DaDa Announce Ashok Mistry for Rushton Lecture 2023 DaDa is an organisation that supports disability arts Each year DaDa holds a lecture on the International Day for People with Disabilities, December 3rd The lecture is named after Edward Rushton, a poet, activist and disabled man from the 1700s This year the Rushton Lecture will be held at Museum of Liverpool DaDa has a fantastic person to talk at the event They will talk about the value of disabled lives, particularly young disabled people The talk will be called ‘Reclaiming our Nonchalance’ Reclaiming our Nonchalance Reclaiming our Nonchalance is an invitation to be more ambitious no matter what other people think about you The lecture will look at how the art world works and how disability is valued “We don’t want to have to be activists - however, it's existential - instead, do we not want disabled artists to be able to make art that doesn’t exist to be worthy but ploughs its own course and the nonchalance of its substance is taken at face value” Because some people think that disabled artists can’t achieve the same as non-disabled artists it can limit how successful disabled artists can be Ignoring these thoughts can make disabled artists more ambitious and can change the minds of the art world In this year’s Edward Rushton Lecture, Ashokkumar Mistry talks about how we can value disability by valuing everyone About Ashokkumar D Mistry Ashokkumar Mistry is a Neurodivergent artist, writer, and curator from Leicester He works in the UK and abroad, challenging the ways people make and view art His research looks at di ff erent ways to think about being human that include disability His work is interactive, asking us to pay attention and challenge what we hear Mistry wants to challenge arts organisations and change expectations about how art is made and talked about He looks at how ideas about national identity come into existence and change He often talks about how meaning can be lost when talking about cultures Images from archives are changed and shown without context to look at the reasons why they exist ??? !!! “His words and work — with its swift detours and provocations, its messiness and expansiveness — o ff ers us a productive disorientation. It upends assumptions about good taste, about where things fi t or don’t, about what is good and bad.” From Swift Detours - George Vasey. Mistry is co-founder of the Disability in British Art (DIBA) research group within the British Art Network He has spoken about arts and disability at UK universities, and is an associate of DASH Arts’ Future Curators Programme He is a founding member of two disabled art collectives, ONYX collective and Comrades Mistry has written for British Art Network, Shape Arts and Unlimited Mistry has also been an Associate Artist with, and has written extensively for, Disability Arts Online He has also been part of the International Association Of Art Critics (AICA-UK) Save the date Tickets for the lecture are available on Eventbrite Follow DaDa on social media and sign up to our newsletter to be fi rst to hear about any updates For now, keep 1pm - 3pm on December 3rd 2023 free in your diary @DaDaFest