Award-winning disability arts charity DaDa is proud to announce the launch of DDFI Extra – a new winter arts programme running throughout Disability History Month 2025 and into the New Year.
Continuing the Liverpool organisation’s 40th birthday celebrations and building on the success of the UK’s longest running disability arts festival, DaDaFest International, DDFI Extra brings together artist development, creativity and accessible participation for an international programme.
DDFI Extra, developed in partnership with Potters Gallery in Nigeria and supported by the British Council Culture Connects Programme, will feature a multidisciplinary programme of events and artist residencies, connecting artists and audiences in the UK, Nigeria and Tanzania.
Designed particularly but not exclusively to encourage participation for young disabled and non-disabled people aged 18 to 35, the festival will explore themes of social justice and inclusion through workshops, film, poetry and digital galleries.
Rushton Residency UK
The Rushton Residency UK will form a central part of DDFI Extra, supporting Deaf Liverpool author Natalie Denny to explore themes of disability history and culture, reflecting on the legacy of disabled poet and social justice activist Edward Rushton to create new work.
Throughout Natalie’s UK-based residency, writers’ workshops will be offered free to disabled writers both in person at the Liverpool Everyman theatre and also online. These will run throughout Disability History Month, which starts on November 20, and into the New Year.
Lillian Munuo of Beyond the Label, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, will also be supported by DaDa through a Rushton Residency, connecting her with Natalie and artists from Nigeria to exchange ideas and experience.
Lillian is a multidisciplinary visual artist and disability rights advocate. Her residency will focus on storytelling through mixed media and will bring the lived experiences of Tanzanians with disabilities into this global conversation on social justice through art.
Rushton Residences Nigeria
Further international residencies will form part of the programme, developed in partnership between DaDa (Liverpool, UK) and Potters Gallery (Abuja, Nigeria). These international residencies will support artists from Sub Saharan Africa to create new work alongside the UK’s Rushton Residency.
Artforms will include dance, the spoken word, documentary film, creative and critical writing, mixed media visual arts and storytelling.
The residencies will explore how social justice creates social inclusion and how access benefits not only disabled people but the wider cultural sector in all three countries.
The work created will be shared by an online gallery which can be accessed internationally through DaDa’s website during the programme.
Andrew Bolton Street Art Lecture Online
Andrew Bolton, of Community Murals CIC, is a disabled professional artist with many years’ experience of working alongside communities to create painted, mosaic or printed murals. He also has a personal art practice which often refers to his lived experience of disability.
He is an active member of Disability Arts Cymru and has been developing an artistic relationship with Jogja Disability Arts in Indonesia.
An online presentation of community engagement and visibility for disabled and refugee artists by Andrew will be available during DDFI Extra.
New Poetry Shared by Jennifer Lee Tsai
Award-winning poet Jennifer Lee Tsai has been commissioned to create new work as part of DDFI Extra. This poem will be captured on film and presented online as part of the winter programme.
DaDa, founded in 1984, develops and presents excellent disability and Deaf arts through an artistic programme that includes high quality festivals, interventions and events, fed in to by a year-round programme of engagement work with developing and established artists, young disabled, Deaf and neurodivergent people, their families and the wider community.
DDFI Extra is supported by British Council funding, helping to deepen international artistic exchange, by Arts Council England through Dada’s status as a National Portfolio Organisation and by Liverpool City Council through its Cultural Arts Investment Programme.
DaDa Executive Producer Rachel Rogers said today: “DDFI Extra is about keeping creative momentum alive between our bi-annual festivals and strengthening our international collaborations. It’s an opportunity to spotlight new voices, connect communities and celebrate disability culture across borders.
“We’re extremely grateful to the British Council for supporting this programme, and we’re excited to share work from our amazing artist community.”
For full details about DDFI Extra and the programme of events visit dadafest.co.uk.