I’m still pinching myself! We got our ACE NLPG funding for Neurophototherapy 2 in February, and went live in March. It will run until December 2023. Despite an ongoing bout of ill health, I’m living the dream.
Neurophototherapy 1 was a solo project. I’m now thrilled to work with a group of participants to develop and disseminate a creative tool for late discovered autistic people, using photography, performance and collage. I’m blessed to have my long term collaborator the collagist and learning and participation specialist, Miranda Millward, on board. We have some stellar partners too (see below)!
Since 2016, I’ve been researching accessible project designs and developing best practice models for working with neurodivergent artists. It feels like I’ve been inching ever closer to this moment. Working as an autistic project lead has often been as difficult as it is rewarding. In fact, it never failed to take a toll on my health and wellbeing until I hit on my Neurophototherapy concept and worked remotely.
Both my concept and my newfound assurance about working online have come as a result of the pandemic. When ‘life stopped’ something changed. I wrote to ACE about my ‘covid pivot’ in my project application. I needed to unmask my autistic identity in my creative practice, rather than merely be an advocate and write about it. I’ve since developed this thinking a little further – all the many strands of my work (including writing, advocacy, and consultancy) are my creative practice too. This reframing works now that I have been through the transformative process that is Neurophototherapy.
Enabling access is the heartbeat of this work with a small focus group of autistic creatives, and it’s the best gig in the world. Our starting point was to establish communication preferences and create accessible resources for our participants. We are now coming to the close of our ‘maker phase’. Each participant has been mentored 1-1 through a creative process to respond and contribute to the Neurophototherapy method. Their feedback and enrichment of my original concept is already extraordinary. Bearing witness to participants work with my ideas is both uncanny and a buzz. I’ve developed a methodology that works!
What is also extraordinary is the commonality between us. We are quite a diverse group, and yet as late discovered autistic women we share so many challenges. For example, co occurring chronic conditions which flare inconsiderately in the middle of projects! Many of us are also subject to precarity, of various kinds. Our lives are complex, getting through a day can be an achievement in itself when stuff starts to happen, as it invariably does. It’s an ND life.
I’m so glad I’ve learned to factor in a great deal of flex. When ND life happens and it feels like the project wheels might fall off the bus, I don’t have to stress. When you put access at the heart of a project you belt, buckle and brace it, and then you take out insurance. I can’t thank Arts Council England enough for trusting me to do this and believing in my idea.
This flexibility has meant we’ve been able to extend our ‘maker phase’ for two weeks. What follows is the joy of pulling our findings together; firstly, for an online gallery exhibition on the Autograph website, and subsequently for our publication.
Watch this space!
Partners include:
Autograph, Crafts Council, Kanyer Art Collection, NSEAD, Wellcome Collection (Access Team),
We’re also thrilled to be working with Prof. Nicola Shaughnessy, Associate Prof. Claire Penketh, and the writer Joanne Limburg.
