Patricia Place

“LDAF’s most important work is providing a space where artists can explore identity issues. Some of these artists will progress to mainstream standards of acceptance, but if they want to explore their physicality and its personal and collective impact, LDAF provides a unique starting point.

Joe McConnell

"The decision to cut 100% of this organisation's funding will probably
mean its closure. If this happens, it will be a tragic loss for future generations of young people seeking creative ways to challenge society's continued exclusion of disabled people. And find a voice.”

Meg Hillier MP

“I urge you to review the decision and give feedback to the London Disability Arts Forum about how it can shape itself for the future and source funding from other routes. As you will appreciate, a 100% grant cut at this stage means that the organisation has no easy future, because of the short timescale it has been given, to find alternative sources of funding should the Arts Council stand by its initial decision.”

Nicola Hutcheson

Creative Capital Project Manager
“We find it difficult to understand, that while ACE’s statutory obligation and stated policy is to support diversity and equality in the arts, that it chooses to cut London Disability Arts Forum, one of London’s few disability-led arts organisations. I attended the recent Tate debate hosted by LDAF, and witnessed the huge amount of support from Deaf and disabled artists in the audience.”

Daniel Cormack

“I have benefited from the LDAF's support personally in a huge way and with their support and championing, my films have broken out of the disability niche and gone on to screen in major international film festivals in Los Angeles, Montreal, Palm Springs, Warsaw and Edinburgh.

LDAF's magazine Art Disability Culture, the UK's only surviving print magazine dedicated to disability arts and culture, has gone from strength to strength under its current editor Dave Watson: championing new and younger disabled writers and artists. It is an invaluable forum for the disabled community.”

Liz Crow

“A film such as 'Frida Kahlo's Corset' had its first major screening at DFF and, because of that, made its way round international disability film festivals for five years, winning several awards. Only then was it taken up by the mainstream, as though it took that stamp of 'approval' for the mainstream to look at it. Its first mainstream outing was a three-month run at Tate Modern, alongside the exhibition of Kahlo's paintings. Without the Disability Film Festival, this would not have happened. 'Nectar' is taking a similar course. I don't understand how the Arts Council, there to promote both quality and diversity in the arts, can be willing to jeopardise the work of this community of artists.”

Mat Fraser

“Where else will younger disabled people wanting to enter and work in the arts be able to go? We know that without a dedicated Disability arts organisation, other bodies will fail miserably as they attempt to provide the necessary support to disabled artists, that is 2nd nature to LDAF, but that will have to be spelt out to others, and we will get lumped in with other “minority” funding, already suffering from too much competition no doubt, until we no longer have a strong voice with which to speak our own valuable arts message to the World.”

Melvyn Bragg

“This is appalling and a total disgrace and I will do everything I can to help.”

Katherine Araniello

“Art Disability Culture is a vocal arena of critical debates which includes exposure to disabled artists, publicising art events that are accessible. It also employs writers who write honest reviews on other disabled artists’ work, which mainstream art magazines fail to do because they do not know how to critique a piece of work that is exploring social issues of disability. This we believe is because a writer with no disability history/insight will inevitably want to write a review from a medical model standpoint.”

Raina Haig

“In seeking an end to LDAF, the Arts Council, London Office exhibits a spectacular failure of understanding about the pivotal role this organisation plays in the sector. LDAF is an axis organisation, the authentic voice OF disabled artists in London that our community looks to for leadership, representation and information.”

Ags Irwin

“As ACE apparently wish to focus on visual arts, the success of ICI, and the exhibitions (planned?) spread around the country must surely meet this. LDAF is unique, it's USP has always been that it is run and managed by disabled people.”

Maggie Hampton

“LDAF stands as an example of best practice in Disability Arts. We in Wales have been inspired by your film festival, and the fabulous ADC magazine, which just gets better and better, and the recent disability arts debate at the Tate, which attracted huge interest.

Although London based, LDAF is a key player in the UK disability arts network, and organisations such as ours look to LDAF, especially in the light of NDAF's closure in January. The loss of LDAF would be a massive blow to both to individual disabled artists and to the Disability Arts movement as a whole.”

Dr Alice Maynard, Director
Future Inclusion

“We believe that disability arts is fundamental to the empowerment of disabled people in society. The ‘mainstream’ arts world is demonstrably still inaccessible to and ignorant of disabled artists and their contribution, so there is no excuse for saying that funding for disability arts is no longer needed. The expression of the experience of disabled people through the arts provides a unique insight for nondisabled people into the lives of disabled people – the oppression we experience but also the huge contribution we have to make to a sustainable society. A vibrant disability arts scene is also vital for providing training material for the wider world in Disability Equality Training.”