Image: Geof Armstrong by Alan Don

Marking 30 years of disability arts in the North East, bringing together the NorDAF archive and new work by Arcadea’s Hub Studio Artists

NCA - Gallery One & Two

17th April – 9th May 2026

open: Thursday - Saturday, 12 - 5pm

Quiet hours: Fridays, 12 - 2pm

Preview: 16th april, 5 - 7 pm

A major new exhibition in Newcastle celebrates the radical history of disability arts in the North East by bringing together archival material with new work by disabled artists responding to that legacy today.

Presented by Newcastle Contemporary Art and Arcadea Disability Arts, in partnership with North East Museums, The Sheer Brass Neck marks 30 years since the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and the establishment of Arcadea Disability Arts. It reflects on the role of disabled artists and activists in shaping the wider struggle for equality, access, and cultural representation in the UK.

The exhibition draws on a significant but rarely seen archive of material from NorDAF (Northern Disability Arts Forum), an influential disabled-led organisation active in the North East during the 1980s and 1990s. The archive documents a period when disabled artists in the region were organising, publishing, performing and reshaping cultural spaces on their own terms. The exhibition celebrates the legacy of the late Geof Armstrong, who was instrumental in the formation of NorDAF, which he later returned to after it was registered as a charity under the name Arcadea, and developed it into the vibrant studios they have today.

For the first time in many years, archival posters, publications and photographs from the NorDAF archive will be exhibited publicly, highlighting the North East as a significant centre of the Disability Arts Movement and the activism that surrounded it.

Alongside this archival material, Arcadea’s Hub Studio Artists present new work responding directly to the archive’s activist energy. Working across disciplines including portraiture and embroidery, they explore what has changed over the past three decades — and what barriers around access, representation, authorship and power within the arts still remain.

Newcastle City Council Resident Artist Lily Kroese, who is a disabled animator, illustrator and community artist, worked with neurodiverse young women from Arcadea’s Hub Studio to produce work for the exhibition. 

Richard Thomas - Pyjamas

Arcadea Hub Studio Artists

Alan Don

Richard Thomas

Terry Doherty

Luke Scott

Marily Haddock

Jayne Tate

Alex Taylor

Grace English

Charlotte Frank

Beth Nixon

Jason Thomas

Juary Delgado Lima

Jeremy Chan

Tracey Beaty

Daniel Rae

Mass Observation exhibition poster - NorDAF archive

Joyce Henderson - Mass Observation photograph (15th March 1995) - NorDAF archive