It’s New Years Eve, a time when it’s natural to reflect on the year just gone and on what we’ve achieved. When I was planning what to include in my end-of-year post, everything that came to mind made me to think about things we’re due to do in the year ahead. So as well as looking back over 2024, I’m also going to share some of the exciting things coming up in 2025.

We make imaginative and playful shows and deliver creative activities and events. Working with partner organisations gives us the opportunity to encourage positive systemic changes that make them more accessible to disabled artists, audiences and staff. Our Trojan Horse illustration shows how we do this in different contexts, and I’m going to use it in this post too.

Playgrounds

Most of our team have a background in inclusive adventure play, and this year we put that experience to good use – 2025 is set to be even more playful. In April we launched Rebel Play, an intergenerational, disabled-led research project, collecting and sharing disabled peoples’ positive play experiences and using them to inspire new ones. Twenty-one disabled children and adults have contributed so far: the youngest being 3 and the oldest 75. Four disabled artists created new, playful interactive experiences that we shared for the first time at our Rise of The Rebels event in November. There will be more Rebel Play interviews, creative commissions and events in 2025. Excitingly, we’ve also been shortlisted for an Unlimited International Partner Award to do Rebel Play in Turkey in collaboration with Erişilebilir Her Şey and Atta Festival – we’ll be getting stuck into the next stage of the application process in January.

 

Photos: Doug Jackson

Schools

We’ve done lots of great work with schools this year, from creative workshops, to delivering training on how to support students with tics. Back in March our Director of Research Dr Will Renel led a Heroes Of The Imagination event in collaboration with the Ferens Gallery in Hull. Over two days, children from a local SEND school created their own superhero identities and shared how they’d use their power to change the world. We’ll be back at a different SEND school in March 2025, this time in Scarborough, where the Starship Biscuit will land for a week of space-themed creative play. You can learn more about Journey To A Better World here.

 

Theatres

We did our first London presentation of Burnt Out In Biscuit Land (BOBL) at the Southbank Centre as part of Unlimited Festival in September 2024. We used an unusual space at the Southbank that felt like a bunker, and our brilliant designer Ben Pacey dressed and lit it so that it felt just like the one our show is set in. Alongside performing BOBL, we also held the Biscuit Land Cabaret, a free evening of music, dance, film and spoken word, featuring incredible disabled and neurodivergent artists. We love a party at Touretteshero, and 2025 will be our 15th year, so we’re looking forward to organising a big birthday event to celebrate.

Photos: Róisín Murphy

Festivals

Back in August, Anna Landre and I ran a workshop at Shambala Festival. It was part of a day of workshops in their Rebel Soul tent about practicing togetherness in a time of collapse. Our workshop explored ideas of solidarity from disabled perspectives and asked who gets prioritised in a crisis. Shambala holds a special place in my heart as it’s the first place I ever performed back in 2012. It was great being able to share this festival and a stage with Anna, and excitingly we’re talking to Rebel Soul about a more ambitious plan for next year.

 

Museums and Galleries

Also in August we did Planet You, an illustration workshop for young people, in partnership with Wellcome Collection and JK Cartoon Studios. We used drawing to explore the kind of world we want to live in, created our own unique planets, and added them to an ever-expanding ‘Solidarity Solar System’. We’ve recently been approached by several museums that we haven’t worked with before, and we’re exploring possible future collaborations with them. This feels particularly hopeful after several years of COVID-19-related disruption and shielding.

Redistribution of Resources and Opportunities

Our Solidarity Programme is one of the good things to have come from the pandemic, Solidarity is the word we use to describe the work we do supporting other disabled people. This includes our Practical intervention Fund (PIF) that distributes small items to support wellbeing. This year we took a slightly different approach which allowed us to distribute items to 138 households – these are some of the benefits they reported: improved sleep, improved focus, improved access to education, feeling calmer and being safer. We have a team meeting in January to talk about how we’ll develop this strand of our work in 2025.

One of my highlights of this year was the launch of our zine The Department for Wonder and Play (the other DWP). This was part of our Young Artist Development Programme (YADP). Eighteen young disabled creatives made amazing new artworks for the zine. They were brilliantly supported by our solidarity coordinator Katie and the incredible zine maker Zoë Thompson. In the next few weeks, we’ll start recruiting our 2025 YADP artists, so if you’re interested, look out for more info coming soon.

Media

I’ve been on some great podcasts this year, including Drunk Women Solving Crime, The Neurodivergent Moments, The Hidden 20% and The Skies We’re Under Podcast. The other big thing we’ve been working on this year is a new website. Our current one is largely unchanged since we started and it urgently needs a refresh. We’re excited to share the new site with you very soon.

Seeds For Change

For me, planting seeds for change is about nurturing new generations of disabled artists, activists and thinkers. It’s about imagining new possibilities and working together to make them happen. 2024’s been a big year for seed planting, including the launch of our
Welcome Pack, a set of free, artist-designed letters that welcome children newly diagnosed with Tourettes to our community. We distributed our entire stock, over 300 packs, in just a few weeks. The level of demand took us by surprise, but just before Christmas we found out that we were successful in getting funding to develop and reprint the pack. I can’t wait to get them to more families in 2025.

Another seed planted this year that will take root and grow in 2025 is our new Knowledge For Change project. This two-year radical research programme is funded by the Trust For London’s Disability Justice Fund. Knowledge For Change (KFC) will support and connect disabled thinkers, develop anti-ableist research tools and broaden who gets to create and access knowledge.

Over the last fifteen years we’ve been able to do some incredible things, but because we’re a small team this has sometimes felt quite exhausting. We’re going into 2025 with lots of great plans, a brilliant, bigger team, and a new office to match. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in, but for now Happy New Year!