2018 New Taipei City Inclusive Arts Festival

Alice Fox founded The University of Brighton’s pioneering MA in inclusive arts practice, which creates radically new forms of collaboration between students and often-excluded community groups from around the world. In 2015, Dr. Fox co-authored Inclusive Arts Research and Practice: a critical manifesto – that was launched at Tate Modern in London. She has collaborated for many years with the learning-disabled Rocket Artists group to challenge prejudice and make the case for diversity through symposia, performances and exhibitions.

She has worked in Cambodia with Epic Arts, a non-governmental organisation helping local staff to develop educational and cultural opportunities for adults and children with disabilities. She brought together more than 80 Nepali participants to stage bold performance events at the 2017 Kathmandu Triennial. And she has been invited by the British Council to present her ideas in Singapore, So Korea and Taiwan. Alice won the Times Higher Education award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts in 2017.

Since 2007 Jane has worked as a lead artist with the learning disabled Rocket Artists in a supported inclusive studio on projects such as Overalls (2007) ‘Flowers’ collaborative Installation (2009), ‘Side by Side’ Learning Disability, Art and Collaboration and International exhibition -Spirit level Gallery, Royal Festival Hall (2013). Current collaborations include Touching the World Lightly, Rocket Artists present Art By Johnny, exploring inclusive curation, and Year of Drawing mental health and drawing with Make Your Mark NHS partnerships. 

Jane is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton and teaches on the MA Inclusive Arts Practice and the Fine Art Printmaking course. Jane graduated in visual art and sound from Brighton Polytechnic in 1985.  Since then she has developed an itinerant arts practice that embraces drawing, print, found matter, moving image, installation, walking and sound. 

Jane’s work has a strong focus on collaboration, inclusion and community and she is an experienced arts facilitator. Initially running arts workshops for groups of excluded young women at Maze Studios in Brighton UK, her practice in this field has developed through celebratory processional projects with Carnival Collective (1995-2005) and as co-director of Armadilloh! Arts with Maria Tribe.  

The New Taipei City aims to promote the concept of equality and inclusion in its cultural programs facing its citizens of diverse background.  Since 2017 New Taipei City launched a series of art program that encourages cultural participation by disabled audience through offerings of audio description to contemporary dance performances, sign language translation in post-performance talks, and skill training courses for inclusive service in the arts.  In October, partnering with Sandwishes Studio, the city also organized an inclusive art exhibition to showcase the artworks by Taiwan and HK disabled artists to celebrate their creativity and present it to the public.   

In 2018 the New Taipei City expands its program to be Inclusive Arts Festival lasting from May to November, engaging its library, film house, cultural centers and museums to participate in its inclusive arts campaign.  In this 7-month Inclusive Arts Festival, there will be music and dance performances by disabled artists and South East Asia immigrants, intergenerational theatre performances, interactive exhibitions promoting inclusive arts to audiences of all age, human library sharing by disabled artists, film screenings on the social topics of migrant labors, creative ageing, aboriginal people, multi-sensory museum programs for elders, and lectures and workshops for the public to learn and experience the core values of inclusive arts. 

Sandwishes Studio is a Social Enterprise led by Hang Li, Yun-Je Tseng and Jo-Lin Hsieh, graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts. Sandwishes Studio centers on community collaboration through multimedia art and design.

Their organization philosophy is:

• Develop art-based social projects: Use art to create social change and challenge stereotypical representation and stigmatization of marginalized communities.
• Discover individualized uniqueness: Focus on clients’ history, stories and legacy.
• Create art and design to reflect individualized unique qualities and narratives.
• Bridge resources: Promote inter-organizational collaborations by co-creating projects and designs.