Carousel's Mission

Carousel is an award winning learning disability led arts organisation.Founded in 2982 Carousel works to promote the active involvement of people with a learning disability in the arts, teaching new artistic skills and developing existing talents. Our art provision is recognised nationally and internationally for its high quality and unique approach. 

Carousel facilitates artists with a learning disability to nurture, manage and deliver our artistic programmes: The Oska Bright Film Festival, Live Arts and the Shut Up and Listen music initiative. We are passionate about inspiring the artistic ambitions of learning disabled film makers, performers and musicians and nurturing them to choreograph performances, direct films and write and perform their music, as well as lead workshops for other  adults and children with learning disabilities.

About Carousel
Carousel has 28 years of experience in managing arts projects by and for people with a learning disability

Significant achievements include:

• Developing support systems to enable artists with a learning disability to manage their own artistic and cultural work
• Delivering the award winning international Oska Bright Film Festivals in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009 in partnership with Junk TV
• Successfully touring Oska Bright screenings and film making master classes across the UK, Europe, Eire and Canada.
• Partnering Glyndebourne and South East Dance to deliver and tour a rock opera fusion event bring together all the strands of Carousel's work
• Working in partnership with West Sussex Arts Partnership to roll out our Blue Camel Clubs across West Sussex, training District Council Arts Development Officers to event manage the clubs with local organisations ensuring the long term sustainability of these clubs
• Ten years of touring original dance theatre performances by High Spin across the UK
• A three year collaboration with an organisation in Dieppe to make a joint film and a joint dance piece. The dance piece And the Day After... won best dance act at the Brighton Fringe Festival Awards in 2005. This project was funded by Interreg IIIa

Beneficiaries
2009-10

All performances are by artists with learning disabilities
All workshops are for people with learning disabilities unless otherwise stated

• Carousel led 266 workshops (led by artists with and without learning disabilities
• Over 560 adults and children with a learning disability took part in a Carousel workshop
• Carousel ran 9 arts showcase club events in Brighton and across West Sussex
• Over 5000 people attended and Oska Bright On the Road film screening
• Beat Express rock band performed from their repertoire at 15 gigs
• New bands Zombie Crash and The Fuzzbomb Band performed at nine gigs.
• Shut Up and Listen radio was launched with four pilot shows
• Carousel trained 9 new volunteers in how to facilitate people with a learning disability in the arts gaining an Open College Network Level III qualification
• Carousel provided accredited training for 14 young people with a learning disability in music and dance performance
• Oska Bright Film Festival toured 23 places across the UK and Ireland
• The Blue Camel Club Steering Committee launched the Love Matters campaign
• Regualr monthly music making sessions were established for Create This graduates
• Regular monthly performance making sessions were established for the Create This dance graduates
• All the Create This graduates have performed at a Blue Camel Club.
• Carousel supported Oska Bright film maker Matthew Hellett to make a film commissioned by South East Dance, National Dance Agency

Additional Information

Carousel is based in Brighton.
Carousel projects take place across the South East, nationally and internationally.
Carousel first started in 1982.
Oska Bright Film Festival is a Carousel and Junk TV project
Shut Up and Listen is a Carousel project