learnings Archives - CRIPtic Arts

The cover of the report, a turquoise box with the words BEING HYBRID - a cheap and easy guide to hybrid events on it, and the logos for Spread the Word and CRIPtic Arts

BEING HYBRID: an easy guide to hybrid events

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: CRIPtic 2022, Learning, News and Updates, Resources

To read more about Being Hybrid, click here. To access it in a range of other formats, click here Why are you launching Being Hybrid? I keep having the same conversation over and over in my disabled writers group chats this summer. “Why is this festival not programming online?”. We had a period of time in which far more work was accessible to home-bound people and those who would struggle to reach it physically. Now, instead, everything has gone back to being in person. When people ask events “will this also be available online?” the response is almost always “that’s…

Accessible Finance: Budgeting for Access

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Budget. It’s a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many people trying to work out how to make affordable work, sustainable work, and accessible work. When I got my head around how I wanted to think about budgeting, it was by going beyond “how am I spending this” and into “how does my budget fit with who I am”. That’s why this week I’m discussing accessible finance and budgeting for access. Your budget is your ethics I’ve heard this statement from two excellent influences – Spread the Word and Quiplash – and both are right. Your budget is…

Broadening Our Practice

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: News and Updates, Reflections

CRIPtic is my baby – but it’s not just mine. It was built as a community project. If I had to estimate the number of people who’ve been involved with it, it would be in the three figures comfortably, and that’s not including audiences. Three years ago I must have been writing the first funding application for the first project – our Barbican showcase – and it must have been then that my now-partner suggested the name. I loved that name from the off, but I’d never thought of the arts, or of organisation-building, as a career. I wanted to…

Prioritising Health: Lessons Learned

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This week’s blog is a short one – to make sure I’m prioritising health. Last week, I took some time to focus on my creative work and for family reasons. I don’t normally take leave, and I found it incredibly difficult. I was still working a bit, and I was often very anxious when not working, because I felt like I should be. Sometimes, I struggle to treat my creative work as work. Because I enjoy it, I see it as less important, rather than remembering that it’s the only part of my work that only I can do. I…

Building Networks: Lessons Learned

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: Learning, Reflections

We went into CRIPtic 2021 without a very wide network. We certainly had quite a few contacts and offers of support. A lot of our work centred around the few networks we had, which were London-centric, and didn’t reflect the diversity of the disabled community. We were very lucky to receive support from people associated with those networks, but we really had to reach out and focus on building networks beyond the people we knew. We finished it with a far bigger network than we started, and a clearer idea of what we needed to do next to further diversify…

Workload Management: Lessons Learned

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: Learning, Reflections

As part of the process of assessing quality and success in our projects, we’re writing a series of blog posts exploring some of the key learnings from our 2021 development programme and showcase. This allows us to reflect on our experiences, our achievements, identify areas for growth, and (hopefully) be of use to other projects considering carrying out similar plans. This week we’re looking at workload management. The Workload: CRIPtic 2021 CRIPtic 2021 was an enormous project. We supported 5 artists through an 8 month development programme, hosted 7 workshops (with 58 attendees), organised 6 months of mentoring, 6 one…

Access Needs: Lessons Learned

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: Learning, Reflections

To assess the quality and success in our projects, we’re writing a series of blog posts exploring some of the key learnings from CRIPtic 2021. We want to reflect on our experiences and what we’ve achieved, identify areas for our own growth, and (hopefully) be of use to other projects carrying out similar plans. Out first learning is around access needs. CRIPtic is a deaf and disabled-led organisation. With that comes a recognition that everyone involved has their own access requirements for engaging with the project. Everyone faces different impairment-related limitations and societal barriers that will impact them during parts…

How to create your own living diorama

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: Workshop Write-Ups

By Liam O’Dell When it comes to creating a work of performance art, sometimes it can be helpful to start with an image – and that image doesn’t have to be your typical, two-dimensional kind, either. Martin O’Brien is an artist who suffers from cystic fibrosis, and in his work, he challenges the common representation of illness – through physical endurance, hardship and pain-based practices. He also looks to examine what it means to be born with a life-threatening condition, with cystic fibrosis having an average lifespan of 30 years. In a workshop for members of the CRIPtic Creative Showcase,…

Arts Council England Funding for d/Deaf & disabled artists

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: CRIPtic 2021, Learning, Resources, Workshop Write-Ups

In the most recent CRIPtic workshop, the focus was on Arts Council funding – how to get it, what to do with it. I’ve applied for ACE funding before – both times desperately last minute, wrangling with Grantium at 11pm on deadline day, vowing never to make the same mistake again. I’ve even attended workshops about ACE funding before, but what’s special about the CRIPtic workshops is the sense of being the target audience for once – access information isn’t half-heartedly added on at the end, it’s front and centre, and being translated into BSL as we go. It’s one…

Integrated and Creative Access with Touretteshero

Posted on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized in: CRIPtic 2021, Learning, Resources, Workshop Write-Ups

CRIPtic meets Jess Thom: ‘Creativity can be a catalyst for change’ For deaf and disabled creatives working in the arts, it’s easier to produce art which is accessible to ourselves, with access bolted on to the end. Rather than thinking about how our work can be created with British Sign Language (BSL) at the very beginning of the process, for example, the question is often how the work can be translated into BSL. When it comes to making art, access needs to be right at the heart of everything we do. Yet in order to do that, the idea of…