What’s in the name?

I spent hours poring over online dictionaries and thesaurus’ looking for a name for the website. I wanted something that would set the offering apart from the myriad of other commercial sites. I wanted a name to pique people’s interest, to draw them in and make the site a destination for people looking for something a little different, something more. More personality, more grit, more high-fives. A tall order for a small site…

At the same time as I was pondering this, I was very conscious that the artists whom we host are credible and vibrant, that they should in no way be seen as “less”. This aim of the social enterprise is to acknowledge and try to overcome the barriers which artists with disabilities face in the art world. We give a brilliant and diverse collection of artists, a new way to promote their work. This is about being proactive, independent and having confidence in the skills our artists bring to the table.

When I stumbled across the term “rabble” I loved it.   I could hear the contempt and the superiority of a lofty voice as I played around with the word in my head. It conjured an image of a non-conformist, unpredictable and un-settling collection of people. This really struck a chord with me and bought into focus the work of one of our artists, Fionn.  Fionn regularly includes monsters in his work. This is in part because he enjoys horror and escapist adventure movies, but he also explained to me how he sometimes identifies with the monsters. They are always feared, sometimes misrepresented and often pushed to the edges. He sometimes feels pushed to the edge and disability is almost always seen as something to be feared. The wonderful thing about Fionn is that he saw that the monsters in the movies often have something important to teach others. In the same way, Fionn has something to say, if people have the courage to listen. The monster is the same as the rabble; feared, chaotic and noisy. But this is an opportunity to re-claim the word and see within it the strength the rabble engenders, the acceptance it affords its participants and the voices that will not be stifled. In this way, the rabble is wonderful and inspiring, and right. And that is why, we are Art Rabble.

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.