British Council Bahrain the lead country in the Middle East in Disability Arts, partnered again with award winning disability artist Rachel Gadsden, to deliver Art-Abled in its fourth year.
The residency programme for the regional disability artists was the result of Art-Abled’s successful work in disability arts over the past three years.
This year our programme extended to include 6 disability workshops; held at schools for the visually impaired and autistic centres . We also held a residency programme for regional disability artists and a skills development workshop for artists. We also facilitated a live bold performance by Rachel around mental health and asylums with one of our partners Al Riwaq Arts Space.
The residency programme included an autistic artist from Bahrain, a visually impaired sculptor From Saudi Arabia and a physically disabled artist and motivational speaker from Oman who worked with Rachel to create work to be exhibited in the United Kingdom and also explore the notions of being disabled in the Gulf Culture.
Al Noor Fragile Vision led by Rachel Gadsden in collaboration with the British council, is the Middle East’s Art-Abled adopted programme, as it aims to spread arts disability around the Gulf and raise more awareness. Our residency artists are in the UK now attending the Arab Arts Festival in Liverpool to showcase their work.
We have engaged with over 220 children with disabilities, teachers and parents and intend to further develop the programme and spread disability arts knowledge around the Gulf.
For anyone interested in learning more about Art-Able or would like to participate and contribute more to the project please contact us on +973 17 266166.