Share Your Untold Disability Arts Story

TV star Mat Fraser (pictured above) is asking people across the country to share their memories and experiences of the Disability Arts movement as part of a national heritage project.

Mat is supporting ‘Cripping Culture: A Journey into Disability Arts Heritage’, a major new project run by disabled-led charitable arts organisation, Disability Arts Online, supported through funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The project aims to save the stories of the Disability Arts movement from being lost and will share them through an accessible digital archive, interactive timeline and podcast series. (Cripping, like queering, uses a reclaimed word to apply a disability lens to culture).

A familiar face from our TV screens, Mat has appeared in shows including American Horror Story, His Dark Materials, and Gangs of London. He says Disability Arts is the essence of all the work that he creates and has been a part of professional projects of Disability Arts through theatre, music, performance art, exhibitive art, radio, TV, and film.

Mat is encouraging anyone with a link to the Disability Arts movement to contribute their own stories to the Cripping Culture project. These could be memories of an event, show or exhibition they attended, something they read, an artist they met, an organisation they were involved with or anything else related to disability arts.

Contributions are welcome from people of all backgrounds including artists, writers, producers, performers, curators, musicians, activists or audience members.

By getting as many people as possible involved, DAO hopes to capture previously untold stories from the area and shed new light on key moments in the Disability Arts movement’s history. DAO is especially keen to hear from people who are part of the global majority and have intersectional experiences of disability. 

“The development of disabled voices and culture through Disability Arts, has been and continues to be a cultural phenomenon that must be archived in as detailed a way as possible,” said Mat.

“The arts, culture and Society at large all benefit from the vital role played by the arts in understanding Disability for a healthier Society. Therefore ‘Cripping Culture: A Journey Through Disability Arts Heritage’ is a vital project, not just for the preservation of our history and understanding of Disability through artistic frames, but for the preservation of Society.”

By gathering the stories and sharing them for anyone to access and engage with online, Cripping Culture aims to support the development of a culture that embraces disabled people’s stories and fills in gaps in existing knowledge. 

To share your story, visit disabilityarts.online/cripping-culture and submit the online form. The Cripping Culture contributions call out is open until August 14, 2026.

To find out more about the project and share your story visit disabilityarts.online/cripping-culture