Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange has always been shaped by the needs of the communities it serves. In recent years, national and global events have sharpened this mission, with long-lasting impacts on those most directly affected, including disabled, D/deaf and/or neurodivergent artists and audiences.
We recognise that disabled people are too often under-represented or entirely absent from gallery programming. Their work is rarely actively sought out by programmers, and they are seldom involved in programme selection in galleries and other arts organisations. Alongside other organisations across the country, we are committed to changing that.
Disabled, D/deaf and/or neurodivergent artists are now regularly exhibited as part of our programmes. Disabled and neurodivergent people are also well represented at Trustee level and across our workforce – although, at present, they are better represented among our volunteers than our employed staffing team.
This year, as part of our commitment to driving change, we have partnered with DASH to deliver The Future Curators Programme – a residency for disabled curators within visual arts institutions. The programme has highlighted, and begun to address, serious issues of access and representation for disabled people within the visual arts workforce.
ABOUT THE FUTURE CURATORS PROGRAMME
The Future Curators Programme (2023–2026) is grounded in Disability Justice. Founded by the Disabled artist-led visual arts organisation DASH, it is run in partnership with Arts Catalyst, Disability Arts Online, John Hansard Gallery, MAC Birmingham, MIMA – Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, and Wysing Arts Centre.
Using an action research approach and drawing on a multiplicity of intersectional lived experiences, DASH, FCP partners, and resident curators collaborate on programming, system change, evaluation, commissions, and critical thinking so that Disability Justice is embedded throughout our work.
DRAFTS – A FILM LAUNCHED AUG 2025
As part of the Future Curators Programme, we are proud to present Drafts, an experimental artist film directed by curator and artist Jade Foster and commissioned by DASH. Drafts poetically reimagines how we can communicate in a neuro-affirming and just way. It is one of the first contemporary UK examples of creative captioning, intersectional translation, and intuitive collaborative processes being applied to an informational-style moving image – opening up exciting new possibilities.
Launched in August 2025 with a simultaneous digital release across eight partner organisations, Drafts brings together the voices of directors and curators from seven influential contemporary visual arts organisations across England, creating a constellation of vision and mission statements for the Future Curators Programme.
You can watch Drafts here on our website.
ABOUT DASH
DASH is a UK-based, Disabled-led visual arts charity dedicated to creating opportunities for Disabled artists to develop their creative practice. Its vision is for a society where Disability Art is core and equally valued in the arts sector. Over the past twenty years, DASH has undertaken ground-breaking work – challenging perceptions, mentoring new Deaf and Disabled artists, encouraging professional development, and helping to engineer lasting change in the cultural sector.
