C95 Article

Lorraine Gallagher: Able essence , 1998.mixed media (body cast with mirror---viewers could see themselves behind casts), lifesize, photo Lee Gallagher; courtesy the artist

What artists with a disability want most is fair treatment, according to Dave Thomas, who now reports on the situation for such artists in Ireland.The word 'arts' can mean so many things; it would be difficult to list everything that they are and should be. For many years, it was the accepted fact that painting, sculpting, wood carving and basket weaving, among others, were all ideal ways for a person with a disability to relax and exercise, and that they were generally good pastimes for the person in question.

Practising most art forms can be therapeutic. However, many of those with a disability wanted to do more: to say something with their art form.

They were not allowed. Most 'people that knew best' thought it was unrealistic and inappropriate for someone with a physical deformity or an intellectual disability to be creative and to express themselves in such a public way. These gate-keepers kept the gate firmly closed. They were also considered 'normal' because they did not have a disability - and they were in control.

Through perseverance and bloody determination, people with disabilities pushed the gates, and the pressure did open them - to a point. Individuals with creativity in their veins started to show the public what they could do. Organisations dealing with began to form. In 1993 a colleague and myself established the National Centre (APIC - from its original appelation Awareness, Publishing, Information and Communications). We joined others in calling on the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Government to give adequate funding to individuals and organisations so they could develop and create quality art.

Money can be the cure for some problems and trying to get your hands on it can be a curse. The issue that rose from hell and has remained with many people is this: what is , and is a disabled person creating a piece of sculpture worthy of arts funding? Also, is a person with a disability participating in the arts a 'Disabled Artist' or an 'Artist' who has a disability? Personally I don't care: the issue is not what a 'disabled' person is labelled, but rather whether they can access the arts in the first place and whether they can avail of funding as an equal. Lorraine Gallagher is an artist who has successfully exhibited her work over the last few years. She has a disability, but is she a disabled artist?

Lorraine Gallagher: untitled, 2000,carborundum print, 21 x 15 cm; courtesy the artist

I'm an artist and I don't have a label .

Lorraine Gallagher: untitled, 2000,carborundum print, 30 x 15 cm; courtesy the artist

I'm an artist, and I don't have a label. Though I think other people would like to give me a label because I have done work around being disabled. When you do that type of stuff, people bring up this idea that "oh Lorraine that's terrible, you will be known as a disabled artist."

Gallagher shrugs her shoulders and says with a broad smile, "okay then," because when it comes to someone appreciating her art, she doesn't really care what the public call her. However, she is very proud of her own identity and is not ashamed to say "I am disabled," because that is a fact of her life.

It actually is a central part of my identity because it has been my identity since I was born. If I am making some artwork about disability, then it is obvious that I am a disabled artist. But if I am making something about buildings or the crowds in town or whatever, the viewer doesn't know I am disabled.

But what if someone describes her work as that of 'disabled artist Lorraine Gallagher', would that bother her?

It doesn't actually bother me. What bothers me more is the inflection of what that means to them. For me it's fine. It's a bit like coming out if you are gay, and it's like admitting and declaring to the world that I am disabled and I have always been disabled, and that's fine for me. The only problem with using the word 'disabled' is that it usually means something negative or bad. So if someone labels my work as 'disabled art' it could mean for some people that the work is substandard and that is what gets me going!

I have seen and experienced the work of Pádraig Naughton over the last six years. Naughton has a visual impairment and at present is working full time as a studio-based artist. Since graduating from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, in 1993, he has exhibited his ceramics and drawings in numerous galleries and festivals throughout Ireland as well as in Britain and Belgium. How would he categorise himself?

I prefer to call myself an artist with a disability. The problem I have with 'disabled artist' is that my work is not overtly political and for me I am almost expressing mainstream ideas in my own particular way. An example would be my landscape drawing. There is no doubt that my visual impairment influences my art. However, in order to operate as an artist, I have to be an artist first influenced by my disability, rather than a disabled artist making art. For me there is a distinction and I think even from a commercial point of view it's very obvious. I have sold just one piece of work in an exhibition that has been about the disabled artist, in comparison to exhibition

s that are purely looked at from an art point of view. I think that says a lot about the audience and educating the audience. I think people feel a great need to support the disabled artist by participating in their events and seeing what's going on but I do think there is a different value placed on that art.

When the arts-and-disability movement started, funding agencies became nervous. Each relevant agency and government department passed it on to the next, usually leading back to the Arts Council. The Arts Council didn't know what to do with disabled people wanting to create art (after all, they had just come to terms with 'Community Art' never mind disabled artists!). They shied away from the problem instead of embracing it. The arts-and-disability pressure cooker began to blow steam in the early '90s and the Arts Council reacted by developing a separate section just for the disabled. Despite the fact that it had the smallest funding allocated to any section, it was still a positive sign that was been taken seriously enough to fund. It showed that the 'invisible people' in Merrion Square were acknowledging what myself and others were saying - that people with a disability had the same right as others to participate in the arts as an equal, and that we wanted fair play when it came to funding.

There is a lot of disabled people that can't, through whatever reason, get involved in the arts, says Gallagher, because they may not have been financially in the position to get into the arts or just unable to access education. It's about access to information. They may not have had the right opportunity or information to start in the arts. I hate the word 'discriminate' but they haven't positively been discriminated, and allowed to get into the arts. In order to address that, the Arts Council brought about funding.

This funding was in some ways an opening for people to access the arts. There is far more importance to this type of funding for a disabled person than for someone who is able-bodied. For many non-disabled people, there is the option of obtaining a part-time job in a restaurant or factory to help keep food on the table. In many cases, a person with a disability cannot avail of a part-time job, for a few reasons. First, many places of potential employment are not disability-accessible. The second barrier is the perception that being disabled means you are ill, and ill people can't work. Finally, some people are uncomfortable with the idea of having a disabled person working with them and they blatantly discriminate against them.

So how did a person with a disability get the money to help start them on the right path to the arts world? They didn't, which is why there are so few people with a disability working in this area. Thankfully this situation is changing and Gallagher and Naughton are just two examples of the improvement. The majority of artists, whether disabled or not, would usually say that there is never enough funding to keep them going. An exception to the rule is Naughton, where funding is not a problem.

I've been very lucky with funding in the environment I live in. I have been able to access money through Leader 2 European Union funding and I've also been awarded the Award, both are significant amounts of funding. Opportunities on that scale have opened up and things have changed definitely since seven years ago when I finished college.

While acquiring funding can be an art form in itself, it may not be the only factor that denies people the opportunity to explore the arts. Gallagher feels that lack of education and information can be two of the biggest obstacles in becoming an artist.

Trying to get on courses and trying to get into Third Level is a minefield. At the end of the day, it goes back to the whole thing of having to be hidden again. If I tell them I am disabled I may not get in, and if I don't tell them they could say that you never told us.

As many a person with a disability will testify, withholding information can backfire on you just as much as being honest in the first place. "You're kind of caught between 'do I tell them or not', trying to hide your disability and for some of us we can't hide it," says Gallagher. When you present your disability to the College or Course Director, the reaction can often be negative: you're left feeling you have two heads and purple skin. It is this type of negativity which makes a person feel like they have a disability, and, worse still, makes them feel like a freak.

The work on display by an artist with a disability can educate people, often in a subtle way. Gallagher feels that this is vital. She likes to challenge the viewer's perception of disability; she hopes that she can open their eyes and help them associate the word 'positive' to the word 'disability' after they have experienced her work.

You don't even have to be an artist to educate people, says Gallagher, by just being out there in the mainstream and just living your life the way you want to live it is educating people. People don't realise that you have sex the same as everyone else, you may get married, have children, get a job, drive a car, have marital problems and you might even be an alcoholic. You have the same things going on like everyone else and some people actually think that if you are disabled you are a condition!

As if negative perceptions and narrow-mindedness weren't enough for an artist with a disability to cope with, what about the difficulties of getting around to show off your work and to exhibit it? The poor access to public transport has always been a thorny issue for people with disabilities, and for everyone living outside of a major city. Naughton cannot drive because of his visual impairment, further restricting his movements. He has had his fair share of difficulties with this and explains the kind of farcical transport system he has had to endure.

I find it very difficult to get involved in events or activities independently north or south of where I live [just outside Ballinasloe, in Co. Roscommon, 40 miles east of Galway city]. There is a very good road, train and bus network on the Dublin and Galway access. I can get to Galway 13 times a day. If I wanted to go to Boyle which is still in County Roscommon but at the other end of the county, I would actually have to take a bus probably via Longford and stay overnight. That is quite limiting.

Naughton also explained that he is involved in various projects in Britain and can travel there and back on the same day. "Transport is a huge issue for any artist hauling your art around to show people and especially for a person with limited options."

Some of the momentous problems that exist for an artist with a disability can be solved when there is a genuine commitment from government departments, galleries and other funding agencies towards the provision of education- and information-providers. There is a need for a substantial increase in funding for individuals and organisations working in . There is also a desperate need for all the relevant players to work in unison, so that there is no duplicating of services and grant aid, and so that the right people and groups get a fair hearing and receive adequate support. And that, when it comes to funding artists with a disability, the Council will look favourably on them, providing the encouragement, support, nurturing plus adequate grants, that they provide to non-disabled artists. Apart from private funding, it would seem that the bulk of funding for the arts can only come from the Arts Council. One major problem is that the Council is working from a five-year plan, a plan commissioned by the Minister for Arts, Síle de Valera. This plan has again ignored the needs and wishes of people with disabilities. Excluding them from this plan gets the Arts Council off the hook when it comes to funding to arts-and-disability projects. What is urgently needed is for de Valera to insist on amendments to the plan: a new section must be written, and adopted by the Arts Council immediately, that incorporates the needs of artist with a disability.

At the same time, we must tackle one of the other biggest obstacles facing an artist with a disability: ignorance on the part of people without a disability. There is a need for high-profile art exhibitions and media coverage, and a plan to make all galleries accessible. Along with this, all groups, individuals, funding agencies, government departments, Arts Council and everyone that supports need to work as one in devising a cohesive strategy that will once and for all bring people to the art and art to the people.

All art is inspired by something. When this is a disability, it does not make it substandard. It may make it unique, intriguing, and it may come from a damn good artist!

Dave Thomas ( dthomas@connect.ie ) was a co-founder of The National Centre (APIC); he is a journalist/broadcaster providing reports for RTƒ Radio 1.

Article reproduced from CIRCA 95, Spring 2001, pp. 34-37.
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