These online masterclasses are aimed at North East England based theatre companies, venues and organisations. Disability Equality is something that impacts on a whole organisation and the way it thinks, plans, operates and creates, programmes or commissions work. The Masterclasses are friendly, supportive and not at all judgemental of practice – you will be guided through a range of subjects warmly and with fun. Something that starts with a pub quiz can’t be that difficult to take part in, surely!

The Masterclasses will explain disability as a social phenomenon and remove all medical myths. We will put disability in a historical, cultural and social context to understand why disabled people are often missed off the map, to discover a rich seam of untold stories from new perspectives, and explore how disabled people have often been represented, resulting in stereotypes and common negative tropes.

Disability Equality looks at accessibility, at language, and at how to begin relationships with disabled-led companies and artists.

We can’t emphasise strongly enough that, in the longer term, your work in this area will become organisation wide, other wise it is tokenistic and risks being piecemeal. And responsibility for it cannot sit with one person, or with front of house staff. Disability is in every area, including Board and Executive Management – and it cannot success without complete buy in at this level of an organisation.*

Some kind words from ARC, with whom we developed Cultural Shift, a complete model for embedding disabled-led work into the heart of your art.

“We were genuinely challenged to rethink and change the way we work with disabled people. New language, new approaches and gaining a new knowledge of disability that helped us understand why we need to do things a certain way, rather than just changing because we want to tick boxes. People have seen really brilliant work and had their own perceptions challenged by the work they have seen.”

Annabel Turpin, Chief Executive, ARC

*If you are interested in a larger team taking part in these masterclasses, for example for your whole organisation or for a significant number of members of your team, we can schedule a separate session for you. There may be cost implications but we do have some subsidy to support this.

If you have any questions please contact us at info@littlecog.co.uk

This session will be recorded as an experiment and elements shared to benefit the wider sector. Nothing confidential or sensitive will be shared and organisations will not be exposed in any way. And you will be able to opt out of any of your contributions being shared.

Please note there are two sessions, these will be the same so you only need to book for one.