REPORT: Access Working Group

June 22, 2021 - February 15, 2025

an inter-organizational research platform with
Critical Distance Centre for Curators, Carleton University Art Gallery, and Tangled Art + Disability

With funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, from 2021 to 2023, Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC) initiated and steered an inter-organizational research platform, whose purpose was to advance an understanding of the creative possibilities of accessibility strategies in exhibition-making and live events. In conversation with our two committed partners, Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) and Tangled Art + Disability, the Access Working Group (AWG) evolved over the years as a consortium of voices, perspectives, and practices thinking together about access in contemporary art through a range of organizational structures, curatorial methodologies, and presentation formats.

A spirit of invention guided this journey that certainly enriched CDCC’s own approach to accessibility, as a fruitful commoning of knowledge that occurred between our partners, the various curators and artists involved, and diverse audiences in Toronto and beyond, who continuously expanded potential of the working group itself. We present this report of AWG’s various questions, successes, failures, and findings in hopes that it can be used as a resource contributing to organizational change and the advancement of curatorial practices happening elsewhere, while also more strongly weaving together the creative potentials of accessibility with the question of what curating can do.

The full report, including photo, video, and audio documentation of various events and exhibitions related to the AWG’s process, can be accessed here.

Thank you to our funders and supporters

Access Working Group was made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts . Critical Distance gratefully acknowledges operating support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

Image: Ileana Hernandez, Corps Roca, 2021. Photo: Michael Jachner.

Partners + Co-presenters

Carleton University Art Gallery

Located on the northern edge of the Carleton University campus, Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) serves campus and civic communities. The gallery operates in an evolving environment that is grounded in inquiry and the open exchange of ideas. CUAG fosters inclusive opportunities for art-based learning. We facilitate spaces of reflection…Find out more

Tangled Art + Disability

Tangled Art + Disability is dedicated to connecting professional and emerging artists, the arts community, and a diverse public through creative passion and artistic excellence. Our mission is to support Disabled, d/Deaf, chronically ill, neurodiverse, k/crip, Mad, sick & spoonie artists; to cultivate Disability Arts in Canada; and to increase…Find out more

Gallery

A hand holds a sheet of paper with distorted text moving diagonally across its surface, surrounded by more scattered papers underneath it, illuminated with a soft light from above.

An art installation of a glowing green glass object lit with purple light, surrounded by dark and abstract sculptural elements at its base, accompanied by a digital display in the background comprise of three flatscreen monitors.

A detailed photo of a glossy, iridescent material with vibrant swirls of purple, blue, and green, blending together in a wave-like shape.

Under an overpass, and surrounded by still water, greenery, and concrete columns, a figure in the distance is holding a green object and leaning down to the water’s edge.

A split image with a serene water reflection beneath a bridge on the left, and a shiny silver material draped over a human figure on the right, who is huddled in a space underneath the bridge and surrounded by concrete columns.

An abstract arrangement of neon pink outlines of flowers illuminated against a dark background, forming a symmetrical design that glows in the centre with a purple light.

A split-screen image showing a person pouring blue powder over a floral stencil on the left, with an ASL interpreter signing on the right in front of a blue background.

A vintage photo of a building with a weathered wooden wall. There is a gold-stitched cutout in the centre of the image, whose loose oval shape reveals an abstract blurry background behind the photo.

A gallery space with a collection of square artworks hung on a purple wall, and an installation comprised of rocks, chains, and a small abstract sculpture in the foreground.

A person with a beige beret and sweater touches a yellow, orange, and grey hand sculpture with intricate painted details, placed on a black stand in an art gallery with white walls.

An art installation with a painting of two people standing with a plant in the centre, a framed portrait of a person in a blue sweater on the right, and a set of headphones with a QR code on the left.

A repeating grid of circular designs with the text 'What's your #CripRitual?' written over a purple background, with yellow-green and white abstract shapes resembling organic forms.

An art installation displaying a series of differently-textured artworks on the wall, and a QR code linking to headphones that are placed on a white plinth to the right of the image.