an article called Becoming an ‘Irregular’ Art School by Dr Jade French. It talks about this very question: ‘Who can be an artist?’
We want you to be creative and think up new ideas for change! To help make sure disabled artists get a fair chance to have careers as artists.
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In theory, anyone can be an artist!
For a lot of people who learn differently or think differently (learning disabled or neurodivergent people), it has not been easy to become a professional artist.
On Disjunction, there is an article called Becoming an ‘Irregular’ Art School by Dr Jade French. It talks about this very question: ‘Who can be an artist?’
We want you to be creative and think up new ideas for change! To help make sure disabled artists get a fair chance to have careers as artists.
Reply #312 -
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I’d love to say anyone can be an artist – and it’s true to an extent – but if you want to develop a professional practice there are a lot of things that can either help you be successful or be a barrier. Access to art school, networking and even a person’s literacy and organisational abilities can all have a profound impact on their capacity to be a practicing artist and have a sustainable career.
Reply #991 -
Art is not art without diversity and a mixture of different voices, stories and experiences, everyone should be supported and celebrated in being an artist!
Mainstream (outside of disability specialised) organisations need more disabled artists within their staff – this is an important starting point to growing inclusion.
Reply #995 -
I’ve just watched apolonia apolonia…. it’s pretty devastating how hard and committed women must be…we need all voices but we can’t when we are hooked into ways of living. For women it’s about the conversation about having children, for people with disability it can be a whole other level about sacrifices of relationships…..art is incredible. If you have given up on yourself because of what is said about you and to you….in judgement….then it takes so much courage
Reply #996 -
Being an artist means balancing creating an artwork (e.g., painting, performance) and earning enough money to make ends meet. So to enable disabled artists to flourish in a creative career, they need support to learn art making skills and the business of being an artist. We can’t assume that everyone has had the opportunity to learn these skills. The reason for this is that disabled artists may have had a life disrupted by chronic illness, physical or mental disability. But these things can be overcome with tailored support.
Reply #997 -
Art is part of expressing our humanity. This obviously means that anyone can be an artist. However, there can be barriers to whether we perceive ourselves or others as artists.
Non-disabled people often infantilise and don’t fully perceive the true expression of the art from disabled artists.
Reply #1000 -
Theoretically, anyone with the time, energy and passion. However I would see some of the major barriers to this being, accessibility, transport, affordability, costs of living expenses could be a big challenge to anyone having access to the time and energy to dedicate to pursuing being an artist.
Reply #1001 -
I believe that every person is born an artist and that creative self expression is a fundamental part of what makes us human. But we need to ask critical questions about the societal and institutional barriers that continue to privilege some people over others and to exclude many marginalised people, including Deaf and disabled people, from fully participating in the arts and creative practice.
Reply #1002
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