Damien and I sit in the CastleCourt Foodhall which moments before was a performance space, for an informal and friendly conversation about University of Atypical, Bounce Festival and its future. Coyle’s stewardship of the festival as Artistic Director, has seen many changes. Most obviously the pandemic which put Bounce online for the first time in 2020. He recalls one particular online workshop ‘We sent out kits to 35 people all over the island of Ireland, so they could all participate. They all built the Ulster Museum’. Damien laughs at this, at such audacious remote working. He stands out in the foodcourt, dressed in a waistcoat with a jaunty pocket-square, very much a renaissance gentleman. His long beard hints at his true nature as an artist.
Damien is incredibly personable and generous with his time. He says being autistic, he’s had to learn to ‘press the flesh’, but I feel he is being modest. He’s totally authentic, and his ethos of providing an arts festival that is ‘100% disabled led’ is from a principled stand.
He tells me he finds, with the cost of living crisis, that asking people to pay theatre prices (to an audience that will likely be on benefits) is just not fair, ‘we are not going to be making our money from box office, that’s not how a festival survives, so why make people pay?’ He explains that the festival relies on Arts Council funding so the decision was taken to make 90% of this years programme free. It’s refreshing to hear an artistic director of a festival who runs it for the benefit of the artists, the staff and the audience. Believe me, it’s rare.
Damien is especially proud of making the festival more and more accessible. Now using Social Narrative Videos to show context and structure around event and spaces for neurodiverse and disabled audiences.
He talks with pride at all the creatives involved and their many varied talents; from videographers, to writers and producers – all disabled. It is very impressive to see the amount of volunteers co-ordinating events, again all disabled and neurodiverse. ‘There is such a rich pool of talent from our communities, why look beyond that?’ Damien asks. We talk about the possible role of non-disabled creatives in our mutual ventures, and quickly conclude it’s not worth considering.
Looking to the future, Damien hopes Bounce will attract a Corporate Sponsor, it is one of the ways that arts festivals are going to survive going forward. ‘Of course they will have to fit the ethics of the company’ Damien quickly adds with a laugh, not for a second allowing the idea of some dodgy investment get anywhere near the University of Atypical.
Damien Coyle was talking to Simon Jay
