Call-out for disability art movement contributors
Disability Arts OnlineA project has been launched in the hope of chronicling memories from the disability arts movement.
Vici Wreford-Sinnott, from Saltburn, is helping to collect untold stories from people involved.
She has been part of disability arts for more than 30 years and runs the Stockton-on-Tees-based Little Cog theatre and production company.
Cripping Culture: A Journey into Disability Arts Heritage is being organised by arts charity Disability Arts Online.
Call-outs are now in place for artists, activists and audiences across the north-east of England for people to share their written and multi-media testimonies.
Ms Wreford-Sinnott said: "It represents safety, a space where I don't have to campaign daily for equality and access, which I do in my daily interactions in mainstream arts."
She added without the movement, she would not have been able to pursue her career and described it as "home".
'Hidden history'
The project hopes to reveal the achievements of disabled artists and activists who helped to progress disability rights from the 1970s onwards.
Stories uncovered will be shared through an accessible digital archive and interactive digital timeline. Spoken contributions will also be used to create a podcast series.
"Protecting and showcasing a largely hidden history is vital if we are to understand ourselves as a society," Ms Wreford-Sinnott said.
"Disabled people have contributed enormously national life and this deserves to be acknowledged, honoured and available as education."
Cripping Culture will be the first national archive for Disability Arts Online, working with the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive.
The project received £249,607 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Ms Wreford-Sinnot said: "I want a history I am proud to have been a part of with so many talented, vital friends and colleagues to be available to more people."
"Many disabled people aren't aware of our history because information is so hard to find.
"This project transforms that."
