In May 2020, the UK Disability Arts Alliance was created by a network of disabled led and inclusive arts organisations brought together by Jenny Sealey and Andrew Miller. Their #WeShallNotBeRemoved campaign was designed to amplify creative disabled people who had been made invisible by the global pandemic.
We wrote to UK Culture Ministers and gained headlines; we roared on social media and made #EndAbleism trend; united we produced the Seven Inclusive Principles to make our sector recover better; we brought our community together in 30 accessible meetings to champion change; we influenced national cultural policy and leveraged over £150k in additional funding to disabled artists; we inspired other campaigns and Culture in Quarantine 2; our voices were heard at industry conferences and parliamentary inquiries; we campaigned against vaccination passports and overturned the ban on disabled people attending government test events; we revealed in our survey just how marginalised disabled people are in culture; and we mourned the losses of our valued disabled friends and colleagues.
In short, we were NOT removed.
Find out more about our story in this E-Zine, created by our administrator Ellie Page from contributions by our members.
Thank you for being visible.
If you would like to view the eZine on a separate webpage, please click here.
If you would like an interactive PDF copy of the e-Zine, please email info@weshallnotberemoved.com and we’d be happy to send one over.
