Cultural Shift, a project in conjunction with Little Cog has been awarded £250,000 to deliver three years of arts based activity to increase participation amongst disabled people in the Teesside area.
We are one of just four organisations in the UK that has been chosen to benefit from the Spirit of Achievement Challenge Fund through the Spirit of 2012 trust to increase disabled people’s participation in arts and cultural activities.
ARC’s project, Cultural Shift is a comprehensive three year programme of dynamic arts activity involving disabled people at every level. It will build on the strategic partnership between ARC Stockton and Little Cog, a disability led arts organisation based in Saltburn.
Annabel Turpin, Chief Executive of ARC Stockton said: “We called our project Cultural Shift because that’s what we want to do: to really change cultural perceptions of disability. One of the most exciting things about this grant is that it will enable us to work with disabled people as participants, artists and audiences, so the impact will be felt across the whole organisation, and beyond.”
ARC will working with Vici Wreford-Sinnott from Little Cog: “What an exciting opportunity we now have to bring disabled people centre-stage, both in the arts and in our community. We can’t wait to get started and sincerely look forward to making connections, creating new work and engaging with a whole range of disabled artists and partners to make change happen.”
The Spirit of Achievement Challenge Fund opened for applications in February this year and received a total of 225 applications from all over the UK.
The Spirit of Achievement Programme; one of Spirit of 2012’s flagship programmes aims to build on the success of the London 2012 Paralympic Games in challenging perceptions of disability including self-perceptions and empowering disabled people to better participate in their communities.