Disability art

Disability art or disability arts is any art, theatre, fine arts, film, writing, music that takes disability as its theme or whose context relates to disability.

Disability arts is an area of art where the context of the art takes on disability as its theme. Disability art is about exploring the conceptual ideas and physical realities of what is to be disabled or concepts relating to the word.

Disability art is different from Disability in the arts which refers more to the active participation or representation of disabled people in the arts rather than the context of the work being about disability. Disability art does not require the maker of the art to be disabled (see Disability Arts in the Disability Arts Movement for the exception) nor does art made by a disabled person automatically become disability art just because it was a disabled person that made it.

An example of disability art by a non-disabled person: Alison Lapper Pregnant, 2005, Marc Quinn is disability art because of its context as he reveals the concept of the work was to make "the ultimate statement about disability"

An example of disability art by a disabled person: effective, defective, creative, 2000, Yinka Shonibare, shows photos of foetuses from women deemed to be at risk of delivering a defective baby, therefore looking at the relationship of defectiveness and disability.

An example of art made by a disabled person that is not disability art: Dorothea, 1995, Chuck Close; relates to his "strict adherence to the self-imposed rules that have guided his art" and "formal analysis and methodological reconfiguration of the human face" therefore conceptually has nothing to do with disability therefore is not disability art.

Disability art is a concept which was developed out of the disability arts movement. In the disability arts movement disability art stood for "art made by disabled people which reflects the experience of disability." To be making disability art in the disability arts movement it is conditional on being a disabled person.

The development of disability art began in the 1970s / 80s as a result of the new political activism of the disabled peoples' movement. The exact date the term came into use is currently unverified, although the first use of the term in the Disability Arts Chronology is 1986. During this period the term "disability art" in the disability arts movement has been retrospectively agreed to mean "art made by disabled people which reflects the experience of disability".

As the movement and term developed, the disability arts movement began to expand from what mainly started out as disabled people's cabaret to all art forms. The disability arts movement began to grow year on year and was at its height during the late 1990s. Key exhibitions which looked at disability art happened like Barriers, which was an exhibition considering physical, sensory and intellectual limitation and its effect on personal art practice. (8 Feb - 16 Mar 2007: Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth) and the creation of the Disability Film Festival in London in 1999, – both of which looked at work by disabled people as well as disability arts.

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