Lectures and Talks
Art Connects | On Listening, Art and Access
Thu Dec 3, 2020 | 4 PM
Vancouver Art Gallery
Top to bottom: Portrait of Afuwa, Photo by Arlene Bowman; Portrait of Carmen Papalia, Photo: Courtesy of the Artist
with Afuwa, Carmen Papalia and Stephanie Bokenfohr
Thursday, December 3 | 4 PM
Stay home. Stay safe. Stay connected with our series of online gatherings, Art Connects!
December 3 marks International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), a day which promotes the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities and calls on institutions to take action for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and development.
Join us on Thursday, December 3 at 4 PM for a special edition of Art Connects on listening, art and access. The event will begin with an audio Described Tour of the exhibition Uncommon Language, which provokes deeper consideration around ideas of the universality of language, access and experience. Following this listening session, artists Afuwa and Carmen Papalia will discuss the appreciation of verbal description and the need for institutions to advance measures of access in art contexts and beyond. How can verbal description offer points of entry and access to art that dismantle conventional, rigid and academic ways of knowing, learning and seeing?
ACCESSIBILITY
In pursuit of equity, we aim to create a welcoming environment that includes all persons and acknowledges and honours individual experiences. To make this event as accessible as possible, the discussion will be captioned in real-time (CART), and we will also offer the following services:
- Transcription (offered within 1 week of the live webinar)
- Recording (offered within 1 week of the live webinar)
We understand access needs are different for everyone. Please email Stephanie at sbokenfohr@vanartgallery.bc.ca or phone at 604-662-4700 to request what you need to attend or experience this event.
SUPPORT MATERIAL
To download a readable .pdf of the event information, please click here: Art Connects – On Listening, Art and Access Support Material.pdf
Questions? Submit them during the Zoom presentation using the Q&A function. You can also engage with your fellow attendees and panelists during the event using the Chat function.
New to Zoom? Learn how to register and attend a webinar here »
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Afuwa was born in Guyana, on Karinya and Akawaio land. She makes art on Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam and Squamish territories. Her work encompasses language, the body and diasporic memory. Her text and images have been featured online and in publications including The Capilano Review, The Feminist Wire, Briarpatch, West Coast Line, subTerrain and in Beauchesne & Santos’ Performing Utopias in the Contemporary Americas (Palgrave Macmillan 2017). Current projects re-imagine relations across the Atlantic diaspora.
Carmen Papalia uses organizing strategies and improvisation to address his access to public space, the art institution and visual culture. His work, which takes forms ranging from collaborative performance to public intervention, is a response to the barriers and biases of the medical model of disability. As a convener, he establishes welcoming spaces where those from historically marginalized groups realize their desires for participation through processes rooted in activism, performance and institutional critique. Papalia’s work has been featured at: The Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, the Tate Liverpool, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Gallery Gachet, among others. In 2019 and 2020, Papalia was a Sobey Art Award Long List recipient. He has also received the 2014 Adam Reynolds Memorial Bursary and the 2013 Wynn Newhouse Award. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and a Master of Fine Arts with a focus in Art & Social Practice from Portland State University.