Disability Arts Arrives in Caithness

10th March 2009

Lybster based visual artist Lydia Popowich is embarking on an ambitious new project supported by the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund which will introduce the concept of disability arts to Northern Scotland. Disability arts is defined as any arts activity that is about how disabled people see the world and how the world sees disabled people. It is essential to ensuring disabled people are equally represented in our culture and do not suffer from discrimination in everyday life. Scotland lags behind the rest of the UK in the lack of development of a disability arts movement and the Scottish Arts Council is now funding several innovative projects to put the north clearly on the disability arts map. The fight for equal rights for disabled people in the late 1980s in England gave birth to a vibrant disability arts movement. Lydia was one of the artists who became politicised in that struggle. Much of her work in photography and painting is concerned with identity, body image and society's obsession with physical perfection dealing with controversial topics such as women and scarring.

Lydia's project is called Disability Pursuits and consists of a series of eight painted canvas panels which fit together to form an interactive installation based on a traditional style board game and featuring a roulette wheel when displayed in the gallery. Each section will depict different aspects of her journey through life in a disabling society focusing on both positive and negative experiences in work, leisure, home, money, sex, health, friendship and education. The resulting exhibition will start out with a special launch evening at Caithness Horizons Centre in Thurso in February, 2010 where it will be displayed for six weeks. Later in the year the exhibition will tour to venues throughout Scotland including Shetland, Ullapool, Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Lydia will also be delivering a programme of arts workshops for children and adults inspired by the exhibition at selected venues throughout Scotland, subject to funding.

The Disability Pursuits Exhibition is sponsored by several Caithness businesses including Norscot Joinery, Murray Anderson Flooring and William Gunn Building Contractor of Lybster, Green and Cameron Ltd of Canisbay. There is more information about Lydia Popowich's art on her website at www.LyPopDesigns.co.uk