It’s now four weeks since I published the post launching the online exhibition – #RightfulLives. The exhibition will have a theme of Human Rights & People with Learning Disabilities”.
The initial response has been phenomenal. Thank you so much. People and families from across the world of social care have got involved and started to send in their exhibits. We have been particularly bowled over by the many contributions from people with a learning disability. Sorry to be a tease but we’ve got some cracking demonstrations of people’s creativity to include.
This post is a gentle nudge to those people who read the initial blog and thought they’d like to get involved but haven’t decided what to contribute yet. Or you may have missed that first post completely.
Getting involved couldn’t be simpler. Email your idea to: exhibition@rightfullives.net We will send you an information sheet and a consent form. We will also send you a link to the Dropbox where you can upload your exhibit. Job done.
What can I submit? The brief of the exhibition is very wide and as long as people stick to the theme (Human Rights and People with Learning Disabilities) you can be as creative as you like. Good and bad stories of how human rights serve/don’t serve people with learning disabilities. We don’t want to be prescriptive but already we have received artwork, films, written submissions, photos. We’ve had offers of performance art (a choir, stand up comedy) that will be streamed on the exhibition site. We’ve even had an offer of an interactive human rights game. The world is our lobster.
Following the first wave of responses, the curating team have made a couple of decisions. Firstly, we need all contributions to uploaded via Dropbox. Please do not post your contributions on Facebook or Twitter. Whilst we oversee those accounts several times each day it is easy to miss something important. Also, and frankly, if we have all the exhibits in one place it’ll make it simpler for us once we start to assemble the final exhibition.
The consent form is important. Especially if you are using images of other people. Or it may be that the person lacks the capacity to consent to the image being used and therefore you need to make a best interests decision on their behalf. We cannot accept contributions without the consent form.
Finally, we’ve been contacted by several organisations about exhibiting work produced by them. This is absolutely fine and welcome, although the curating team will need to ensure that the exhibition is not being used as a vehicle to plug the organisation. The artist and the subject of the art must take precedence.
The deadline date for submissions is 10th August.
The exhibition will be held all week from Monday 24th September.
You can follow us on Twitter @RightfulLives
Or you can visit the Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/445617982552189/
Many many thanks from all at the exhibition team and please keep those storming ideas coming.
As a final teaser, Jen Fookes has submitted a whole collection of her art for the exhibition. Here is just one of her pieces, “I’m A Package”:
Love, Belief and Balls 
[…] Get his update here. […]
Given the exhibition is about US, that includes ME, I wonder whether you can please share with us whether people with LDs are involved in the curating team includes people with LDs and those who identity as activists.
Yes. You’ll be delighted how many people have got involved in the exhibition.
Are people with LDs are actually involved in the curating role as well as contributing to the exhibition? In other words are people with LDs involved in the decision making of what is going into the exhibition etc etc. I just like to know whether people with LDs have a equal role – maybe ask people with LDs from the Madhouse who were involved in curating the exhibition about the institutionalisation of people with LDs to do the job as they have experience and did a great job.