EUROPE BEYOND ACCESS awarded €2m by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, ensuring the world’s largest transnational Arts & Disability collaboration continues until 2027.
EUROPE BEYOND ACCESS (EBA) is the Europe’s largest and most influential transnational initiative to focus on the active participation of artists with disabilities in mainstream dance and theatre. Since 2018 the programme has supported dance and theatre artists with disabilities to break the glass ceilings of the contemporary performing arts.
Today Mercat de les Flors is pleased to announce that the second generation of Europe Beyond Access, which will run for 4 years from 2024 to 2027, has been awarded €2m from the European Union – a sum which will be matched by the EBA consortium.
The new programme announced today will:
Mercat de les Flors is one of ten leading European cultural organisations that form the EBA consortium. In this we join Skånes Dansteater (Sweden), Holland Dance Festival (Netherlands), Onassis Stegi (Greece), Oriente Occidente Dance Festival (Italy), Kampnagel (Germany) CODA Dance Festival (Norway), Zamek Cultural Centre (Poland), Project Arts Centre (Ireland), Mercat de les Flors (Spain) and Culturgest (Portugal). We are joined by Associate Partner British Council (UK), which initiated and led the first Europe Beyond Access programme from 2018-2023.
“Mercat de les Flors is hugely excited to join a programme that has proved that some of Europe’s most exciting and innovative dance works are being made by artists with disabilities. We look forward to building our relationships with artists in COUNTRY and to support then to build their artistic practice, and, of course, to make exciting, provocative and beautiful dance works”.
Mira Helenius, Artistic Director of the consortium’s lead partner, Skånes Dansteater, located in Malmö, Sweden said:
“Skanes Dansteater is proud to be leading the EBA consortium in what will be a remarkable journey. We are grateful to the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union for the support they have given – allowing the project to remain one of the largest Arts & Disability programmes in the world. We are grateful to our predecessors, British Council, for passing on the baton to us as Project Leads on project with such a deep impact in Europe’s cultural sector. But most of all we are grateful to the artists and cultural professionals who continue to trust us to support and encourage their remarkable works. It is time to move forward and let the disabled community take the lead!”
Ben Evans, Europe Beyond Access Project Director said:
“In the perfect world projects like Europe Beyond Access would not be necessary: artists with disabilities would have the same opportunities to learn, develop their artistic practice and present their works as any other artist; cultural venues would be accessible to audiences with disabilities but also to artists and cultural workers who identify as disabled, Deaf, neurodiverse or Chronically Ill; and critics, audiences, and arts decision-makers would truly acknowledge the excellent and often radical work of disabled artists.
But this is not the case.
With this funding from the European Union, Europe Beyond Access will continue to challenge the whole cultural sector to broaden access to disabled people as artists, as cultural workers and as audiences.”
Further information
Collaborating with the four-year programme are key European networks and transnational institutions – committed to widening cultural access across Europe. These include:
Creative Europe Networks
Other European Networks
National Networks
More information on Europe Beyond Access can be found at the Project website: https://www.disabilityartsinternational.org/europe-beyond-access/
There you can find examples of artists supported by the project, films exploring artistic ideas explored by EBA artists, and learning resources aimed at three target groups: Mainstream Cultural Managers, Arts Policymakers, and disabled artists
