Curating Access | Interrogating Access, Oboro

Sean Lee and Kristina McMullin's, of Tangled Art + Disability, Canada’s first Disability Art gallery with a fully disability-identified staff, presentation on the emergence and swell of the Deaf and Disability Arts sector in Canada, and what it looks like to not only curate disability arts, but to develop the cultural aesthetics of access.

They discuss ‘cripping’ arts and culture, a natural extension to the disability rights movement, which has disrupted mainstream narratives surrounding experiences of Deafness, Madness and Disability. This included a brief overview of disability arts in Canada, current and future approaches to accessible curation, inclusive approaches to marketing, and communication as a tool for building community.

Transcript

1. CURATING ACCESS A Vital Cultural Aesthetic Sean Lee & Kristina McMullin Tangled Art + Disability
2. Coming Up: PART 1 Building a Collective Conscious PART 2 The Disability Aesthetic PART 3 Tangled Art Gallery Programming PART 4 Accessible Outreach PART 5 Resources & Quick Wins for Access PART 6 Q & A
4. Defining Ableism “A system that places value on people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, intelligence, excellence, and productivity. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in anti-Blackness, eugenics, colonialism, and capitalism. This form of systemic oppression leads to people and society determining who is valuable and worthy based on a person’s appearance and/or their ability to satisfactorily re[produce], excel, and ‘behave.’ You do not have to be disabled to experience ableism. ” - Talia ‘TL’ Lewis and Dustin P Gibson
5. Defining Crip “To ‘crip’ is to open with desire for the way that disability disrupts.” - Kelly Fritsch
6. Defining Accessible “Accessibility is concrete resistance to the isolation of disabled people.” - Mia Mingus Disability Justice Scholar and Activist
7. Defining Disability Justice “A multi issue political understanding of disability and ableism, moving away from a rights based equality model and beyond just access, to a framework that centers justice and wholeness for all disabled people and communities.” - Mia Mingus
8. Disability Aesthetic “Disability aesthetics seeks to emphasize the presence of different bodies and minds in the tradition of aesthetic representation—that tradition concerned most precisely with the appearance of the beautiful.” - Tobin Siebers
10. tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO What is DISABILITY ART?
11. “The last avant-garde” Alison Lapper Pregnant (2005), Marc Quinn
12. tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO Coming to Pride “Before we can begin to push back against injustice and indignity, before we can rise up from the swirl of rage and despair, before we can speak back to a script that casts us as tragic victims and bitter villains, we must have pride... Good art is both the product and the sustenance of human imagination. And so Art brings us together in ways that invoke moral imagination, summoning us to justice, dignity and all of the great quests of human progress. It is perhaps only through art and its activation of imagination that we can both conceive of, and be moved resolutely toward visions of equality and justice. That is how we come to pride, together.” - Catherine Frazee Through A Tired Eye, 2019 Bruce Horak
13. Desiring Disability Differently “Disability is here and it is in our futures. It is not something we have but something we participate in. In this way, we vitally need disability arts and culture, and disability pride, as much as we need access, healthcare, housing and employment, for these are the means by which we can live with disability. These are, in other words, the specific practices, sensibilities, and discourses that imbue disability, not only with possibility but with transformative meaning, value and desirability” -Fritsch & McGuire, forthcoming
14. tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO Tangled Art + DISABILITY
15. tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO Valentin Brown Body Farm Michelle Peek Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, Re•Vision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph.
16. tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO aislinn thomas Three Windows Priam Thomas for Art Spin, 2018.
17. tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO ACCESS IS LOVE & LOVE IS COMPLICATED Jessica Thalmann for Acces is Love and Love is Complicated, Critical Distance Centre for Curators, 2019
18. tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO Accessible Outreach
19. Michelle Peek Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, Re•Vision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph.
20. ACCESSIBLE LANGUAGE
21. PLAIN LANGUAGE Logical Active Short Common No one technique defines plain language. Rather, plain language is defined by results—it is easy to read, understand, and use.
22. NON-ABLEIST LANGUAGE Deaf/Hard of Hearing NOT Hearing Impaired Wheelchair user NOT Wheelchair bound Blind/Low Vision NOT Visually Impaired * Disabled or Disability Identified NOT Handicapped Has …. NOT is a victim of or suffers from Non-Ableist language is ever evolving and community led, if you aren’t sure what words to use, ask a member or members the community.
23. ACCESSIBLE DESIGN
24. Typographic Elements Distance Height X 2.5 A 8" 19' A 4" 10' A 2" 5' A 1" 2'6" Size Matters
25. Accessible Graphic Elements
26. Making Images Accessible Untitled 151 Peter Owusu-Ansah
27. COMMUNITY BUILDING
28. UNTARGETED OUTREACH: Reaching your existing community Already engage with your organization or events Don’t need to be educated on organization but informed on upcoming events Want updates on access policies and event locations, if applicable
29. TARGETED OUTREACH: Potentially reaching communities that are not currently engaging with your organization Need to be educated on what your organization does as well as about upcoming events Need information on access policies, event locations to be comfortable attending an event for the first time May need an incentive or specific reasons to get involved
30. UNTARGETED OUTREACH: TARGETED OUTREACH: Website Newsletter Invites Facebook Twitter Instagram Advertising Event Postings Facebook Website Twitter Instagram
31. Making Social Media Accessible
32. INSTAGRAM
33. TWITTER
34. FACEBOOK
35. Michelle Peek Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, Re•Vision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph.
36. • Host events and exhibitions in barrier free spaces, close to public transit • Offer cost free or cost reduced tickets for community members • Hire ASL interpreters when possible • Hire care attendants when possible • Provide live captioning when possible • Provide allergy respectful food and beverage • Communicate access components to your communities, as well, communi- cate any barriers to access ACCESSIBLE EVENTS
37. Q & A
38. Keep in Touch SEAN LEE Director of Programming Tangled Art + Disability Sean@Tangledarts.org KRISTINA MCMULLIN Communications Manager Tangled Art + Disability Kristina@Tangledarts.org tangledarts.org @TangledArtsTO