Artists chosen for residencies strengthen Derbyshire charity's mission to "Celebrate the Art that Difference Makes"

Level are excited to introduce the new cohort of residency artists from across the England who have been awarded a residency

The selected artists all have ambitious ideas that strengthen the charitable mission of the LEVEL Centre at Rowsley to ‘Celebrate the Art that Difference Makes’.

Since 2021 the Level Residency Lab, with support from Arts Council England, has supported 24 professional artists who either identify as disabled or whose work has access at its heart.

Among the cohort of new artists who will be taking up year-round residencies in Derbyshire are:

The LEVEL centre at Rowsley has just awarded four new residencies to artists who identify as disabled or whose work has access at its heart (photo: Martine Hamilton Knight)

Aaron Williamson who has created more than 300 performances, videos, installations and publications around the world. He has a PhD in Critical Theory from the University of Sussex. Williamson’s work is informed by his experience of becoming Deaf and by a progressive sensibility towards disability. At a University of California lecture in 1998, he coined the term ‘Deaf Gain’ as a counter-emphasis to ’hearing loss’.

Alex Billingham creates work amongst the overlaps of live art, experimental theatre, film and digital art. Their trans and disabled body collide and intermingle with their neurodiverse brain which they use to map out better ways of survival. They enjoy an analogue approach to manipulating digital technology that allows them to explore a visual style that binds grime with glitter to make beautiful work. Alex is currently developing a new theatrical show Salting the Wound.

Maiya Leeke is a London based contemporary dance artist and jazz musician. She is a Sadler’s Wells Young Associate 2023/24, was a finalist in BBC Young Dancer 2022, has an MA from Northern School of Contemporary Dance and was an apprentice with Candoco Dance Company. Her artistic practice is rooted in research exploring the physical language of hope and expression of a voice being more than spoken words. She is fascinated by how the unique contributions of her disability intertwine with being a contemporary dancer and jazz saxophonist.

Raquel’s Meseguer work straddles theatre, dance, installation, performative conversations and photo-documentary. She identifies asdis-abled and founded Unchartered Collective in 2016 to create theatrical encounters that explore the lived experience of an invisible disability like chronic pain. Her project A Crash Course in Cloudspotting is an installation and performance, an app, a community and a digital archive for 300-plus stories gathered about people’s attempts to rest in public. She was nominated for a 2023 Olivier Award (Outstanding Achievement in Dance) for her dramaturgy on Lost Dog’s Ruination.

Executive director Kerry Andrews said: “We’re delighted to welcome four more superb artists from across the UK to Level’s Residency Lab. The quality of applications has been exceptional and we’re looking forward to seeing how research and development time in Derbyshire steers their creative practice over the coming years.”

The residency artists will be taking part in a research study conducted by therapeutic arts researcher Gemma Collard-Stokes from the University of Derby. The study will explore the experiences, practices and professional development of artists who are co-producing visual, performative or digital contemporary work and will be used to inform Level’s residency programme over the next few years.