Disabled-led arts organisation Disability Arts Online (DAO) has today announced that Louise Page from Newcastle has been chosen as one of its new Associate Artists.
Louise is one of only three creatives from across the UK selected for the 2024 DAO Associate Artists cohort. The other artists have been named as Elspeth Wilson from Edinburgh and Revell Dixon from London.
“I am thrilled to be developing my first large-scale embroidery project with the support of DAO’s Associate Artist programme. Over the next year I hope to complete and exhibit a large tapestry work that responds to and maps the internal geography of my mental health, and life as a survivor of repeated abuse. I am especially excited that I will be supported to exhibit the tapestry, as I currently find it hard to access exhibition opportunities. I hope that the associateship will help me to launch a career in fine art.”
Louise
Disability Arts Online’s Associate Artist programme offers disabled artists tailored career development support over a period of a year, with seed funding to achieve a bigger project or ambition. Since launching in 2018, it has supported 9 disabled artists.
Louise is an artist, filmmaker and writer. Her writing has been published by the likes of Scholastic and Bloomsbury and she is represented by Curtis Brown. She received a bursary in 2023 from BALTIC North East Artist’s Fund to develop a tapestry telling the story of Philomela from Greek Myth. Pieces of her artwork have been acquired by both the Wellcome Collection and WANE. She has had video work exhibited in the Royal College of Art, Whitechapel Gallery, Fabrica, CCA Glasgow, Nottingham Contemporary and CCA Glasgow. In 2023 Louise developed a story told through modern embroidery about Jane Austen, grief and disability as a project in a residency at Jane Austen’s House.
She uses handsewn techniques to create unique modern embroidery and her DAO Associateship will see her creating her largest piece of embroidery to date: Internal Topography. The tapestry began in April 2023 with initial embroidery pieces sewn onto a duvet cover, constructed to resemble a map of the inside of her head using abstract imagery and symbols representing thoughts and feeling processes. Internal Topography follows on from a previous project published on DAO, Psyche Drawings, exploring issues of abuse and mental health. Through the making process Louise will record notes relating to how the work maps her internal states, to be documented on her artists’ blog. The Associateship program will support Louise towards producing an exhibition of Internal Topography.
“Our Associates programme is a standout part of what we do at Disability Arts Online. The DAO team is really excited by the prospect of seeing the creative projects grow and we are looking forward to supporting Louise and the other talented associates in their development.”
Trish Wheatley, Chief Executive of Disability Arts Online
