Welcome to the Shape Arts Podcast.
Based in the UK, we’ll be exploring arts, heritage and creativity of all kinds from a barriers-facing perspective, hearing from leading makers, activists and cultural workers about the things that matter to them.
We will also be introducing new or upcoming projects, and discovering new ideas about what disability is - and what contemporary culture might be as a result.
Welcome to The Art of Blindness, a mini series of the Shape Arts Podcast (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/podcast) from blind artist and winner of our 2025 Adam Reynolds Award (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/adam-reynolds-award), David Johnson (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/2025-david-johnson).
In this four part series, David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. With the help of invited guests, he will be exploring the day-to-day experience of living as a blind person, and how this can give rise to the impulse to make art.
This podcast is based on the assertion that visual impairment gives people privileged access to an altered sensory framework, or aesthetic, that affords access to new worlds.
In the fourth and final episode of his series, David reflects on his own artwork and its influences, as well as the importance of collaboration, speaking with his assistant Emma Dickson.
This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray.
You can find out more about the Adam Reynolds Award programme, for which this series was commissioned, over on our website. (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/listing/category/adam-reynolds-award-projects)
David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture.
9 Apr 2026
The Art of Blindness: Reimagining the imagination
Welcome to The Art of Blindness, a mini series of the Shape Arts Podcast (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/podcast) from blind artist and winner of our 2025 Adam Reynolds Award (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/adam-reynolds-award), David Johnson (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/2025-david-johnson).
In this four part series, David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. With the help of invited guests, he will be exploring the day-to-day experience of living as a blind person, and how this can give rise to the impulse to make art.
This podcast is based on the assertion that visual impairment gives people privileged access to an altered sensory framework, or aesthetic, that affords access to new worlds.
In episode three, David chats to Dr Kevin Hunt from Nottingham School of Art and Design about our mental lives, our consciousness and our thoughts - the link between our sensory perception of the world and the way we understand that world. Is there really such a thing as 'the mind's eye'?
This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray.
You can find out more about the Adam Reynolds Award programme, for which this series was commissioned, over on our website. (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/listing/category/adam-reynolds-award-projects)
David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of Beyond the Visual (https://henry-moore.org/whats-on/beyond-the-visual/) at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds - on until 19 April 2026.
27 Mar 2026
The Art of Blindness: Audio Description
Welcome to The Art of Blindness, a mini series of the Shape Arts Podcast (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/podcast) from blind artist and winner of our 2025 Adam Reynolds Award (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/adam-reynolds-award), David Johnson (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/2025-david-johnson).
In this four part series, David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. With the help of invited guests, he will be exploring the day-to-day experience of living as a blind person, and how this can give rise to the impulse to make art.
This podcast is based on the assertion that visual impairment gives people privileged access to an altered sensory framework, or aesthetic, that affords access to new worlds.
In episode two, we join David on a visit to Tate Britain, where he interviews creative practitioners Harry Baxter and Joseph Rizzo Naudi, finding out more about their approach to audio describing art.
This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray.
You can find out more about the Adam Reynolds Award programme, for which this series was commissioned, over on our website. (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/listing/category/adam-reynolds-award-projects)
David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of Beyond the Visual (https://henry-moore.org/whats-on/beyond-the-visual/) at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds - on until 19 April 2026.
27 Mar 2026
The Art of Blindness: The Lived Experience
Welcome to The Art of Blindness, a mini series of the Shape Arts Podcast (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/podcast) from blind artist and winner of our 2025 Adam Reynolds Award (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/adam-reynolds-award), David Johnson (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/2025-david-johnson).
In this four part series, David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. With the help of invited guests, he will be exploring the day-to-day experience of living as a blind person, and how this can give rise to the impulse to make art.
This podcast is based on the assertion that visual impairment gives people privileged access to an altered sensory framework, or aesthetic, that affords access to new worlds.
In episode one, The Lived Experience, we join David on a sonically textured walk around his hometown of Hitchin as he paints a picture of his everyday sensory encounters.
This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray.
You can find out more about the Adam Reynolds Award programme, for which this series was commissioned, over on our website. (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/listing/category/adam-reynolds-award-projects)
David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of Beyond the Visual (https://henry-moore.org/whats-on/beyond-the-visual/) at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds - on until 19 April 2026.
25 Mar 2026
Introducing: David Johnson's The Art of Blindness
The Art of Blindness is a new mini series of the Shape Arts Podcast (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/podcast) from blind artist and winner of our 2025 Adam Reynolds Award (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/adam-reynolds-award), David Johnson (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/2025-david-johnson). Episodes one and two will be available from Friday 27 March 2026.
In this four part series, David invites us into the world of the lived experience of blindness and his art making practice. With the help of invited guests, he will be exploring the day-to-day experience of living as a blind person, and how this can give rise to the impulse to make art.
This podcast is based on the assertion that visual impairment gives people privileged access to an altered sensory framework, or aesthetic, that affords access to new worlds.
This series was produced and edited by Ian Rattray.
You can find out more about the Adam Reynolds Award programme, for which this series was commissioned, over on our website. (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/listing/category/adam-reynolds-award-projects)
David Johnson is a blind artist who, through his creative practice, intends to challenge assumptions about blindness and disability, demonstrating the potential they have to contribute positively and creatively to our shared culture. David is currently exhibiting as part of Beyond the Visual (https://henry-moore.org/whats-on/beyond-the-visual/) at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds - on until 19 April 2026.
27 Jun 2025
Episode 7: How to put on an accessible exhibition
Shape Arts Creative Producers discuss various methods for making artwork more accessible to disabled audiences, including venue selection, presentation, event programming, and marketing; this is an interview.
24 Sept 2024
Episode 6: Slugs, Catholicism, and the 'Genius Artist' with Abi Palmer
In our latest podcast episode (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/blog/episode-6-abi-palmer) we chat to artist Abi Palmer about her current projects Slime Mother (https://www.chapter.org/seasons/slime-mother) and Slugs: A Manifesto (https://makinabooks.com/slugs-a-manifesto/)!
Enjoy three readings from Slugs by Abi as well as tracks from the audio description of her Slime Mother exhibition.
Abi is an artist and writer. She uses film, text, sculpture and sensory intervention to explore sick bodies, viscous textures and ecological landscapes. Works include Abi Palmer Invents the Weather, commissioned by Artangel in 2023 and currently on show as part of Shape’s exhibition Crip Arte Spazio: The Disability Arts Movement in Venice, which is open until the end of November. Her previous book, Sanatorium was published by Penned in the Margins in 2020 and we can't forget her interactive gambling arcade Crip Casino which you may remember being on offer at a Shape Arts Tate Exchange takeover back in 20109. Her work has been shown at Tate Modern, Somerset House, Frieze Forridor and the Venice Biennale. And Abi has been an exhibiting artist as part of the Shape Open too, with her work All The Worlds You’ll Never See, which was somewhat of a precursor to her Artangel commission shown as part of All Bound Together in 2021.
You can find Abi on Instagram at @abipalmer_bot (https://www.instagram.com/abipalmer_bot/) or visit her website (https://www.abipalmer.com/) to find out more.
7 Mar 2024
Episode 5: artist Linny Venables in conversation with producer Debbie Chan
Catch the latest episode in our podcast where Emergent artist Linny Venables speaks to producer Debbie Chan.
22 Feb 2024
Episode 4: Curating our Open All Hours exhibition
The creative team and artists involved in our recent Shape Open exhibition, still available online, reflect on the themes of the show and how it all came together. Featuring live performances from artist Samiir Saunders.
19 Dec 2023
Episode 2: AI, accessbility, and the arts
For episode 2 of the Shape Arts Podcast (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/podcast), Shape Creative Producers Elinor Hayes and Emily Roderick looked into the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence through the lens of accessibility and creative work. Here, they share the good, the bad, and their thoughts on what's to come.
19 Dec 2023
Episode 3: Jamila Prowse, cripping time, spoons theory
In episode three, artist Jamila Prowse (https://jamilaprowse.com/) talks us through her recent residency and work as part of UAL's 20/20 project (https://www.arts.ac.uk/ual-decolonising-arts-institute/projects/2020), which saw Jamila placed in Shape's National Disability Arts Collection and Archive (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/listing/category/ndaca), and Spoons (after Carolyn Lazard) - a new film of Jamila's which is being shown as part of our upcoming Shape Open (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/shape-open) exhibition, Open All Hours. The show is hosted by 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning (https://www.198.org.uk/portfolio/open-all-hours/), Herne Hill, London, and will open on January 9th 2024!
23 Mar 2023
Shape Arts Podcast (Trailer)
22 Mar 2023
Episode 1: Kaiya Waerea - how can socially-engaged artists intervene?
The debut episode of Shape Arts (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/)’ podcast celebrates the end of the inaugural year of Emergent (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/Listing/Category/emergent), a residency programme delivered by Shape and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts (https://baltic.art/), Gateshead. The programme is designed to support early-career barriers-facing artists. In the first of this brand-new series, we hear from Emergent-shortlisted artist, writer, designer, and publisher, Kaiya Waerea (https://www.shapearts.org.uk/news/kaiya-waerea), as she reflects on the challenges and changing nature of the arts ecology for a new generation of disabled creatives.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
332,632
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 48 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
21
Social presence
94
YouTube
82
Engagement
60
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