Finding collections relating to d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people

One of the aims of our project is to make collections relating to d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people more visible – and to share some of the objects our Fellows and Trainees are discovering.

Some will have quite obvious connections to disabled people’s lives – a walking stick, some braille or images of disabled people. But we will also be exploring less obvious connections too. Sometimes the significance of an object is its owner; its part in a bigger story, or the way someone with lived experience of disability has responded to it. In this way we hope to broaden the ways that d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent stories are told.

Collections

ABRAHAM VAN STRY PAINTING, BLIND GIRL BEGGING (Oil painting)

Rights information: Copyright: Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Description

Oil painting of a blind girl begging on doorstep.

- Jack Guy, Curating for Change Fellow, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery



Community curation: Disabled people have always been a part of history; however, their achievements and depiction have often been placed in the background or failed to be documented. This painting of an unknown blind girl begging in a doorway highlights how disabled people have often been seen as passive. However, if we look deeper at this painting, we can also gather a sense of how disabled people were active. The girl is well dressed and clean and able to look after herself. She is also able to navigate the streets of the city on her own to find a space to sit.