We are pleased to announce a new artist development programme between Daryl & Co and BICT Fest, Bangkok International Children's Festival, funded by the British Council through the 'Connections Through Culture', grant programme.
This partnership between Daryl & Co and BICT Fest will enable two organisations that specialise in both work for young audiences and Disability Arts, to share practices, experiences and knowledge to benefit the development of access and inclusion within creative work for young audiences, something which is rare within the arts sector.
Access and inclusion are at the start and heart of this new partnership and project. Holding The Door Open aims to open the door to a shared understanding of Access and Inclusion between Daryl & Co, BICT Fest, Thai artists and in collaboration with Rainbow Room and Chulalongkorn University, demonstrating how we can make changes to address the lack of diversity in leadership, workforces, artists and audiences across each organisations.
Throughout 2025 Daryl & Co and BICT Fest will work together to deliver an exciting artist development programme, which will be a hybrid of online and in-person creative exchanges between Daryl & Co, BICT Fest and artists in Thailand.
This inclusive residency will be open to ten artists who work in performance and based in Thailand, five who identify as D/deaf, Disabled, Visually Impaired and/or Neurodivergent alongside five non-disabled artists. Our approach will be to explore what Disabled-led approaches to performance are most relevant to the artists and partners within their own context and how the ethos of the ‘aesthetics of access’ can allow us to re-think, re-imagine and create a new work.
Through conversations between partners it has become apparent that regardless of which country we are in, the biggest barrier faced is the lack of training/skills/opportunities for Disabled artists which results in a lack of profile or their work and therefore impacts on audience diversity.
Holding The Door Open will allow each partner to explore access and inclusion as a creative tool to engage artists and audiences. We believe that if organistaions and artists are given the right tools to make the work they want to make, they will inevitably make more relevant and accessible work for young people to experience. One cannot happen without the other.
We see this project as the first step on a longer term relationship between Daryl & Co, BICT Fest and artists within Thailand, allowing us all to creatively explore the possibility of what those future relationships may look like.
A Disabled-led theatre company where artistic collaboration and co-creation meet mischief and merriment. We make bold, entertaining and accessible theatre for young audiences and their families which tour all over the UK and internationally.
Their work brings together diverse teams to tell stories by placing Disabled artists and young people front and center in the creative process to ensure access and inclusion takes the lead, both organisationally and artistically.
Daryl & Co’s vision is a world where Disabled artists and young people have unrestricted choices to creative experiences and careers.
Website: Darylandco.com
Instagram/Facebook: @DarylAndCo
BlueSky: @darylandco.bsky.social
Bangkok International Children's Festival, is Thailand’s only international festival and one of the few in Southeast Asia focusing on performing arts for young audiences. As a biannual festival, BICT Fest presents a diverse programme aimed at children aged 0-13 and alternates between festival years and outreach/creative development programmes, often commissioning new productions.
Over the years, BICT Fest has built a network of prominent local and international artists from multiple disciplines, enabling high-quality programmes and collaborative production.Over the past five years, BICT Fest has been dedicated to fostering the growth of TYA in Thailand, striving to elevate the artistic quality and international recognition of both Thai and Southeast Asian TYA.
Website: www.bictfest.com
Instagram/Facebook: @BICTFest
The UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK andcountries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture,education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries.
Website: www.britishcouncil.org
#ConnectionsThroughCulture
#BritishCouncilThailand
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