As commemorations for 1916 commence another kind of Rising has taken place! Within the arts field a commission entitled ‘Ignite’ has brought together three internationally recognised artists with disabilities to work with disability organisations and other artists with and without disabilities.
The Ignite commission which itself is funded by the Arts Council, Arts & Disability Ireland (ADI), Cork City Council, Galway City and County Councils, and Mayo County Council “… is an opportunity to dream big”, says Pádraig Naughton, the Director of Arts and Disability Ireland and represents the most significant investment in the country’s arts and disability sector.
A three part documentary series of the same name is set to be broadcast on Dublin Community Television (Virgin Media 802) which charts the behind the scenes work of the artists and groups involved as they prepared to produce and present their work to the general public. The series, which was made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Sound and Vision Scheme, investigates how the commission worked to positively blur the lines between artists and audiences with and without disabilities.

In Galway musician and composer, Jez Colborne worked with Bradford based learning disability theatre company Mind the Gap, Galway-based project “That’s Life” and the Town Hall Theatre to create a musical, promenade piece entitled Trickster, heavily influenced by the tales of Odysseus.
In Ballina Irish visual artist Aideen Barry, The Ridgepool Training Centre, Scannán Technologies Group and the Ballina Arts Centre present ‘Silent Moves’: a stop motion animation film inspired by the silent movies of the 1930s, combining advanced animation techniques, mime, music and movement that explores the rights of people with disabilities.
In Cork the third and final instalment of the commission, was unveiled on Culture Night 2015! Award winning artist Simon McKeown worked with the National Sculpture Factory, Create, the COPE Foundation and SoundOUT, to present a visual extravaganza employing projection mapping, audio and theatre that dazzled the crowd of 5000 plus in attendance.
Each episode profiles the artists involved in lgnite, giving an overview of either the disability group they are part of and/or the local disability group they are working with.
The series also looks at the artists and participants backgrounds and experiences of participating in the arts and in some cases what it means to be an artist with a disability, but how first and foremost, what it means to be an artist. The theme of arts and disabilities as it relates not just to the performers and artists but also audiences with disabilities is explored, as are the ways in which certain venues have accommodate said audiences. The highlight of each programme will be the unveiling of the commissioned works.
Watch this space for details on the broadcast dates of the series and click on the link for a taste of things to come…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAZKQcqs01o&spfreload=10