2024 Shortlisted Nominee
Positive Role Model Award: Disability
Professor Simon McKeown, a multidisciplinary artist and academic at Teesside University, focuses on public art, disability art, and digital production. He integrates light technology with disability research, collaborating with People with Learning Disabilities. His notable projects include Prometheus Awakes (London 2012), Cork Ignite (2015), and We Are Still Here (2018). His innovative Motion Disabled study has been showcased globally over 100 times, and All for Claire, featuring dancer Claire Cunningham, is part of the BFI Disabled Britain collection. In 2014, Simon created Ghosts, an animated tribute to WWI disability for Channel 4. Passionate about disability heritage, he owns a significant collection of historic disability motor vehicles and leads the Invalid Carriages Register. Currently, Simon is spearheading the international AHRC/UKRI heritage project, Images and Imagination of Impairment and Disability in the Hans Würtz Collection.