Dr Jade French

Profile

I am an artist-facilitator, action researcher, and specialist in inclusive arts practice and supported studios—collaborative creative environments that enable learning disabled and/or neurodivergent artists to develop and sustain independent artistic practices through tailored access support, facilitation, and long-term studio provision.

My arts practice is grounded in my professional background in social care. Prior to working in the arts and academia, I was employed as a personal assistant within self-advocacy organisations, supporting learning disabled people with everyday care, decision-making, and life planning. This work provided me with deep, practical expertise in disability access, facilitation, and person-centred approaches. These experiences continue to underpin my research interests in disability studies and social care, and critically shape my approaches to artistic practice, facilitation, and teaching.

I have worked as an artist-facilitator for over fifteen years, collaborating with learning disabled and/or neurodivergent artists, inclusive arts organisations, and supported studios to develop and advance inclusive approaches to curating, exhibitions, commissioning, and artist development. My practice includes international collaborations across Ireland (International Curator Residency and British Council Axis Artist Exchange with KCAT and Pyramid), USA, Brazil, and Japan (Tokyo 2020 Art Brut World Forum).

Alongside my work in artist-facilitation, inclusive curating, and artist development, my current research investigates how inclusive arts practice, when embedded within action research, can generate epistemically just forms of knowledge, particularly in relation to social care. I am interested in inclusive art as both a critical lens on disability rights and social care challenges, and as a method for producing creative, collective alternatives to existing systems and practices.

Responsibilities

• UKRI Future Leaders Fellow
• Executive Committee Member of Centre for Disability Studies
• Co-ordinator of Participation & Social Practice Research Group

Research interests

Current Research

In September 2024, I was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship for the project Inclusive Art for Wicked Problems. Working in partnership with my long-standing collaborator, Leeds-based inclusive arts studio Pyramid, my fellowship is enabling an innovative application of inclusive arts practice to systemic action research to mobilise the expertise and creativity of learning disabled people across the challenges of the social care system. During the fellowship I am also collaborating with three additional UK-based inclusive arts organisations – ActionSpace, Project Art Works and Blue Room, as well with partners in Brazil – Dr Viviane Sarraf and the Museum of Modern Art São Paulo.

Previous Research Projects

between April 2024 and July 2025, I was Principal Investigator on Finding the Flex: A Flexible Studio Model For Learning Disabled Artists In Leeds, funded by AHRC’s Follow on Funding for Impact & Engagement. In partnership Pyramid, this feasibility study tested an approach to providing a flexible, supported open arts studio space and support plans for learning disabled and/or neurodiverse artists.

Prior to this project, between 2021-23 I was Principal Investigator on ‘Irregular’ Art Schools which aimed to innovate professional development opportunities for learning disabled artists through action research in collaboration with artists Ria, Liam, Victor and Alfie from supported studio Pyramid, artist-led space Assembly House, and the adult social care team at Leeds City Council. During this project we have been interested in what learning disabled people living in the Leeds City Region want and need to grow as professional artists and have thought about how to make studio settings, creative networking, social care and access to higher education more accessible along with disrupting normative ideas of development through this process. Please visit our project website to view our films and creative report.

In addition to my own projects, I have contributed to Dr Miro Griffiths’ Leverhulme Trust Fellowship Disability Activism in Europe: Young Disabled Activists Views and Experiences (2020–2023) where I developed a creative zine. I also acted as Co-Investigator on AHRC research project I’m Me: Identity, Representation and Voice (2023-25) led by Professor Matthew Reason and Mind the Gap theatre company which worked with learning disabled and autistic artists to explore questions of identity, representation and voice.

Research Areas

I am an action researcher with interests in participatory research approaches such as systemic action research, arts-based and creative methods, and practice-led approaches.

Within museums, galleries, and contemporary arts my research interests include:

• inclusive art, access and disability
• participatory and socially engaged practices
• ‘outsider’ art, art brut and self taught artists
• curatorial practice and theory
• artist-facilitation and artist-education

I am also interested in disability studies and learning disability adult social care including:

• learning disability and self-advocacy
• disability rights and activism
• personalisation, support, social care practice and policy

Primary investigator (PI)

• 'Irregular' Art Schools: Methods for Supporting the Professional Development of Learning Disabled Artists
• Finding The Flex: Testing A Flexible Studio Model For Learning Disabled Artists In Leeds
• Inclusive Art for Wicked Problems: Innovating Creative Methods for Systems Change with Learning Disabled Artists and Their Facilitators

Qualifications

• PhD Inclusive Arts Practice, University of Leeds
• MA Inclusive Arts Practice, University of Brighton
• BA Photography, Nottingham Trent University

Student education

I am currently on research leave. However when teaching, I teach and supervise dissertations across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes relating to art, curating and museum studies including the MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies, MA Arts Management and Heritage Studies, BA History of Art, and BA Fine Art.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage