UNLIMITED Introduction Unlimited was created as a partnership between London 2012, Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, Arts Council Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the British Council. The project celebrated disability, arts, culture and sport on an unprecedented scale as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. It was a three year commissioning programme from 2010, with presentation and touring throughout the UK, culminating in the Unlimited at the Southbank Centre from 30th August to 9th September 2012 Festival. Many of the commissioned works are touring the UK and internationally in 2013. Unlimited was a UK-wide project that saw 29 new works commissioned ‘to encourage deaf and disabled artists to push beyond their personal best… by creating work which opens doors, changes minds and inspires new collaborations.’The Unlimited UK programme had over £2 million of funding awarded to it. The five ‘Scottish’ artists (i.e., based in Scotland) were awarded major commissions totaling over £500,000. The Scottish artists also collaborated on other Unlimited commissions e.g., Claire Cunningham and Marc Brew choreographed for Candoco Unlimited. Therefore, in total, 8 of the 29 commissions featured Scottish artists. The Scottish artists were commissioned to produce the following works: Claire Cunningham (with Gail Sneddon), produced Ménage à Trois’ created in partnership with the National Theatre with an £80,000 investment. Claire’s work was showcased on the final evening of the festival to a sold out audience, receiving international acclaim. Ramesh Meyyappan was awarded two commissions, Snails and Ketchup and Skewered Snails, to a value of £95,800. Janice Parker, produced Private Dancer, a participatory performance that brought together visual and live art elements, and devised as a promenade event involving 18 or more diverse disabled, non-disabled, community and professional performers. She received £107,500 in partnership funding. Marc Brew produced Fusional Fragments (with Dame Evelyn Glennie), a dance and music abstract work exploring the concept of a fusion of life fragments between classical ballet and contemporary dance from disabled choreographer Marc Brew’s perspective in collaboration with five talented non-disabled dancers. It was made to be performed in medium to large-scale theatre spaces suitable for contemporary dance. He received £112,000 in Unlimited funding. Finally, Caroline Bowditch produced Leaving, Limbo, Landing, an ambitious outdoor production in air, in water and on land that explored journey, placement, displacement, settling, arrivals and departures. Dancers and aerialists took audiences on a journey, through limbo to landing with an original sound score, and spectacular costumes. Caroline received £100,000 in partnership funding. Individual funding was distributed to the five artists with an additional £8,300 made available for the showcase at the Southbank Centre as part of the London 2012 Festival. After the commissions were awarded there was further funding made available to support touring and presentation i.e. Unlimited Presents. All of the artists participated as part of the London 2012 Festival. Unlimited had ambitious objectives and showed a range of impacts under all six headings (quality artistic production and experience; audience participation and development; contribution to place identity; international impact; skills, leadership and social capital; legacy and sustainability), however, for the purpose of this case study the key achievements in: quality artistic production and experience; audience participation and development; and legacy and sustainability will be presented. These were the key drivers identified by the projects and the areas of achievement that Creative Scotland highlighted the most. Arts Council England also highlighted that the work contributed most to talent development, quality artistic production and audience, participation and development.
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