Home is where the Art is – Our Vision

We welcome your comments and suggestions about our Vision for Together! 2012 CIC. Contact us at info@together2012.org.uk

Together! 2012 CIC aims to be:

1) The leading organisation delivering inclusive participatory home-based arts. Click here for details or scroll down.

2) The leading organisation supporting Disabled artists to create art and deliver it from home. Click here for details or scroll down.

3) The leading organisation highlighting the diverse talents, identities and interests of Disabled people through the arts online. Click here for details or scroll down.

4) The leading organisation providing high quality home-based employment and career development opportunities for Disabled people in the arts. Click here for details or scroll down.

5) The leading organisation creating the cultural Legacy for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Click here for details or scroll down.

6) The leading consultancy for inclusive online arts delivery. Click here for details or scroll down.

7) The leading international Disability Film organisation. Click here for details or scroll down.

8) The leading organisation highlighting and campaigning for human rights issues within Disability Arts. Click here for details or scroll down.

9) The leading arts organisation within the UK Disabled People’s Movement. Click here for details or scroll down.

10) Driving the agenda for universal digital access to the arts. Click here for details or scroll down.

Home is where the Art is — Our Values

Disabled people have the right to access art and culture on equal terms with everyone else, as producers, creators, participants and audience members. (Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities)
Disabled people have the right to be resourced to produce and participate in our own cultural activities. (Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities)
Everyone can benefit from engaging with the arts, whatever their health conditions and access needs.
Art is most powerful when it is inclusive and accessible.
Everyone has something to teach and something to learn.
Together we are strong — Together we can change our world.

Making Our Vision a Reality

1) We will be the leading organisation delivering inclusive participatory home-based arts by:

Delivering a regular free programme of inclusive participatory online arts Clubs, workshop series, and social media-based ‘Join in from Home’ activities.
Exploring and finding ways of removing barriers to home-based arts participation.
Supporting and providing for artists, participants and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.
Delivering an ongoing free programme of Disabled artists’ development and training opportunities through our Professional Development Club.
Broadening understanding of what inclusive home-based participation means, through documenting and promoting our work and delivering training and consultancy.
Demonstrating the value of home-based participation for all, through undertaking and promoting research and evaluation.
Challenging definitions of quality, and demonstrating the excellence that can be achieved through home-based inclusive practice.
Raising awareness of the huge and growing numbers of people who lack access to venue-based arts provision and so would benefit from home-based engagement. This may be due to geographical location, caring responsibilities, health conditions, access needs, lack of support, financial costs…

2) We will be the leading organisation supporting Disabled artists to create art and deliver it from home by:

Producing regular free online exhibitions, performances and events to showcase the work of Disabled artists.
Ensuring that all commissioned activities are suitable for home-based participation by the featured artists.
Prioritising home-based Disabled artists for programming.
Supporting and providing for artists, participants, audiences and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.
Building an online community of home-based Disabled artists, bringing together amateur, community, aspiring professional, semi-professional and professional Disabled artists.
Delivering an ongoing free programme of Disabled artists’ development and training opportunities online through our Professional Development Club.
Broadening the understanding and valuing of artistic creation by Disabled people, through showcasing opportunities and undertaking and promoting research and evaluation.

3) We will be the leading organisation highlighting the diverse talents, identities and interests of Disabled people through the arts online by:

Including self-defined Disabled artists from all impairment and access groups within our work, including: people with learning difficulties; people with long-term health conditions including mental health conditions; neurodiverse people; Deaf and hard of hearing people; Blind and visually impaired people; and people with limited mobility.
Producing regular free online exhibitions, performances and events to showcase the work of Disabled artists and demonstrate its quality.
Highlighting intersectional identities and issues through our free exhibition, performance and events programming. This includes programming work as part of themed History and Pride Months.
Supporting and providing for artists, participants and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.
Undertaking and promoting research about and evaluation of our work.
Promoting understanding of the Social Model and other Models of Disability.
Publicising our work across a wide range of media (subject to Safer Spaces considerations).

4) We will the leading organisation providing high quality home-based employment and career development opportunities for Disabled people in the arts by:

Creating long-term part-time home-based employment opportunities for Disabled artists with Together! 2012 CIC, including training positions.
Creating long-term home-based contract positions for Disabled artists.
Creating short-term home-based commissions for Disabled artists and performers within the events programme.
Creating home-based consultancy and training work for Disabled artists.
Supporting and providing for artists and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.
Delivering an ongoing free programme of Disabled artists’ development and training opportunities online through our Professional Development Club.
Challenging the belief that you always have to ‘go somewhere else’ to make great art.
Using the statement ‘Home is Where The Art Is’ to promote recognition of the fact that an artist’s home can be their most creative space, irrespective of any impairment-related or access needs.

5) We will be the leading organisation creating the cultural Legacy for the London 2012 Paralympic Games by:

Prioritising the Disabled residents of the main London 2012 Host Borough of Newham within our work, ensuring that our programming and activities are appropriate for their needs and showcase their talents and interests.
Embedding the values of London 2012 within our work, including a commitment to prioritise environmental responsibility.
Including movement and dance within our work.
Promoting events and activities that have a positive impact on health and wellbeing.
Supporting and providing for artists, participants, audiences and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.
Supporting relevant initiatives of the International Paralympic Committee, such as the #Wethe15 campaign.

6) We will be the leading consultancy for inclusive online arts delivery by:

Using the unique body of experience that Together! 2012 CIC has built up through delivering inclusive online events and activities since 2020.
Delivering ‘Inclusion Confidence’ training for online events and activity providers.
Supporting and providing for training commissioners and participants appropriately, according to their needs and circumstances.
Publishing and promoting guidance and briefings about particular aspects of inclusive delivery within the Resources section of our website.
Developing our own expertise through evaluation and research.
Training and supporting Disabled artists to deliver consultancy work.
Increasing and broadening promotional activities for our consultancy work.
Seeking funding to enable all of those who are unable to afford our consultancy to benefit from free services.

7) We will be the leading international Disability Film organisation by:

Organising the annual free Together! Disability Film Festival, linked to Disability History Month and International Day of Disabled People.
Creating platforms for the exhibition and discussion of the work of Deaf and Disabled filmmakers.
Creating platforms for the exhibition and discussion of films about Deaf and Disabled people.
Informing perceptions of who and what a filmmaker is.
Connecting Deaf and Disabled filmmakers with each other, funders, professional bodies and audience members.
Connecting Deaf and Disabled filmmakers with other curators and particularly with international curators.
Raising awareness of Disability Film, its excellence and its importance.
Raising awareness of the barriers impacting on Disabled filmmakers.
Drawing on the expertise gained by organising the annual Film Festivals to produce guidance about the representation on film of Deaf and Disabled people.
Supporting and providing for filmmakers, audiences and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.

8) We will be the leading organisation highlighting and campaigning for human rights issues within Disability Arts by:

Embedding the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) within everything that we do, and in particular Article 30 which deals with access to art, culture and sport.
Highlighting human rights issues within our programming, particularly issues impacting on Disabled people with intersectional identities.
Challenging the denial of human rights within the arts whenever we encounter it.
Supporting and providing for artists, participants, audiences and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.
Working with other organisations when appropriate, including taking part in arts projects run by other organisations.

9) We will be the leading arts organisation within the UK Disabled People’s Movement by:

Ensuring that the core of all that Together! 2012 CIC does is informed by and built upon the knowledge, skills, experience and aspirations of Disabled people, and that the organisation is led by Disabled people.
Supporting and providing for artists, participants, audiences and Team members appropriately, according to their individual needs and circumstances.
Reflecting our roots within our policies and practices as a project of the UK Disabled People’s Council, then the national umbrella body for Disabled People’s Organisations (organisations led by as opposed to being ‘for’ Disabled People).
Working together with other Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) on events and activities when appropriate, particularly Newham-based and intersectional DPOs.
Keeping up to date with Disabled artists emerging through Disabled People’s Organisations (DPO) events and activities, and offering them opportunities where appropriate.
Keeping up to date with the concerns and campaigns of the wider Disabled People’s movement, and seeing where these perspectives should be informing our own work.

10) We will drive the agenda for universal digital access to the arts by:

Recognising that one of the biggest barriers to realising our vision is the lack of universal access to the internet.
Offering individual support to our participants, artists, audience members and Team members as needed to improve their own digital access.
Using our experiences of delivering online to research and highlight the barriers to internet access, including financial barriers, infrastructure issues, training needs and poor design.
Supporting local, national and international initiatives for ending digital exclusion.
Challenging the lack of accessible provision within the arts online whenever we encounter it.
Raising awareness of the huge and growing numbers of people who lack access to venue-based arts provision and so would benefit from home-based engagement. This may be due to geographical location, caring responsibilities, health conditions, access needs, lack of support, financial costs…
Highlighting the benefits of universal digital access to the arts, including increased self-confidence and self-esteem, improved social networks and greater wellbeing.

Return to top of page