Detail of picture from Gus Cummins 'Aura' as part of the DaDa fest 2008 _320

THE sixth annual DaDa Awards, celebrating the best in deaf and disabled artistic talent, takes place next week.

And with it, the event will be relaunching the company behind the awards and the annual international creative festival.

With a new name and look for 2009, the North West Disability Arts Forum will now be known as DaDa.

It has also unveiled three new patrons – writer Kaite O' Reilly, writer and performer Julie MacNamara, and disability and charities campaigner Sir Bert Massie.

The awards on December 3, International Disabled Peoples' Day, will take place at the BT Convention Centre with a dinner, auction and performances, with members of the public invited to buy tickets and attend, or vote for who they want to win.

NWDAF director Ruth Gould said: “We started because we realised there was absolutely no recognition for disabled and deaf artists and there is nothing else like this.

“There are incredible artists coming through DaDafest, and this really helps to give them a leg up, inspire confidence, and, with an event like this, get networking.

“For example, the winner of the writers’ award gets to spend three weeks with the Coronation Street writers, so it’s more than just an award and is actually a way of moving on.

“There has been an interesting mix of nominations and it will be interesting to see who wins.”

The categories are emerging artist; emerging group or company; visual artist; performance artist; community arts award; writers award; new media award; music award, plus a special lifetime achievement award, to be given to musician Lee Sterling, who has played with a raft of legendary musicians including Johnny Cash.