DaDaFest has been awarded funding as part of Arts Council England’s strategic touring programme, to develop programming and marketing of disability arts at venues across the UK from 2012 – 2015.

Building on its long experience of programming disability arts work from its base in Liverpool, DaDaFest will work with 5 arts organisations from different locations: UK Council of Disabled People in Newham London, the Arts & Disability Forum in Northern Ireland, The Citadel in St Helens, Advocado in the West Midlands, and Preston Local Authority.

A diverse and international programme of disability and deaf arts will be developed for the tour, including music, workshops, work with young people, performance and story-telling. The tours will allow the arts to be experienced by a wider audience, through inclusive approaches to programming and providing access such as British Sign Language Interpreters and audio description.

Angela Chappell; Relationship Manger for Combined Arts & Touring at Arts Council England said: ‘DaDaFest is a unique organisation in the Northwest and we are pleased at their recent success within the strategic touring programme. This scheme  is designed to encourage collaboration between organisations so more people in England experience and are inspired by the arts’, and the project will see DaDaFest’s work reaching to other regions and new audiences.’

DaDaFest CEO Ruth Gould said: ‘We are really excited at the prospect of bringing high quality Disability and Deaf arts to new areas of the UK, including some of the least engaged regions. Working with the new partners will enable us to exchange skills, engage more people and together challenge the inequalities that exist in programming.’