Wednesday, September 19, 2012

BeyondAccess Canmore October 2012

In a few days I will be heading for sunny Canmore, Alberta, to participate in a week long gathering of sixteen professional artists with disabilities from across Canada. I will be one of two senior artists representing the province of BC. We will be getting to know each other, talking about and showing our artistic practices. Others around the country will be joining in by skype. We will be having a discussion I have wanted to have for a long time about 'Disability Art (practiced by disabled artists), Integrated Art (practiced by artists with a disability and their non-disabled allies), and Art & Disability (practiced by people with a disability who define themselves as artists, period and by their non-disabled allies)'. Generating a report to feedback to stakeholders and funding bodies about how best to further the professional development of the above groups. The event is the brainchild of Michele Decotignes of Stage Left Productions which amongst other things ran a successful disability arts festival in Calgary for 10 years. I was lucky to be commissioned to do a solo interdisciplinary show "That's so gay!" at the 2009 festival.

I will also be working on a new Video Poem for an event later in the year.

 Canmore is beautiful!. I did go there once in 1998, here I am rapeling near there.(dressed in green with blue helmet)