The Rushton Residency programme, new for 2025, is an evolution of DaDa’s long-standing annual Rushon Lecture, reflecting on the legacy of Edward Rushton, a British poet, writer and bookseller from Liverpool who opened a school for the blind after losing his own vision. It is Rushton’s passion, activism and drive for social justice that has been reflected and celebrated in our Edward Rushton lectures and is now re-imagined through our residency programme.
Award-winning Deaf Liverpool author,Natalie Denny(who’s best known for her ’Keisha Jones’ series for children), will take up an artist's residency with DaDa in the UK through Disability History Month to develop her critical and creative writing for adult audiences, learning from 7 African counterparts and exploring social justice and inclusion through the lens of disability across cultures and continents.
Lillian Munuo of ‘Beyond The Label’, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, will also be supported by DaDa through a Rushton Residency, connecting Lillian with Natalie and artists from Nigeria to exchange ideas and experience.
Lilian Munuo is a multidisciplinary visual artist, disability rights advocate. Lillian’s residency will focus on storytelling through mixed media and bring the lived experiences of Tanzanians with disabilities into this global conversation on social justice through art.
Further international residencies will form part of the programme, developed in partnership between DaDa (Liverpool UK) and Potters Gallery, (Abuja, Nigeria). These international residencies will support artists from Sub-Saharan Africa to create new work, alongside the UK’s Rushton Residency.
Art forms will include: Dance, Spoken Word, Documentary Film, Creative and Critical writing and mixed media visual arts and storytelling.
The residencies will explore how social justice creates social inclusion and how access benefits not only for disabled people, but the wider cultural sector in all three countries.
Rushton Residency Workshops
During the winter months you can join writer Natalie Denny for an engaging series of creative writing workshops as part of the Rushton Residencies withDaDa. Drawing on her experience as a published author and creative facilitator, Natalie will guide participants through writing exercises that explore the intersection of disability and social change.
Rushton Residency Exhibition of Work
In the new year we will launch an online exhibition of the new work created by our artists during their residency. Links to this will be available here following the launch.
Funding for Rushton Residencies
The Rushton residencies are made possible through the British Council Culture Connects Programme, which supports cultural organisations, festivals, artists and creatives between the countries of SSA* and the UK to create art, build networks, collaborate and develop markets and share artists’ work with audiences.
This work is also supported by public funding through Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council Cultural Arts Investment Programme.