Art forum promotes inclusiveness in arts and culture

The Fourth UK-China Disability Arts Forum was held on Dec 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, to continue promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in arts and culture.

Co-hosted by the British Council, Beijing Body On&On Culture Center and Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, this year's forum invited guest speakers from China and the United Kingdom to share their experiences in disability arts under the theme of "Connection and Action".

The first part of the forum featured keynote speeches given by five speakers — Jenny Sealey from Graeae Theatre Company, musician and technology innovator Kris Halpin, deaf visual artist Alice Hu, independent curator and producer Lynn Fu, and theater director Chen Ran.

It also included a panel discussion titled "Disability confidence in arts and cultural organizations", in an effort to deepen dialogues among different communities, discuss the deficiencies in knowledge and capacity building, and to encourage arts and cultural organizations to lead on the development of an inclusive culture.

This year's forum was hosted via video conferencing and livestreamed on multiple platforms with accessible support including sign language interpretation, Chinese-English simultaneous interpretation, captions and subtitles.