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Accessing Architecture Exhibition
9 December 2021 – 28th January 2022
D/deaf, Disabled and Neurodiverse Artists responses to the Built Environment
Paula Clarke, James Ashe, Jacqueline Wylie, Marie–Therese Davis and Helen Hall
Launch Event via Zoom
5.30pm – 6.30pm
9th December 2021
A new exhibition that opens in Belfast on Friday (10th December) will showcase artistic work reflecting disabled people’s experiences of the built environment.
Opening at The University of Atypical for Arts and Disability Gallery on Royal Avenue, the Accessing Architecture exhibition reflects on contemporary attitudes and artistic interpretations to access and inclusion in urban design and architecture.
The work, created by D/deaf, Disabled and Neurodiverse artists, is the culmination of a two-year project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project delivered a series of creative workshops, lectures, research opportunities, disability awareness training and a film archive collaboration with Northern Ireland Screen. A documentary film on the project will be released in January 2022.
Sean Fitzsimons, Chairperson of the University of Atypical, commented: “The Accessing Architecture project and exhibition address an important aspect of disabled people’s experience of the built environment. The project gave an important voice to disabled people who faced barriers to access within the built environment in Belfast and beyond.”
The Accessing Architecture exhibition includes work by artists Paula Clarke, James Ashe, Jacqueline Wylie, Marie–Therese Davis and Helen Hall alongside contributions from a number of our participants . Workshops included Plaster landscape casting with architect/maker John Donnelly of ‘Model Citizen,’ and Richard Dougherty, architect, on Access and Architecture.
Deirdre McKenna, Exhibition Co-Ordinator, explained that the two-year project allowed people to explore the built environment through a range of different perspectives. “Being able to access a building or move through the streets is every person’s right. Each of the artists responded to the project in different ways filtering their experiences through their creative process and unique perspective.”
The project offered a series of experimental workshops exploring dance and movement to find ways of expressing our physicality of how we move through our city and surroundings. The project was impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and many strands of the project had to move online.
Paul Mullan, Director, Northern Ireland at The National Lottery Heritage Fund said: “We are thrilled to support the University of Atypical in uncovering the cultural heritage of disabled communities in Belfast. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, the Accessing Architecture exhibition is bringing forward new and exciting work by D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse artists. Reflecting on these experiences of accessibility and the built environment will broaden understanding in the wider community.”
The Exhibition runs until Friday 28 January 2022 at the University of Atypical Gallery at 109-113 Royal Avenue, Belfast.
The University of Atypical for Arts and Disability is a disabled-led arts charity, taking an empowerment-based approach towards supporting disabled and deaf people’s involvement in the arts. The organisation specialises in developing and promoting the work of artists who are D/deaf, Disabled or Neurodiverse and in reaching disabled and D/deaf audiences.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by The National Lottery, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Inspires, leads and resources the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.HeritageFund.org.uk.
Follow @HeritageFundNI on Twitter and @HeritageFundNorthernIreland on Facebook and use the hashtag #NationalLotteryHeritageFund
Six artists have been involved in the project which included workshops, lectures, research opportunities, disability awareness training, a series of exhibitions, and a film on how disability was historically portrayed in the media.
The Exhibition is open from Friday 10 December 2021 and runs to Friday 28 January 2022.
A project report and documentary film will be launched in January 2022.
Contact details:
T: 028 90239450
E: administration@universityofatypical.org
W: www.universityofatypical.org
Safety protocols:
- We will be gathering your name and contact information at the entrance to the Gallery, which we will keep for 21 days and then delete, in accordance with effective track-and-trace measures.
- Sanitiser units at the entrance and around the venue
- Anyone who can, should wear a face covering when visiting the venue
- We request that people practice social distancing inside of the space
- We will be regularly sanitising all surfaces within the venue
- We will no longer permit the audience/visitors to gather inside of the office space to protect staff
- We will provide single use biodegradable paper cups for refreshments for events
Accessing Architecture
Past Exhibitions
strangely disjointed & idiosyncratic
Dara Condon
22 July – 19 August 2021 Opening: 5pm – 8pm
The University of Atypical is delighted to invite you to the long-awaited exhibition strangely disjointed & idiosyncratic by artist Dara Condon.
Dara Condon was the recipient of the University of Atypical’s Graduate Award 2019 and we’re pleased to see this promising graduate’s exhibition realised. Dara’s inspiration derives from eclectic pools of thought drawing on scientific theories, sacred symbols and forms, mythology and the power of the natural world.
This is Dara’s first solo exhibition and he has created an environment that explores how the mind processes visual information on a conscious and subconscious level. This new body of work forms a constellation of art forms drawing from the artists life and his experience of the mind, memory and mental health.
Gilly Campbell, Head of Community Arts & Education, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented, “I’m delighted to see this exhibition from Dara Condon open at the University of Atypical. This is Dara’s first solo exhibition, offering the artist that all important next step in his professional, artistic career. After such a long period of galleries being closed due to restrictions, it’s heartening to see them re-open and enthusiastically welcome the public back to see art up close and personal. There are so many terrific exhibitions going on in galleries across Northern Ireland and I would encourage everyone to go along and support your local gallery this summer.”
Artist in Conversation: Dara Condon
29 July 2021
1pm – 2pm
Booking required – limited numbers are permitted on site, please include your access requirements when booking your place.
To book HERE
or email administration@universityofatypical.org
About the Artist
Dara Condon is a Belfast based artist originally from Donegal. He studied fine art at Ulster University graduating in 2019. He was the recipient of the graduate residency award by Digital Arts Studio 2019, Belfast. Condon is a multidisciplinary artist and performed in Jan McCullough’s film Vision Board Part “Dissolving Histories: New Narratives”
This will be my first solo show. I have created a large ceramic wall piece of a brain. Intricate patterns representing thought processes, images relating to memories, thoughts, hurts and love. Tiny faces of those that I hold dear in my memory. I want to depict the flaws of the brain, the void or mental blocks. But also, a celebration of art and the impact it has on the mind, the healing, almost like a large tree with foliage intertwining. Art instilling hope. A burgeoning creativity to counterbalance the destructiveness. This will be my main piece.
Gallery tours & audio described tours are available. To book a tour of our current exhibition email us including your access requirements when booking your place. administration@universityofatypical.org
Artist in Conversation: Dara Condon
29 July 2021
1pm – 2pm
Booking required – limited numbers are permitted on site, please include your access requirements when booking your place.
To book email administration@universityofatypical.org
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project in conversation with Richard Dougherty.
4th August 2021. 7pm – 8pm
Join us for an evening with The DisOrdinary Architecture Project’s founders Zoe Partington and Jos Boys as they discuss their creative collaboration with architect Richard Dougherty.
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project was established in 2008. Since then a network of disabled artists have collaborated with architecture, interiors and built environment students, educators, researchers, practitioners and other interested groups to co-create new and exciting ways to do disability differently in the design of built space.
Fittings and MisFittings is part of Accessing Architecture: Disability and Belfast’s Built Heritage by the University of Atypical is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund Northern Ireland. The project researches the history of the disabled community in Belfast through the city’s built, industrial and cultural environments.
About DisOrdinary Architecture
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project starts from the experiences, expertise and creativity of disabled artists. We work through co-partnering and co-design to bring together artists and built environment specialists on an equal footing.
Our collaborations aim to generate creative and critical opportunities that open up innovative new provocations for thinking and doing disability (and ability) differently in architecture and the built environment. By learning lessons from what we do, we aim to become thought leaders in the field, and to influence attitudes and practices as well as the design of our built surroundings.
To Book: LINK
For More Information – disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk
About Richard Dougherty
Richard Dougherty recently was the recipient of the ‘Project Architect of the Year’ award at the 2019 RSUA Awards, for his work on the Colin Connect Transport Hub in Belfast.
Richard is a practicing architect and has designed a new campus building for Gallaudet University for the Deaf in Washington D.C and has researched the relationship between upbringing, d/Deaf space, design and aesthetics; and how that informs access and architecture.
Access: Please let us know your access requirements, you can do this when you fill in the booking form. This talk will have BSL and captioning available.
Image ID: A feminine figure sits on the ground in the bottom left of the photograph. They have long reddish/brown hair, wearing a white t-shirt and teal coloured trousers. They are looking through a camera on a tripod, beside them is a wheelchair. Six people are standing in a semi circle in the background and there are other people to the left and right of the photo.
Exhibition dates: 22 October 2019 to 15 November 2019
Programmed with Belfast International Arts Festival, Atypical Gallery presents Missing Voices, a participatory photographic project about the lives of young women with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), led by Queen’s University researcher Gillian O’Hagan and photographer Helen Sloan.
Over a five week period, Helen and Gillian worked with a group of nine adolescent girls from four schools across Belfast. Using smartphones, the girls produced a series of 34 photographs, giving a powerful and moving insight into their lives inside and outside of the mainstream school environment.
To complement the exhibition, Atypical Gallery will host a panel discussion and photovoice workshop from 7pm on the evening of Thursday 24 October.
Led by Gillian O’Hagan and Helen Sloan, this discussion will delve deeper into the focus of the Missing Voices project which aims to amplify the adolescent female voice of ASD. The panel will look at the importance of creative expression in helping girls with ASD to allow parents, teachers, friends and others to understand their experience of the world around them.
They will also discuss the chronic problem of misdiagnosis in female ASD, asking why practitioners continue to use male-led diagnostic criteria that leaves countless young girls unseen, unheard and unrepresented.
Gillian O’Hagan is a doctoral student at Queen’s University Belfast. She is also the SENCO and Head of Psychology in Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School in Belfast.
Helen Sloan is an Irish photographer best known for her work as primary stills photographer on the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Exhibition Dates: 13th June 2019 to 19th July 2019
Launch: Saturday March 30th 2019 2pm to 4pm
Exhibition Dates: April 1st to April 26th 2019
Launch: Saturday January 19th 2019 2pm to 4pm
Exhibition Dates: January 21st to March 1st 2019
Launch: Saturday November 10th 2018 2pm to 4pm
Exhibition Dates: November 12th to December 21st 2018
Launch: Thursday August 2nd 5.30pm to 8pm
Exhibition dates: August 3rd to August 31st