Accentuate

The inspiration for Accentuate is the South East’s role in the development of the Paralympic Games. As a result of this unique heritage we have a very close relationship with the Cultural Olympiad programme and there are many direct synergies between the programmes. Celebrate and Commission will be Accentuates main route for connecting with the Cultural Olympiad. These projects are managed by Caterina Loriggio, Creative Programmer for London 2012.

Celebrate and Commission will commission work, networks and professional development opportunities which ensure equity of access throughout the Cultural Olympiad.

The content of these projects is still evolving but a few key elements have been put into place. One exciting new project which has been supported through Celebrate and Commission is Blue Touch Paper Carnival. This is a new carnival project run by West Sussex and linked to the Carnival Learning Centre on the Isle of Wight. It is designed to be the most accessible, inclusive, integrated and friendly Carnival experience the world has ever seen, building slowly over the next 3 years in time for 2012.

Blue Touch Paper Carnival knows that many disabled people and their families and carers feel left out of Carnival and the project wants to change this, leaving a fantastic legacy for carnivals across the world. Blue Touch Paper Carnival will see disabled and non-disabled people coming together, taking their time to plan, share skills and make top quality carnival in an accessible way so that everyone can take part.

A global first! During Open Weekend, Blue Touch Paper People - disabled and non disabled, worked together to Light the Blue Touch Paper Fuse - showing what is meant by access and inclusion and making carnival together to celebrate the London 2012 Games.

Another strand of Celebrate and Commission is a new way of looking at recording and evaluating the Accentuate journey. We will be working with artist Jon Adams, to explore the key milestones of the programme through a variety of methods. Accentuate hopes that by creatively looking at this journey, accessible opportunities will open up to describe and record this process.

Celebrate and Commission will continue to develop over the timeline of Accentuate, responding to opportunities and needs as they arise. In particular we have a focus on the London 2012 Paralympic Games torch relay. We are developing plans for creating direct links between the Accentuate programme and this event, which would provide a fantastic and spectacular climax to the Accentuate programme. We have also identified the following areas to invest in and will update as these ideas become more developed:

• A toolkit to support learning disabled people to put on cultural events
• Networking opportunities for sports and arts people to come together
• A project to ensure disabled access at the Island Games, for artists, participants or spectators

Accentuate projects have been collecting examples of how their work is having an impact.  Whether this is the personal experience of an individual, or the influence Accentuate projects have had on organisations. Click the link to view the case studies.