Disability History Month: Coventry Celebrates Disabled Creatives
Currently, there are around 14.1 million people in the UK with a disability. However, despite the large number, the community are rarely seen or heard in the media. If they are, then there is bound to be stereotypes that negatively impact non-disabled people’s views of people with disabilities.
That’s why it is so important that, in the first six months of being City of Culture, Coventry has been bringing disabled people to the forefront. One of the biggest celebrations of disabled people has been of those in the arts.
From November 18 to December 18, the UK celebrates Disability History Month. The annual event, which is currently in its 12th year, aims to bring awareness to disability issues and inequalities past and present. This year’s themes are ‘Disability and Hidden Impairments’ and ‘Disability, Sex, and Relationships’.
Image: Edie Jo Murray
Edie Jo Murray, 29, a neurodivergent artist who is based in the city, has had much of her art displayed as part of the event.
“I moved to Coventry in 2018, so I was like ‘ah, a big thing’s coming to Coventry I really want to be involved with it’.”
One of the first commissions that Edie did was for Unlimited, an organisation that funds disabled artists. With the grant, which she called a “playful”, she was able to create ‘Cov Beat’ which are a couple of short soundscapes that encapsulate the sounds of our bustling city. “I did this audio work where I was collecting sounds around Coventry and just sort of layering them and making weird soundscapes with them, which was really fun.”
She has also had an art collection, ‘Dreamscapes’, exhibited for The Show Windows. They have appeared in various places such as Gourmet Food Kitchen at Fargo Village, Severn Trent, and now inside the new entrance to West Orchards.
Image: Edie Jo Murray
“My favourite ones are in West Orchards,” she says, “because they are huge, two-metre-high prints. That was a really exciting opportunity because I had never really seen these digital worlds that I make- I’d never seen them printed [that] big.”
She says that she believes that disabled artists will have more chance to share their art thanks to City of Culture, and that it’s great that programmes like Unlimited exist, but she hopes that disabled people get a chance to separate their disabilities from what they do and aren’t just allotted into the “disabled group”.
“I don’t have an experience of physical disability so I can’t comment in that respect, but in terms of neurodivergence, I’d like to see a move away from stereotypes; understanding that someone can be autistic and quote, unquote, ‘normal’.”
Image: Edie Jo Murray
“One of the biggest things for me, particularly with being autistic, is making people realise that it’s a thing that ‘normal’ people that you see in your everyday life have and experience. Like the number of times I’ve interjected because people are talking about ‘Oh, I think he’s on the spectrum’; talking about autistic people as if they’re not in the room.”
Unlimited is one of the organisations to commission Edie. They have multiple awards and programmes to help disabled people reach a wider national and international audience.
Rachel Walker, artist support at Unlimited says, “We think that it’s important to try and showcase the work of disabled artists, and to try and get that really embedded in the mainstream cultural sector. Being part of City of Culture is a great opportunity for that.”