As a society we have been socialized to fear physical and mental differences. Too often the non-disabled community is uncomfortable interacting with people who have disabilities or are willing to form false opinions about the disabled experience and, in particular, their desire to be “fixed”. In short, every day culture has confused disability with inability, a fact that must be challenged on the level of imagination. We believe that the ultimate test of living in a community is found in our willingness to change our minds about one another, in our ability to know each other in better ways.
Luckily, art changes our minds all the time by realigning our assumptions about life. More importantly, art that involves disability provides opportunities to see physical and mental differences in new ways. This art can help transform differences into similarities. Even more radically, we believe disability art can alter the realities of a town by connecting people to one another in authentic ways.
DisArt Festival is an international disability arts festival that celebrates, investigates, and honors creativity, disability, and identity. Through exhibitions and performances, the festival will increase access to exemplary examples of disability art and culture in order to awaken a spirit of ability equality, social inclusion, physical accessibility, community, and a sense of place for those living with disability. We believe that the creative act can stimulate important, necessary civic conversation and influence cultural change. The festival exemplifies the confidence we have in both the power of art to challenge preconceived notions about the human condition of disability and in the city’s readiness to remove barriers that have historically limited civic engagement by disabled individuals.
