Unlimited, the arts commissioning programme that supports disabled artists to create new work, has announced its latest awards, with 13 projects sharing a total of over £120,000.
Seven Research and Development (R&D) Awards have been given to mid-career artists to explore new creative projects. This includes one R&D Award supported by Wellcome Trust for an artist to develop a creative project that engages with health and science research.
In addition, six Emerging Artist Awards have been announced for artists who are still early in their career, to develop or produce a new artwork or participatory project.
The visual arts recipients include Aidan Moesby for his project ‘I was naked, smelling of rain’. The Newcastle-based artist is known for making large-scale works that explore climate change and wellbeing. Meanwhile, Felix Peckitt receives funding for his participatory project ‘The Goldilocks Mixer’.
The other visual arts recipient is Glasgow based artist Amy Rosa for her project ‘Gallanach’. The work investigates female pain through live installation and sculpture. She has previously exhibited at the Southbank Centre, London, and Tramway, Glasgow.
The full list of recipients of the R&D awards are: Adrian Lee (music, London); Aidan Moesby (visual arts, North England); Jane Gauntlett (combined arts, London); Jess Thom (combined arts, London); Laurence Clark (theatre, North England); Sophie Woolley (theatre, London). Jamie Beddard (combined arts, London) receives the Wellcome R&D Award.
Recipients of the Emerging Artists Commissions are: Amy Rosa (visual arts, Scotland); David Tovey (combined arts, participatory project, London); Felix Peckitt (visual arts, participatory project, South East England); Joel Brown (dance, London) Neal Pike (participatory project, Midlands); Vince Laws (Combined arts, participatory project, South East England).
Unlimited is delivered by Shape Arts and Artsadmin. Explaining the impact the awards will have, David Hevey, chief executive of Shape Arts, said: “The artworks showcase perfectly disabled people’s immense capacity for artistic brilliance.
“I am very much looking forward to seeing how they develop, and am delighted that they serve to illustrate so well the importance and successes of Shape’s own mission: for disabled people to break creative barriers in the arts.”
Cecilia Wee, head of artist development at Artsadmin, added: “This round of Unlimited commissions demonstrates the compelling artistic projects that are being created by disabled artists today. Engaging with issues such as identity, wellbeing, climate change, homelessness and data, we look forward to seeing the creative risks and fresh perspectives that these artists will take.”
Since 2013 Unlimited has distributed £2 million to disabled artists through various commissions and awards. The resulting artworks have resulted in over 2,300 performance and exhibition days, which were viewed by more than 132,000 people.
Images:
1. Amy Rosa, The WorkRoom, Tramway, July 2017. Photo: Brian Hartley
2. Aidan Moesby , Between Stillness and Storm, a previous Unlimited awarded installation work. Courtesy: Shape Arts
3. Amy Rosa, Buzzcut, 2017. Courtesy: Shape Arts
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