Biography
Rachel Gadsden has a BAhons and MA in Fine Art and is a multi – award winning International visual and performance artist, who uses her artistic vision and art practice to enable thousands of young people and adults within the mainstream and disabled sectors in the UK and Internationally, to be able to find and have a voice through creativity within society.
Rachel has 25 years experience of creating dynamic work and leading a range of ground breaking national and international participative programmes that engage thousands of people worldwide. Rachel’s process is about being open about impairment, and working to empower others to find a voice with which to challenge stigma. In 2007 Gadsden was selected to be the first contemporary artist in Residence at Hampton Court Palace for Historic Royal Palaces (the first artist to be appointed since Holbein) and she has been associate Artist for WheelPower UK at Stoke Mandeville, and triumphant London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic commissions, 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games, British Council Middle East and South Africa projects and commissions and 4 UK Parliament projects and commissions highlight the incredible impact of Rachel’s creativity, ultimately her work is underpinned by themes of fragility and resilience, a shared and positive sense of survival in the face of chronic health conditions, and the politics and mythologies surrounding disability.
Rachel’s vision exemplifies the importance of the right to the freedom of expression, addressing issues relating to disability and diversity and thereby contributing to the bigger picture of bringing important cultural change to our society.
