Learning with learning disabled artists: a practice research enquiry into artist identity

Atkinson, Anne-Marie (2025) Learning with learning disabled artists: a practice research enquiry into artist identity. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This practice research is about learning disabled artists within the context of contemporary art. It is conducted in partnership with Venture Arts (Manchester), an established arts organisation and supported studio that aims to remove barriers for learning disabled artists. Through case studies with five artist-participants – Roxy Maguire, Amy Ellison, Sally Hirst, Louise Hewitt, and Emlyn Scott – this research highlights learning disabled artists’ self-understandings and ideas about artist identity. Contemporary art contexts, including diversity and inclusion, art therapy and arts and health, Disability Art, Outsider Art, and socially engaged art, as well as the British social model of disability, are shown to not fully capture the situation and experiences of learning disabled artists practicing today. Initially conceived as in-person, collaborative group sessions, the research moved to individual online engagement due to COVID-19. This led to an unexpected shift in focus from the supported studio model to individual artist experiences and enabled the development of peer-to-peer relationships between the artist-participants and myself. The findings show that learning disabled artists possess a clear understanding of their artistic practices, desire validation through traditional art world structures such as exhibiting, and the importance of affirmative relationships in supporting artist identity. Utilising the affirmation model of disability (Swain and French, 2000, 2008), the thesis provides evidence for learning disabled artists to be recognised and validated as artists on their own terms, based on their selfmotivation, artistic decision-making, and critical development of practice, even in the absence of formal support systems such as supported studios. It identifies current gaps in how learning disabled artists are recognised and supported in their long-term development. Drawing on Braidotti’s nomadic subjectivity and nomadic ethics (1993; 1994; 2005/2006; 2006; 2013a; 2013b; 2014), the research positions artist identity as relational and shifting. Through a period of solo, studio-based practice research, the significant impact of the participatory research engagement on my practice development and self-concept as an artist is presented, resulting in a shift from the position of ‘facilitator’ to one of affirmed artist identity. By showing how encounters between learning disabled and non-learning disabled artists can reshape the practices and self-understandings of both, the research challenges hierarchical models of facilitation and reframes inclusion as a dynamic, mutual process. The thesis proposes a model for peer-based, relational practice that affirms artist identity across difference, and provides resources for artists, facilitators, and organisations to practice similar reflective and relational shifts. These contributions suggest pathways for transforming institutional and cultural norms, and offer a framework for more equitable and expansive understandings of artist identity.