Arts & Disability Forum

The Arts & Disability Forum are proud to host “Crawling Through The Jungle”, an exhibition featuring the work of 33 young deaf authors and artists from Northern Ireland.

Launching at 1pm on Monday 6^th November, the exhibition will be available to view at the Arts & Disability Forum Gallery until Friday 24^th November.

The work on display was chosen from 101 entrants to The National Deaf Children’s Society’s Young Deaf Authors and Artists competition. Founded in the 1980s by deaf Belfast Telegraph journalist Bob McCullough, who passed away in 2016, the annual contest gives deaf children and young people in Northern Ireland a platform for self-expression.

Bounce! e-brochure

Bounce! events on Facebook

More about Bounce! artists, trailers on Tumblr

Get tickets for events here

More info and bookings for Workshops here

Belfast set to experience the biggest ever Bounce!

Northern Ireland’s annual disabled and deaf arts festival ‘bounces’ into Belfast this month with ten days of entertaining and thought-provoking dance, theatre, visual art, physical theatre, film, cabaret and a range of workshops.

The sixth Bounce Festival opens in great voice on September 27 on the grounds of Belfast City Hall with the ‘Big Bouncy Hummm of Harmony’ – a gloriously positive joining together of three choirs – the award-winning Open Arts Community Choir fresh back from triumph in Latvia the Alzheimer’s Society’ Singing for the Brain and Sing for Life from Cancer Focus and the Crescent Arts Centre.

This year’s venues include the ADF Gallery, Brian Friel Theatre, Crescent Arts Centre, Spectrum Centre, the MAC and City Hall.

The full programme, with links to ticketing and more in depth information on the artists is available via the Arts & Disability Forum website, www.adf.ie. Event links can also be found on Facebook @artsanddisabilityforum. Or call by in person to the ADF Gallery on Royal Avenue, tel 028 90239 450 email info@adf.ie.

More…

REFLECTIONS OF NEBULAE 2

Keith Sheppard

Arts & Disability Forum
3rd August 2017 to 8th September 2017
Launch: 3rd August 5.30pm
Gallery opening times: Tues to Friday, 11am-3pm

Arts & Disability Forum is proud to present Reflections of Nebulae 2, the second exhibition of sculptural forms in glass by kiln-formed glass artist Keith Sheppard. The exhibition will launch on Thursday August 3rd at 5.30pm at the Arts & Disability Forum Gallery, and will run until Friday September 8th 2017. Keith’s exhibition forms part of Craft NI’s August Craft Month 2017.

Exploring the relationship between glass and light, and reflecting his observations and interpretation of Nebulae stars within the galaxies of the Universe, Keith’s glass art predominantly involves the infusion of metals into the glass. This process gives each sculptural form a further dimension of uniqueness and identity, enhancing the vibrant colourations.

These processes are transferred into Keith’s interpretation of the stars; depicting their existence, shaping their markings, clouds, and gases from their birth in Nebulae, to hot blue stars, red super giants and their eventual end in a Supernova explosion.

Reflections of Nebulae 2 will be displayed at the Arts&Disability Forum Gallery, Royal Avenue, Belfast, until Friday September 8th 2017. With thanks to August Craft Month 2017 for their support of this exhibition.

For further information please contact Paula on 028 90239450 or paula@adf.ie. BSL interpretation, audio description and group tours are available strictly through prior booking.

Je t’aime moi aussi

Olivier Fermariello

Arts & Disability Forum
23rd June 2017 to 21st July 2017
Launch: 22nd June 5pm-7pm
Gallery opening times: Tues to Friday, 11am-3pm

In his staged narrative portraits, Fermariello gives voice to private urges and sensual fantasies that are so often kept veiled from public understanding.
– Ellyn Ruddick-Sunstein

The artist based this series of work on comments from people with disabilities, who reported that they can feel discrimination through not being considered entirely a man or entirely a woman.
For Fermariello, ‘these images portray people, who are suffering from this discrimination, but are not willing to give up their fight by choosing a direct way to express themselves’.

4th NI Mental Health Arts & Film Festival

TIME to CHANGE: Group Exhibition

Arts & Disability Forum
16th May – 16th June 2017

My mental health has changed me,
in the way I live & think.
– David Davies

NIMHAFF has teamed with Arts & Disability Forum to host ‘Time to Change’, a group exhibition drawn from an open call that attracted 80 submissions. Works by 17 artists from across Ireland combine in this must-see show – a vivid testament to the link between creative expression and inner resilience. ‘Time to Change’ is a wide, wild collection revealing the transformations (tiny & massive, gradual & sudden) that represent daily life for people who experience mental-health issues.

In addition to the visuals, musician Jim McClean will host and perform at the lunchtime launch (1 p.m. on Tuesday 16th May); he and Louise O’Donnell (DJ Fifites) will also provide musical entertainment at Late Night Art (Thursday 1st June).

For further information on the festival:

Twitter:@NIMHAFF
Website: www.nimhaff.org
Full Festival Programme: https://www.nimhaff.org/programme
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/NIMHAFF

Internal Celestial by Samuel Kennedy

Later Night Art – Thursday 4th May 5pm to 8:30pm
Gallery opening times: Tuesday to Friday 11am to 3pm

Internal Celestial will run from Wednesday 19th April until Friday 5th May

Internal Celestial showcases a series of paintings and drawings by Belfast artist Samuel Kennedy. Samuel obtained his master’s degree from St. Andrew’s University, specialising in the History of Art and now works in Belfast as an artist, outside of the mainstream.
Heavily influenced by the Fauvist and Symbolist movements of the early 20th Century, his work is vibrant, colourful and highly stylised, incorporating symbols from many artistic traditions. Looking closely at his work one may find symbols and shapes from prehistoric rock art, ancient Celtic art and Australian aboriginal art, alongside symbols common to everyday life. An exploration of the visionary experience provides Samuel’s main theme in these works, with particular reference to the internal interpretation of the symbols that surround us.
This inner world that we all experience is termed, by Samuel, as the Internal Celestial. As with most visionary art, colour is of prime importance, enhancing the everyday world into a world of living, beautiful shapes. The distinctive profile of Cave Hill features in several paintings, celebrating this majestic and ever present element of our daily lives in Belfast.

iDA grant recipients announced

Thirteen artists with disabilities from Northern Ireland have been announced as recipients of the Arts & Disability Forum’s iDA (Individual Disabled/Deaf Artists) awards. Supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, awards are made annually to Deaf and disabled artists working in a range of art forms, allowing artists to produce new works or receive professional mentoring. Pictured are 2017 iDA recipients Luna Kalo, Kevin Killen, Shiro Masuyama, Sinead O'Donnell and Nicola McLaughlin.