Annual Report 2024-25

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After a bit of a pause, we are now ready to release our Annual Report 2024-25. This covers the work we completed between April 2024 and March 2025.

Introduction

When I look back at the past few years, I’m filled with a sense of gratitude – and community. CRIPtic is so much the result of people who’ve invested time and trust in me and us. When we became a company in 2021, I would never have imagined that after four years, we would be in the position we’re in.

Programme

It has been another busy year. We continue to run almost-weekly events for disabled people through our Connect Through Creativity programme. We also ran our full artist development programme, which included Incubate, Reach, Launchpad and Breakthrough. This ended in us staging our sell-out show The Acts at the Barbican Centre’s Pit Theatre. We further staged the Crip Monologues at Camden People’s Theatre and Quality of Life is Not a Measurable Outcome at the Roundhouse, as well as several other smaller events.

Engagement

Engagement with our work has skyrocketed. From our online community events having full waiting lists, to sell-out shows at the Barbican Centre and Camden People’s Theatre. We’re reaching more people than ever, and we’re having more of an impact on them. A key highlight for me was CRIPtic Arts being listed by the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 as one of the three top small employers for disabled people in the UK. I also remained one of the ten most influential disabled people in the UK in Performing Arts, Television and Radio.

Research

We continued to work on research projects. This included exploring baseline standards for audience accessibility, access barriers in the literature sector, open-source community-centred approaches to creative captions, the possibilities of the virtual stage, and interdisciplinary work across the arts and social sciences. Alongside these, we’ve released guides, reports and findings, working to radically improve the sector for disabled people.

Organisation

We have an increasingly stable but growing staff team. With the support of our fantastic advisory board, we’ve done lots of work to build partnerships, develop strategy, and map our impact on artists, audiences, and the sector. We expect that work to bear fruit next year. We will be delivering our development programme, a show at Watford Palace Theatre, more of our creative workshops, and producing Liberty – the Mayor of London’s disability arts festival – so 2025-26 will also be a busy year.