Conference at the Ateneum Hall, Helsinki, Finland, 17 – 18th June 2011.
This European conference was held in the grand Ateneum Hall in the centre of Helsinki. The conference attracted delegates from across the whole of Europe (there was a large contingent from Slovakia) and North America. The “perspective” in the conference was a backwards look to the past to a time when people with disabilities were confined to institutions and their work was a private and personal activity which was often used by professionals to support a medical diagnosis. With so much expertise in the room it was unfortunate there wasn’t a space in the programme where contemporary work could be shared and the subject given a modern “perspective”.
The conference was followed by the third annual meeting of the European Outsider Art Association (logo/link). Project Ability attended the inaugural meeting of the association in Ghent in 2009 but decided to take a back seat while we were managing the business of relocating to our new premises. Since then, membership of the association has steadily grown and now it’s time to show our artists and their practice in Europe.
Project Ability is the most forward looking contemporary organisation working in Europe today. No other organisation matches us in scale or ambition. Our inclusive practice, the fact we work with children aged five years to older adults in their eighties, the pathways we provide for professional development and the relationship between the workshop and exhibition programme and the wider arts community adds up to a unique environment for artists with disabilities to grow and develop.
Over the next three years the exhibition programme is showing work by artists from Canada, Australia, USA and Finland and we plan to host an international “show and tell” event in 2014.
