As the coronavirus pandemic continues with restrictions in place across the UK. BBC Arts are doing what they can to support the arts and artists. Their recently launched Culture in Quarantine Initiative aims to keep art thriving in the homes and hearts of the public despite the pandemic.

Back in April, BBC arts invited artists to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 lockdown with their creative work. The commissioning strand was widely successful, with the production of 25 commissions that reached millions of audiences on BBC and other social media platforms. One of the pieces that garnered the most attention was the Swan Lake bath performance, preformed by the cast of swan lake (included at the bottom of this blog post).

It is on the heels of this success that BBC is creating the new commission strand, targeted solely at disabled artists to amplify their voices, messages and talent.

Marking the 25th year since the Disability Discrimination Act got passed into law, BBC Arts is partnering with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of England, Creative Scotland, and Arts Council of Wales. The strand will see artists across Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England produce works of art that BBC will host on its platforms.

Invitations will go out to disabled, neurodivergent, and D/deaf professional artists to apply for funds to produce new audio/visual works. In total, the fund will commission ten new pieces of work.

Artists featured on this new strand can produce work telling of the experience of living through the coronavirus pandemic as a disabled creative. However, it is not compulsory to create work in that area.

Applications for the new strand opened on Monday, November 9th, 2020, and closes midday on Tuesday, January 12th, 2021.

A panel consisting of representatives from BBC Arts, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of England, Creative Scotland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and the U.K Disability Arts Alliance will select the commissions to be produced.

The production of all selected works will likely take place between March and June 2021 and air on all BBC platforms later in the same year.

To apply or learn more visit https://www.thespace.org/commissioning

If you are finding the second lockdown difficult we have a range of content on our blog that may be able to help.

This video of Swan Lake performed in bath tubs was a result of the previous BBC Arts commission…