Anthony James Heaton OBE was born on 11 October 1954 and is a British sculptor, disability rights activist and arts administrator, who was appointed an OBE in 2013 for services to the arts and the disability arts movement.
18 Facts About Tony Heaton
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Tony Heaton was CEO of the arts charity Shape until March 2017.
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Tony Heaton was born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1954, the son of a coppersmith.
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Lancaster's head of sculpture, Paul Hatton, noted that the marks left by Tony Heaton were immediately distinguishable from the footprints of his fellow students and urged him to develop work about this.
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Tony Heaton exhibited a plaster cast of his feet and stick imprints, his first piece of disability art.
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The whole edifice was brought crashing to the ground when Tony Heaton threw an artificial leg at it, suggesting that the hierarchical system could be destroyed by the collective power of disabled people.
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Tony Heaton saw this as "indicative of a society that sees only perfection and disregards all that is damaged or perceived as impaired".
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Adam Reynolds 8.
Tony Heaton developed a 10-year strategic plan for the organisation: a contemporary arts and education programme based on a series of accessible buildings including a gallery and artists' studios, which would enable a new programme of artistic work, a growth in residential capacity and a focus for disability arts.
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The first of these, Faith House gallery, designed by Tony Heaton Fretton was hailed by Jonathan Glancey in the Guardian as 'one of the most beautiful new buildings in Britain'.
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In 2002, Tony Heaton organised the DA21 Disability Arts Conference at Holton Lee.
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Tony Heaton planned the inaugural conference to discuss the establishment of what would become the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive.
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In 2007 Tony Heaton became CEO of Shape Arts, the arts and disability charity founded by dancer Gina Levete.
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Tony Heaton brought to the organisation a new emphasis on disability arts and professional opportunities for artists.
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Tony Heaton instituted the Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary, which provides 3-month bursaries for disabled artists to undertake residencies at leading visual arts institutions.
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The bursary is named after the late sculptor, with whom Tony Heaton had a close friendship.
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Tony Heaton created the Shape Open, an annual open exhibition of artwork by disabled and non-disabled artists created in response to a disability-centred theme.
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Tony Heaton has announced that he will stand down as CEO in 2017 and become chair of the organisation.
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Tony Heaton was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, 2013, for services to the arts and the disability arts movement.