CRIPtic Arts was founded by Jamie Hale in 2019 as a showcase of deaf/disabled artists at the Barbican. Jamie recognised that the arts would never be accessible for them if they didn’t build and then pass accessible opportunities forward.

Deaf and disabled people in the arts face enormous discrimination, marginalisation, and underemployment. As a disabled-led organisation, CRIPtic Arts is changing the industry by cultivating opportunities for artists at all points in their career – whether they want advice on their first work or are a high-profile creative. The organisation also creates work by only contracting deaf and disabled people – unless completely unavoidable – and finding ways of supporting people into bigger opportunities.

The organisation carries out research into the barriers deaf and disabled people face in the arts. Then leads campaigns to overcome these. This is complemented by CRIPtic Arts training and development programmes, which include community workshops for isolated people and a ten-month development programme.

The work created is exceptional, designed by teams of deaf and disabled creatives exploring new possibilities of creative access from captioning to BSL translation, and has resulted in a second high-profile showcase at the Barbican.

In two years, CRIPtic Arts has become one of the leading disability arts organisations in the UK. Its work is built in direct response to the needs of the community it serves and is characterised by a boundless determination to create opportunities, build communities and dismantle barriers to access.