Richard Phoenix is an artist whose practice includes painting, music, writing, and collaboration. His current interests include looking at access, learning and structure and how art and music can create spaces that remove barriers and make new forms of normal.

Richard Phoenix explains an alternative definition for disability. The idea that it is the environment, society and culture that surrounds someone that creates barriers and obstacles which disable and exclude them. Many venues aren’t set up for disabled people to perform, often stages don’t have wheelchair access to get on to them. Music performance as a whole doesn’t consider disabled people as performers and doesn’t take into account the needs of disabled performers. Often there is wheelchair access for the audience which shows the unconscious view of venues that disabled people aren’t considered and viewed as performers. Many great artists I’m sure are written off just because they act or look different and I feel this Richard is helping to combat this and bring awareness to musicians and performers who have a different take on sound to someone who isn’t neurodivergent.