AN artist said she is “thrilled” to be promoting inclusivity for a festival.

Alison Lapper has been announced as the Freedom Season Ambassador for Brighton Fringe Festival.

The Freedom Season was created in 2018 as a way for disabled, neuro-diverse, deaf and hard of hearing audiences and artists to access the festival more easily.

The season hosts performances by disabled artists, as well as highlighting venues and events which are accessible to those with visible and invisible disabilities.

Alison, of Shoreham, said the season is important because it helps disabled artists to express themselves on the same level as other performers.

She said: “When I was a student, there were hardly any accessible spaces.

“Quite often, instead of using my energy being creatively stimulated when producing an installation, I would be constantly and anxiously looking for a suitable accessible creative space.

“It usually resulted in me severely compromising just because of my disability.”

Alison was born with no arms and shortened legs, and is well known for being the subject of Marc Quinn’s sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant, which was on display the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2005.

The 54-year-old uses photography and painting to question physical “normality” in her art, and was awarded an MBE in 2003.

She believes disabled artists are not taken seriously enough. She said: “We are not respected in the same way as other artists.

“There seems to be an unseen glass wall that keeps us apart from other artists and I know that the Freedom Season is helping to smash through that wall.

“It builds artists’ confidence and encourages them to express themselves more openly and freely.

“I can’t express enough how psychologically important this kind of project is for disabled people to be seen as equal to everybody else.

“The event allows them to be artists like any other artists, and not just ‘disabled artists’ and that’s irrespective of their disability, whether physical or mental.”

This year, the University of Brighton is offering a Freedom Season bursary for up to £500 to help disabled artists by offering a free registration, rehearsal space and venue.

The full Brighton Fringe programme will be released on February 20, and the festival takes place in venues across the city in May.