Nottingham has a rich, living history of arts, experimentalism, and activism (with blurred boundaries between the three). The city also has a major problem; much of this exciting art and activism excludes and so discriminates against a huge amount of people; alienating artists and audiences with a multitude of special access needs. The barriers are a mix of physical, psychological and practical but with some collaborative original thinking we can move mountains. In doing so, we place ourselves, not in an art therapy/community arts bubble, but at the cutting edge of contemporary practice where new, renewed, adaptive forms of artistic expression can find a voice on new platforms.

Nott Normal uses creativity, humour and, when necessary, a dose of bile to explore how much ‘disability’ and/or alienation are made worse, at times defined, by practices and spaces governed by and geared towards the more fully abled. This project involves a proactive, peaceful, provocative occupation and re-exploration of creative space. Sharing and challenging our realities through ways of experiencing the world is arguably central to arts practice, as is testing accepted conventions and ways of doing things.

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