We need to find a way to make people know when our work is good. We don’t want people to patronise us. If someone tells us what to do, for example“walk on stage, turn round, say hello and walk off”, then we are not being creative.
Whereas if we make our own entrance and find our own creative style to move across a stage, then we are being creative, we are being ourselves.
We think we can tell the difference between these two, and we think audiences can too. We think that this might be a mark of quality in our art, performance and film work.
When people “own” their own work we can see quality in the stuff they produce, as they tell their own stories in their own ways. That’s what every artist does.
Andy Kee and Sarah Watson, from the Creative Minds Steering Committee, whilst making The Creative Minds Guide
My lack-lustre introduction to the sector happened in the mid-1980s. I’d been on benefits for many years and had to go to a workshop run by Chicken Shed Theatre company as part of a government-run ‘back to work’ scheme. I was appalled by the patronising way the ‘workers’ talked to the people they were supposed to be working with. I walked out on the workshop, thinking ‘these people might have learning disabilities, but they’re not stupid.’ It made me angry.
I’ve not been to see the work of Chicken Shed in recent decades. But back then the company clearly had an ethos where they thought the way of working with people was to tell them what to do. What counts for me, in terms of quality, is that the creative expression comes from artists themselves. I know from my own artistic endeavours that it takes confidence to think of yourself as an artist. And you can only get confidence through trying different things, making mistakes and taking on board advice about where you’re not hitting the mark.
Looking through comments on the Creative Minds Forum, I can see how my thoughts on what makes for good Art are echoed by others who also believe that there is a pool of unique experience of the world to be tapped through encouraging and facilitating learning disabled people to become artists.
For example Oska Bright Film Festival has been hugely successful because the decision-making is controlled by people with learning disabilities. As an audience we are offered a truly original glimpse into a way of seeing that is hidden from the mainstream world.
There are two big questions as I see it. Firstly, how do you connect that notion of an ‘aesthetic’ or something that is original, to the notion of ‘quality’? And secondly how do you go about telling artists with learning disabilities if you have an opinion on where the work falls down? You want to be encouraging, but equally you don’t want to patronise people by telling them their work is great when you don’t think that is the case.
I think this is true Sarah and Andy, when we celebrate learning disabled people’s ways of doing things and use that as inspiration, we’re onto something good. I think you can always tell in an Oska Bright film if learning disabled people’s ideas and creativity is right in there. Some films look like supporters and helpers have done the creative thinking. Of course learning disabled creatives might need help in ‘how to’ but it’s about equal partnership, deep listening and respecting learning disabled people’s style, choices and vision