DaDa Trustee Candidate Pack

Wearelookingfornewtrusteestosupport

organisationaswere-imaginehowwe continuesupportingdisabledartistsin increasinglychallengingcircumstances.

www.dadafest.co.uk

Welcome

Hello and thank you for taking an interest in working with us as a Trustee. We need your insights, experience and skills to support our organisation. You do not need to have been a charity trustee before. More important is enthusiasm and energy for our work and a commitment to use your skills and experience in the best interests of DaDa. This is an exciting time as we seek to expand the influence, reach and impact of our activities to meet the needs of the communities we serve.

We are passionate about creating pportunities for disabled artists to upport their development and ensure heir work is produced and presented ithout compromise. Our organisation is mall, and our reach is international. We eek to educate, challenge attitudes and emove the barriers that restrict disabled rtists and we invite you to be a part of his vital work.

goziUgochukwu&RachelRogers xecutiveLeadershipTeam

out DaDa

DaDa is an award winning and pioneering disability arts organisation based in Liverpool with international reach and impact.

Founded in 1984, we were one of the first disability-led arts organisations in the UK and an integral part of the campaign for greater equality and access for disabled artists across the arts sector.

As an organisation we are known widely for DaDaFest, our biennial cross-arts festival which has nurtured and supported many renowned disabled artists from the UK and beyond since its first iteration in 2001.

Now, the organisation wants to continue our pioneering work by reimagining trusted formats, refocusing on our social justice mission, continuing to break down barriers and campaign for change and explore new ways to enable disabled artists to create challenging, entertaining and powerful work.

Vision,Mission andValues

OurVision Equity and Excellence in the Cultural landscape

OurMission OurValues

· To empower disabled artists to explore creativity, develop their practice and produce quality art

· To push for societal attitude change, driven by our commitment to social justice.

· To foster and embed inclusive access across all areas of arts and culture.

We take a human centred approach to all our work and strive to be :

Radical Empowering

Inclusive Respectful Ambitious Inventive

rTeam

Our passionate and talented teamwork behind the scenes to make DaDa magic happen. 75% our current staff team and 60% of our regular freelancers have lived experience of disability.

The Current Core Team are:

Ngozi Ugochukwu

Rachel Rogers

Denise Kennedy

Joe Strickland

ExecutiveProducer

ExecutiveProducer

Chris Lowther Operations& FinanceManager

Jo AustinGreer

rBoard

We work closely with our Board of Trustees who meet regularly to advise and support the organisation. A variety of skills and experience allows the Board to bring expertise to the organisation in fields such as legal, fundraising and marketing.

We need to grow the board, diversify it’s make up. By prioritising recruiting disabled board members we can continue to ensure disabled leadership. Currently 66% of board are disabled.

We are looking for a Chair and new Trustees to lead DaDa into the future and make it a sustainable organisation that can develop and deliver on our own business plan and ensure Arts Council England’s four investment principles – Ambition & Quality, Dynamism, Inclusivity & Relevance, Environmental Responsibility – are embedded in our organisational planning.

Hormoz Ahmadzadeh

Robert Martin Trustee

Alison Breadon Trustee Trustee

DaDaFestInternational &40thAnniversary 2024/2025

DaDaFest International is the longest running disability arts festival in the UK.

DaDaFest is a biannual festival that provides a high profile platform for disabled artists from the UK and beyond to; share their work; develop their practice; develop their networks and interrogate the politics and purpose of disability art.

A key event is the Edward Rushton Social Justice Lecture held on December 3rd the International Day of Disabled People. This event focuses on disability as a social issue that affects society as a whole. Previous speakers have included: Liz Carr, Claire Cunningham and Ashokumar Mistry.

DaDa works in partnership with key venues and organisations across the Liverpool City Region to deliver the high quality festival programme, which challenge stereotypes and celebrates disability culture.

Our next Festival marks DaDa’s 40th Anniversary and will offer an opportunity to celebrate our achievements and successes and to set out our plans for the future of the organisation and clearly define our key aims going forward.

OurProjects

DaDaEnsemble

DaDa Ensemble is a group of disabled musicians aged 12 – 25. They include songwriters, drummers, guitarists, pianists and much more. With their incredibly wide range of skills and influences, they can rock any stage. We run young ensemble projects in partnership with Resonate Hub and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to offer our young people a varied experience of music development.

AlderHeyArtists

DaDa has a long-standing relationship with Alder Hey hospital delivering projects on hospital wards and in outpatient settings. This work has followed a social prescribing model and offered support to young artists across a range of disciplines. Importantly, all involved are seen as artists from the start and several have gone on to develop their skills further.

stDevelopment

a has a commitment to support disabled artists to op their practice. These projects can take shape ifferent ways, from individual support for a cian launching their first album to artists call out supported commissions to a 2 year Fellows ramme. DaDa are currently reviewing how best eliver on sustainable Artist Development plans d on feedback from the 2021/22 Felows and recent one-off events.

OurPartnerships

We deliver all of our work in partnership in some way and we are proud to have strong working relationships with organisations across the Liverpool City Region and beyond. Partners include: Unity Theatre, Liverpool Philharmonic, Resonate Music Hub, National Museums Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, St Helen’s Libraries, First Take.

Current key partnerships include:

Liverpool Biennial – DaDa are part of a three-year Paul Hamlyn funded partnership programme that aims to interrogate and re-shape Liverpool Biennial’s approach to care and access support for staff, the artists they work with and the audiences they share the work with. DaDa sit on their Critical Friends Group, have supported the delivery of one major international performance piece in the 2023 Festival Edition and are in the process of development for a second international commission to be delivered in 24/25.

ability Arts (JDA)

– Based in ndonesia, DaDa have worked with 2018. The recent Pen Pals project saw artists from the UK, nd Nigeria team up online to learn t cross cultural disability arts, al artworks presented across three and develop connections which o independent collaborations. Our llaboration is an R&D project ow to ensure accessibility when oss international borders.

OurImpact

Members of the DaDaEnsemble told us:

"It's my safe place because the sessions make me feel like I'm home"

"I've learnt more about developing music and s and techniques"

DaDaFellowPorcelainDelaney told us:

'I have been looking to make a step-change into making more meaningful, representative work on a larger scale. With the support of DaDa fest this feels like it will be much easier to achieve, providing me with the skills and experience needed to bring my practice forwards.'

Tom Hogan of Proud and Loud Arts in Manchester fed back that ‘The performance of Cells at Tate [Liverpool in 2018], in partnership with Dada helped us to secure NPO status with Arts Council England. The experience changed how our artists viewed themselves and enabled us to be bigger, bolder and more ambitious when designing new projects.’