Tony Heaton (UK) is a sculptor and performance artist who interweaves disability issues into traditional and discarded materials. With Raspberry Ripple, he plays on the rhyming slang for “cripple” in his work, arguing that “words can oppress but we cripples resurrect it in Crip culture and Crip humour, it’s ours alone to own”.

Tony Heaton has worked in the field of disability, diversity and social justice for his whole career, with experience gathered from working as a Field Officer for RADAR (now Disability Rights UK), Development Officer for NACAB Citizens Advice, Director of Holton Lee and most recently as Chief Executive of Shape Arts, a disability-led arts organisation working with major cultural institutions and disabled people as artists and audiences.