What's On and Where to Go

Artscope bucked the usual trend of one-off celebratory days by organising a whole series of visits and workshops at some of London's top venues as part of Learning Disabilities Week.

Artscope compiled a comprehensive list of a multitude of arts related events, and service users and staff selected those of greatest interest to visit. The idea behind this approach was to promote and encourage people to be more creative when devising trips out into the community.

The word 'community' means different things to different people, but geographically, this initiative, saw 'community' as the whole of London, not just the confines of the local area.

Alongside visits to Kenwood House, Kew Gardens, the Science Museum and the National Gallery, highlights included a practical hands-on music workshop at the Royal Festival Hall. This specialist workshop, held in the new Gamelan Room, explored composing, performing and listening with an expert tutor.

Another highlight was attendance at the Refugee Celebration Day at the Horniman Museum, celebrating London’s diversity with a day of activities especially for community groups working with refugees and asylum seekers of all ages.

A workshop at The British Library entitled 'How do we find things out?’, was a fun workshop introducing the idea of research, by investigating the different ways we find things out. By using hands-on activities and object-handling, this workshop was a mayor success. The group that attended, have been asked to give advice to the Library regarding resource provision for visitors with disabilities.

Says John Chapman, who facilitated the workshop:

'...I feel this is a great opportunity for us to help educate the big organisations in how to provide for adults with learning disabilities. This I feel will be a big learning curve for them. They seem eager to come on board and I feel we must embrace this opportunity.'

Another successful trip was a touch tour session in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery at the British Museum, where three visually impaired people handled a whole variety of artetacts from the Collection.

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