Welcome to The Open Road Carnival
Welcome to Open Road Carnival, an online Resource Library for carnival organisers, carnival artists and carnival participants to share and learn about making our art more accessible, especially for Deaf and Disabled people.
We hope you find our site interesting and informative, and we welcome feedback and contributions.
About Us
The Open Road Carnival is an Arts Council England National Activities funded project. It explores the Social Model of Disability. This states that we are disabled by the way society is organised, rather than by our impairments or differences.
The project is led by The New Carnival Company (Isle of Wight) with partners Callaloo Carnival Arts (Mirfield), Art Shape (Gloucester), East Midlands Caribbean Carnival Arts Network (Derby), City Arts (Nottingham), the Association of Event Management Educators and University of Brighton.
The project aims to:
- identify and remove barriers to inclusion in Carnival Arts
- influence the way that Carnival event organisers and organisations promote participatory work with disabled people
- improve outcomes for disabled people in Carnival Arts at all levels
What We Did
Open Road Carnival supported five regional research and development projects, led by each partner, and working alongside disabled and non-disabled professional artists and community members.
The aim of the work was to test inclusive best practice and trial new approaches, to identify some of the key barriers disabled artists and performers face in making and sharing carnival art.
Findings of the research projects were presented to an academic audience at the Association of Event Management Educators conference at University of Brighton in June 2001.
In March 2002 the partners organised 3 one-day regional conferences at Southampton, Huddersfield and Nottingham to extend the reach of their work.
The regional conferences proved to be a great platform for sharing not just Open Road Carnival experience, but also other projects and perspectives from like-minded individuals and organisations from around the country and across the world.
Our Partners
Our Sponsors
