Esther Fox

Esther has been pioneering new ways to support and promote disabled people in the cultural sector for over 20 years; both as an artist and programme director. For the last 15 years, she has led the Accentuate Programme, based within the cultural development organisation, Screen South. Through Esther’s leadership, what started as a Southeast initiative, has grown into an England wide programme, with a specialism for working with Museums, University and Digital partners to challenge the underrepresentation of disabled people in both the workforce and within cultural narratives.

Most recently Esther designed, fundraised for, and led, the ground-breaking Curating for Change project; placing D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people as curators within over 20 host museums across England. These curators brought fresh, disability focused perspectives to museum collections, enabling more nuanced, accurate and empowering stories to be told, by disabled people themselves. Based on the success of Curating for Change, Esther has gone on to secure further funding to deliver a new project, Curating Visibility, working with 6 new museums, including the Imperial War Museums and the Museum of London. Esther won the National Lottery award in the Heritage category as recognition for her work with museums.

Alongside her role as Head of the Accentuate Programme, Esther is a practicing artist, interested in the connections between socially engaged arts practice, and medical ethics. Works include Pandora’s Box, exhibited at The Science Museum London, and in July 2023, Lost Voices, a film commissioned by The Francis Crick Institute. Lost Voices provided a moving archive of disabled people’s voices, questioning what might be lost if genome editing becomes adopted as policy.

Esther passionately believes in platforming the talents of disabled people and foregrounding their voices, to disrupt the status quo and challenge ableism. Esther also works on a number of research projects alongside academics, often being asked to contribute to articles and books, her chapter for a book published by Routledge entitled The Accessibility Spectrum is released in the autumn. Esther regularly speaks at conferences and is on the board of trustees for Hastings Contemporary.