Panel Discussion

In conjunction with For A New Accessibility (November 20-22, 2015), a convergence of artists and activists meeting around the theme of organizing for accessibility and mutual aid produced in partnership with Gallery Gachet and artist Carmen Papalia.

Amanda Cachia, Carmen Papalia, Cheryl L’Hirondelle and Margaret Dragu: moderated by Cecily Nicholson.

The social condition of disability — in which a group or individual is disempowered by the systems that they are in relation to — is an epidemic that effectively marginalizes entire communities with diverse and complex needs. Locally, this oppression plays out in schools, hospitals, cultural institutions, policing, and through various arms of government, making the effort to claim agency a strategic, high-stakes intervention.

The panel will consider a series of propositions as we think/move towards a new accessibility:

• How do we collectively change a/this system of oppression?
• How can we provoke institutional entities to evolve?
• How does our negotiation of access alter our environment?
• What are the tenets of an open model for access?

###Biographiess Amanda Cachia is an independent curator from Sydney, Australia and is currently completing her PhD in Art History, Theory & Criticism at the University of California, San Diego. Her dissertation will focus on the intersection of disability and contemporary art. She held the position Director/Curator of the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada from 2007-2010, and has curated approximately 30 exhibitions over the last ten years in various cities across the USA, England, Australia and Canada.

Margaret Dragu works in video, installation, new media & performance art. Dragu's performances span relational, durational, interventionist & community-based works. Her 45+ year practice encompasses writing, dance, theatre and a body/movement teaching that includes dance, aerobics/yoga and personal training specializing in Clinical Exercise. Margaret is also a one-woman TV Station (VERBFRAUTV). a 2012 Laureate of the Canadian Governor-General's Award for Visual Art and Media, the recipient of City of Richmond's Most Innovative Artist Award, Ethel Tibbett's Woman of the Year Award for The Arts, Richmond Women's Centre's Inspirational Woman Award & Mall Peepre Award for Outstanding Fitness Leader. She is an internationally famous cleaning lady.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle is an Alberta-born mixed blood (Cree/Metis/German/Polish) community-engaged multi / interdisciplinary artist and singer/songwriter, who has been presenting and exhibiting her work since the 1980’s. Her creative practice investigates a Cree worldview (nêhiyawin) in contemporary time-space. L’Hirondelle uses song, voice, audio and more to develop endurance-based performances, interventions, site-specific installations, participatory projects while she keeps singing and writing songs wherever and with whomever she can. Currently Toronto-based, Cheryl has performed and exhibited her work widely both in Canada and abroad, and her previous musical efforts and new media work have garnered her critical acclaim and numerous awards.

Carmen Papalia is a Social Practice artist who makes participatory projects on the topic of access as it relates to public space, the Art institution and visual culture. His work has been featured as part of exhibitions and engagements at: The Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the L.A Craft and Folk Art Museum, the CUE Art Foundation, the Grand Central Art Center, the Portland Art Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Vancouver Art Gallery.