Centring Artists With Learning Disabilities: Exploring Access to Visual Arts

ABSTRACT Background Research rarely focuses on the perspectives of individuals with learning disabilities in relation to access to visual arts, resulting in significant gaps in understanding their preferences, needs, and lived experiences. This underrepresentation reflects a broader societal pattern in which voices of people with learning disabilities remain marginalised in cultural discourse. This qualitative study, informed by the framework of crip curation, explored how 11 artists with learning disabilities perceived and experienced access to visual arts. Methods Semi‐structured interviews and fieldnotes were used to centre their perspectives as both artists and audience members. Findings Our findings showed that participants conceptualised access in three interrelated ways: first, as an interpretative orientation shaped by previous normative art experiences as audience members; second, as a multimodal form of engagement in which personalised and flexible strategies were valued over standardised access provisions; and third, as a relational process in which access was conditionally recognised. Together, these findings highlighted the tensions between the forms of access envisioned by participants and prevailing access practices. Conclusions We argue for curatorial approaches that embrace subjective, relational, and co‐created forms of access, aligned with the principles of crip theory.