Further Afield 2024 – An exciting online programme that explores art and disability in rural spaces.

Further Afield 2024 – An exciting online programme that explores art and disability in rural spaces.

Further Afield is an ambitious, disabled-led project that explores the work of disabled artists who are rurally based or whose creative practices are rooted in rural settings.

Curated by Bella Milroy and produced in collaboration with LEVEL Centre in Derbyshire, Further Afield seeks to celebrate the work of disabled artists and question what we expect to find in rural art. It strives to broaden the current understanding of what the rural embodies… who experiences it, how it’s experienced, and what kind of art is made there.

In 2022, disabled artist and curator Bella Milroy, in partnership with LEVEL Centre, hosted a number of live interviews with disabled artists based in rural locations across the country. In this new iteration of Further Afield, she has once again collaborated with LEVEL Centre to curate a series of six recorded interviews, commissioned creative texts and research into the experiences of disabled artists in rural settings.

In each interview (available in audio and video format), Bella speaks with a disabled artist based in the UK, exploring what living and making art in rural spaces means to them. The conversations explore topics such as:

• barriers to access
• isolation
• rural infrastructure
• creative community
• imagination
• the desire for diverse, inclusive and accessible opportunities.

Six different disabled writers were commissioned to respond to each interview as a way of furthering the conversation about art and disability in rural settings.

Further Afield features some of the most exciting artists and writers in the UK today, offering insight into how disabled artists make work and the places in which that work emerges.

Bella says:

“I am very excited to share this project! I truly believe that the artists featured in the programme are some of the most interesting and important artists making art at the moment. I think it will resonate with so many people and especially other artists.

There is so much value found in how disabled artists make art, the philosophies of their making, and the ingenuity of their creative practices. The work featured in the programme is incredibly generous, providing crucial insight into how artists create amongst illness, disability and rurality. It has been a huge privilege to have worked with these artists and to share their work in this project. I’m incredibly grateful for the time and energy that they offered here.

Special thanks to the Level Centre team for supporting me to bring this project to life, and for being such a great example of how art organisations can work collaboratively with disabled artists in ways that centre trust, respect, joy and imagination.”

The interviews feature conversations with artists Letty McHugh, Harry Josephine Giles, Grace Currie, Sadé Mica, Joanne Coates, and Natalie Sharp. The commissioned writers are Polly Atkin, Gabrielle de la Puente, Sue Jones, Jamila Prowse, Louisa Adjoa Parker, and Khairani Barokka.

Further Afield is supported by Arts Council England, with additional support from partners including LEVEL Centre, Haarlem Art Space, Derbyshire Libraries, Shape Arts, Wysing Arts Centre and Arts Derbyshire.

To find out more and to access the interviews visit the Level Centre website: www.levelcentre.com/further-afield-2024