Digital Accessibility in the Arts 

These sessions are part of IBPOC Digital Strategy – Phase II: Digital Tools Professional Development Series.

Updated times for 2nd and 4th Accessibility in the Arts sessions: 
Presented by Tangled Arts
Day 1: Thursday, November 19, 2020 | 11am-2:30pm EST
Day 2: Thursday, November 26, 2020 | 11am-1pm EST
Day 3: Thursday, December 3, 2020 | 1pm-4:30pm EST
Day 4: Thursday, December 10, 2020 | 1pm-3pm EST

ASL will be provided for these sessions. 

Join Tangled Art + Disability in an exploration of crip culture and disability aesthetics. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with Tangled staff members that will discuss the following topics: Disability Arts, the social vs. medical model of disability, accessible curatorial practices and digital ways of engaging access.

Day 1: Join Sean Lee and Kristina McMullin in an educational session that charts 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. This includes 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.

Day 2: Drop-in sessions – bring us your questions, your plans and your ideas as they relate to Day 1 and we can workshop together during an open drop-in session on access.

Day 3: Join Jack Hawk and Victoria Anne Warner in a discussion around the possibilities of access as a cultural phenomenon. Participants will learn about digital tools and protocols in addition to outreach possibilities that exist in the digital sector.

Day 4: Drop-in sessions – bring us your questions, your plans and your ideas as they relate to Day 3 and we can workshop together during an open drop-in session on access.

Register on Eventbrite: https://digital-tools.eventbrite.ca

Bios: 

Sean Lee is an artist and curator exploring the notion of disability art and accessibility as the last avant-garde. His methodology reframes embodied difference as a means to resist traditional aesthetic idealities. Orienting towards a “crip horizon”, Sean gestures towards the transformative possibilities of a world that desires the way disability can disrupt.

Sean holds a B.A. in Arts Management and Studio from the University of Toronto, Scarborough and is currently the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability. Previous to this role, he was Tangled’s inaugural Curator in Residence (2016) as well as Tangled’s Gallery Manager (2017). Sean was involved with the launch of Tangled Art Gallery, and has been integral to countless exhibitions and public engagements throughout his tenure at Tangled Art + Disability.

In addition to his position at Tangled, Sean is an independent curator, lecturer, and advisor, adding his insights and perspectives to conversations surrounding Disability Arts across Canada and the United States. Sean currently sits on the board of CARFAC Ontario, Creative Users Projects and is a member of the Ontario Art Council’s Deaf and Disability Advisory Committee and Toronto Art Council’s Visual and Media Arts Committee.

Kristina McMullin is an arts administrator and academic in training with an activist’s heart. Her work investigates how arts and academia can create culture while pushing for necessary societal change. She has designed, promoted, and produced deliverables, events, and exhibitions through her work as the communications manager at Tangled Art + Disability. Her work as a research assistant on the SSHRC-funded project Cripping Masculinity aims to use accessible arts-based research as a tool to explore how Deaf, Mad, and Disabled cis and Trans men and masculine-identifying non-binary folks use fashion as a way of enacting their identities. Currently completing a Masters Degree in Communications and Culture, her academic research investigates how principles of Disability Justice can be brought into and influence society’s understanding and practice of labour.

As an advocate for Disability arts, Kristina has served as a presenter and panellist within Toronto’s arts and culture sector to speak about access and inclusion best practices and delivered keynote speeches across North America. As a dedicated cat mom, she spends her free time hanging out with her cat, Suzie.

Victoria Anne Warner (Research Coordinator) has been working in Disability Advocacy and Justice for over a decade. She discovered her passion for analysing, taking apart, and rebuilding access policies in the sci-fi convention world, and hasn’t stopped since. She has worked with CUPE Ontario as the first Equity Representative for Workers with Disabilities, and her research led to the creation of new courses for union members across Canada on disability and ableism. She is currently interested in how to disrupt traditional power structures, and how she can implement those values in her work while making sure that previously unheard voices are not only brought to the table but valued.

Jack Hawk is a multidisciplinary artist, astrologer, community worker and autistic, two-spirit mutt. Jack currently invests his time as the Outreach Coordinator for Tangled Art + Disability with the strength and love of the Tangled team. Previously, he worked in non-profit gallery management and held positions with George Brown College and the Griffin Centre. Originally from Utica, NY, he now lives in Toronto with his blue-tongued skink.