Anna Berry is determined to shift the notions of whose art should hang on gallery walls. “Disabled artists face difficulty in being represented in the mainstream,” she says. “The art world recognises that it needs to include a wider variety of voices and perspectives, but it has lost its way.” As a neurodivergent artist herself, Berry collaborates with creative organisations and galleries. Together, they are committed to redressing discrimination against artists who are disabled in the United Kingdom.
Berry’s work is varied and thought-provoking, exploring political and ideological notions of the UK’s welfare system, capitalism, and parallel perceptions of the world. “I’ve always made art,” she says. “It allows me to exist as myself.” In 2020, Berry curated an exhibition titled ‘Art and Social Change: The Disability Arts Movement’. It showcased the pieces created by disabled artists who lobbied the government to pass the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995, and was part of a programme with MAC Birmingham to empower artists with disabilities to become curators. “I will keep trying to help the voices of other disabled artists be heard,” Berry says.
Unlike exclusive clubs and cliques that have pervaded artistic movements throughout the ages, Berry is on a mission to make art and the spaces within which it exists more accessible. Through the cooperation and support of councils, galleries, and the British public, artists with disabilities will no longer be excluded. As for Berry, she will not shrink away from ensuring that all people and perspectives are welcomed. “My activism will always come from a place of kindness,” she says.
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