Explore and Create: Visual arts and Deaf and Disability Arts

As the Disability Arts Officer I developed a comprehensive strategy for the Canada Council, titled "Expanding the Arts: Deaf and Disability Arts, Access and Equality".

Perceptions explores how art can be more inclusive and accessible to a diverse audience. It showcases works by seven artists who are Deaf or have a disability which reinterpret existing artworks in the City of Ottawa’s Fine Art Collection.Perceptions is both an important exercise and an engaging exhibition that is unique to the City of Ottawa. The curatorial committee, composed of a diverse team of artists, art historians, scholars and allies who are Deaf or have disabilities, was challenged with re-thinking the ways in which visual art is traditionally experienced within a gallery setting.Creating an accessible exhibition is more than enlarging the font size of labels or providing tactile tours. In Perceptions, access is not simply confined to physical display and programming accommodations, rather it is expanded to include the content and development of the exhibition itself.Artists from across Canada who are Deaf and artists with disabilities were invited to propose a reinterpretation of artwork from the City of Ottawa’s Fine Art Collection. The selected artworks by Emily Cook (Toronto) and Emily Comeau (Montreal), Angelo Demarsico (Ottawa), Analisa Kiskis (Ottawa), Jolanta Lapiak (Edmonton), Jessica MacCormack (Montreal) and Pamela Witcher (Montreal) explore and challenge our perceptions. They demonstrate how art can be accessed in new and non-traditional ways, thereby broadening the gallery experience for people with and without disabilities.