Sandgate School children challenging misconceptions around disability through art

Alice Neil went to meet some of the children taking part

Children at a Sandgate School in Kendal have been creating artwork to challenge misconceptions around disability.

The project is run in collaboration with academics from Lancaster University and aims to explore disabled people’s experiences through art.

It hopes to get people talking and challenging perceptions around disability and accessibility.

Children from schools and colleges accross the country have been creating sketchbooks on four themes "Talk to Me", "We are the Same", "One World" and "Dreams have no Limits".

Colin Ryan, teaching assistnat at Sandgate school, said: "There's a huge amount of benefits for special needs young people in art to express themselves in ways that they might not be able to do vocally.

"It's a huge enjoyment as well that they get out of art."

The art work will become part of a mobile exhibition that has already shown at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and could be shown all over the UK.

Dr Leighanne Higgins, one of the researchers from Lancaster University said: "We will be asking people with disabilities to create these sketbooks and then the idea is we home them in a travelling horse box library that we'll take to differnt festivals.

"We want to take them to settings that you wouldn't necessarily expect to learn about disability or about disabled experiences.

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