Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Inclusion of people with disabilities in general society has been delayed in the Eastern Europe due to the severe consequences of the communist regime. Both on institutional level and in public opinion people with disabilities are still labelled as secondary. This refers also to embarking people with disabilities into artistic practices due to restricted accessibility. However, in the Eastern Europe significant improvement regarding visibility and overcoming stereotypes referring to the people with disabilities has been achieved thanks to grassroot activism. As a positive example the research paper analyses the case of the Integrative Arts Festival Come along! involving children and young people with special needs in Latvia, having started 21 years ago and since 2007 expanding to having reached the audience of 100 000 (from 1.9Mio inhabitants of Latvia which is a significant number) of national radio and television. The proposed paper focuses on the art product created by people with disabilities as an instrument of socialization and promoting understanding between different social groups, presenting the case of Latvia as a successful development able to provide a unconventional approach for inclusion.