Jenny Sealey on 25 years as Graeae's Artistic Director
Photo by Becky Bailey
I write this the day after I celebrated 25 years of being at Graeae. An emotional day full of lovely messages and support for everything Graeae is doing.
I wrote 25 things I have learnt/thoughts.
One was
People arrive at Graeae, absorb what they need and then they fledge their wings and fly away from us. I am always bereft, but also excited about what they will go on to do. It’s bittersweet.
The day after I had not one but three separate conversations with people who have left Graeae to join the mainstream world to continue their artistic journeys.
They each in their own way, wanted to know how best to be ‘allowed and trusted to be the disabled person that they are’ instead of having to hold up a shield to protect them from the arrows of questioning impairments, questioning access requirements, questioning credibility.
I felt crushed. I have had 25 years of these conversations. It cannot and must not carry on. What are we not doing at Graeae to ensure these institutions are a safe place for disabled people to be?
It took me back to last year when I was head hunted to apply to be Artistic Director of a prestigious theatre. Flattered as I was, I was mindful that in all my years of being at Graeae this theatre had never had any contact with us as a company and although the head hunter discussed that the theatre wanted to make real change with the appointment of the in-coming director, I suddenly started to feel really wobbly. The thought of being in a minority of disabled people in a new set up, when here at Graeae I am with a majority, filled me with horror. It reminded me of being co-artistic director on Opening ceremony for London 2012 Paralympic. Bradley and I were the only two out disabled people at the start (before cast arrived) as part of the vast operational team. We had to be like a stuck record to push our ethos and commitment to the social model of disability, equality, diversity and access. We got there in the end when the wider disabled massive arrived!
It feels like it is often, actually let’s make that always, the disabled person has to (and they do it willingly) educate the new work place, sharing the social model of disability, their access rider and how they want to work and the awareness that of course there will be teething problems while everyone gets onto the same page. This responsibility often distracts from the fact that they are there to do a job. Suddenly they feel they have to be answerable to all things access re their own impairment and that of others. It can feel overwhelming and also the stigma that comes with being a stuck record (trying to change the DNA of an ableist institution) means the disabled person becomes isolated, scapegoated and in turn, ignored.
An organisation embracing real cultural shift, needs to have intense awareness training led by a team of facilitators who are deaf, blind, mobility impaired and neuro-divergent to ensure you get a broad overview as well as the detail specific to various impairments. This training needs to be for ALL people connected to the theatre, from the Board to the cleaners to volunteers. It also needs to be a yearly event as new staff need to be bought on board.
Access and what it can mean in both the broadest sense and bespoke sense needs to be a regular agenda item in company and production meetings.
Access also needs to become part of the artistic discussion, how can BSL, captions and audio description permeate a production from the start and thought must be given to whose stories are we telling and whose stories do we need to tell and who is writing them.
Graeae, Vital Exposure, Birds of Paradise, Hot Coals have a multitude of talented writers and all of us, Deafintely, Ad Infinitum, Diverse City have enabled the pool of deaf disabled and neuro-divergent actors, directors and composers to grow.
There is no reason any more for there ever to be a lone voice fighting to place good practice within any arts organisation. The voice should be of the many so real change can be accelerated and embraced by staff, audiences and bricks and mortar.
I want my 25 years to account for something… I still have 25 years left in me… so the battle continues.
My next rage is the fact that so many of my community are having their care packages reduced or actually removed. This means they are left not able to come to work because the government dictates when they are allowed to get dressed and go to the bathroom. Their civil human rights are being stripped from them and what will happen is that people will be shunted back into care homes and their independence gone. How can we within our industry fight back…. We need to do something. NOW.
Jenny Sealey is the CEO/Artistic Director of Graeae
