Disabled artists and arts professionals are being trained as researchers to reshape how the performing and participatory arts understand disability—not as a problem to accommodate, but as a source of expertise and creativity. Most existing research on disability and the arts is short-term and evaluation-focused, which overlooks how disabled experience can actively benefit the creative economy. This programme addresses that gap by funding doctoral students to investigate how inclusive arts practices are created and experienced, and to challenge the ableist assumptions—about timelines, environments, labour, and aesthetics—that block disabled people from full participation and employment. If successful, the research could shift the creative economy from an assimilationist model, where disabled people are expected to fit in, to one that genuinely integrates diverse ways of being. This would not only open up careers and leadership roles for disabled artists and professionals, but also produce new aesthetic forms and business models within the performing arts sector. The programme also aims to change how higher education itself conducts disability research, embedding inclusive methods and partnerships with disability arts organisations as standard practice rather than an afterthought.
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The primary research theme of CRICA is the intersection of disability and the creative economy, specifically the performing and participatory arts (PPA) sectors. Existing research on disability and arts tend to be short-term and evaluation based. This can occlude research on how disability experience can benefit the creative economy. The scale of CRICA will permit researchers to address systemic obstacles to the academic, creative, economic and social benefits of this knowledge, such as ableist informed timelines, environments, labour value and aesthetics. It will increase access for researchers, artists, arts professionals and community arts participants through structures that address the constructive contributions their knowledge makes. CRICA will train researchers to create a new body of scholarship and practice that will speak to these issues and challenges, promoting new perspectives and creative ventures within the disability arts sector and wider creative economy. The programme seeks to explore how inclusive cultural practices and spaces are created and experienced, and how these can inform broader societal and economic changes. By positioning disabled ways of being as sources of knowledge and creativity, CRICA aims to shift the paradigm from an assimilationist view of inclusion to one that values and integrates diverse experiences. The aims of CRICA are to: Challenge existing hierarchies of knowledge and ableism within PPA; Influence the dismantling of barriers to participation and employment in the creative economy; Produce a body of research that points to new ways of working within PPA; Enable students to become both researchers and change-makers. The objectives of CRICA are to: Fund research that investigates how inclusive arts practices and cultures are produced and experienced; Generate new knowledge on the relationships between disability, creativity, structures and systems within the PPA; Expand discourses and practices of disabled ways of being-in-the-world through strong partnerships and collaborations with disability arts organisations; and Equip students with an innovative training programme using inclusive methods of engagement, connection and learning. CRICA will develop dedicated doctoral partnerships and cross-methodological, embodied, experiential training. We will promote an innovative approach to researching this field. The doctoral training programme includes: Mentorship, supervision and support from leading scholars and highly respected industry professionals in conducting impactful research on disability and the creative economy; Professional Development and Training through workshops and innovative experiential labs that address leadership and employability, co-producing new knowledges, change facilitation and impact; Embedded placements within the sector; and Access to a network of PPA organisations for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Our proposed programme is nurtured by a group of world-renowned experts in dance, sociology, and theatre at the University of Roehampton and LSE, in partnership with PPA organisations who are at the forefront of innovation within the arts, by/with/for disabled and non-disabled people, including Entelechy, Oily Cart, Amici, People Dancing and CandoCo. By foregrounding non-normative embodiments as sources of expertise, CRICA will foster new aesthetic and cultural paradigms. Our ambition is to contribute to a thriving disability arts economy, bringing together key organisations and fostering a networked community. The programme aims to challenge existing hierarchies of knowledge and ableism within the PPA sector and higher education. The ultimate goal is to ensure that the creative economy benefits from the unique perspectives and contributions of CRICA’s researchers and research, leading to transformations within PPA that will promote both social and economic advancements.
Alexandra Kolb (Co-Investigator)Carrie Friese (Co-Investigator)Jana Melkumova-Reynolds (Co-Investigator)Nicola Conibere (Co-Investigator)Professor Sara Houston (Principal Investigator)Suki Ali (Co-Investigator)
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