Redefining Artistic Ability
With its mandate to support opportunities for artists with disabilities, Tangled Art + Disability centres d/deaf and disability- identified perspectives, and makes the experience of consuming art more accessible to a diverse public
When visual and performance artist Gloria Swain presented her HIDDEN exhibition in 2020, she included a written acknowledgement that held space for fellow artists who couldn’t attend due to invisible disability. The showcase of work by Black artists with disabilities was held at the Tangled Art Gallery in Toronto, a space that is dedicated to showcasing the work of artists with disabilities, including Swain, who identifies as Mad. “That was such a poignant demonstration of disability justice,” says Sean Lee, director of programming for Tangled Art + Disability, who has congenital scoliosis. “We’ve taken that to heart and included a care clause in our contracts to articulate that everyone’s mental health and safety are the most important parts, not the deliverables of the exhibition. The artist will still get paid even if they cannot fulfill everything promised, or their show is delayed.” Tangled Art + Disability is not only a gallery—it’s also a charitable organization dedicated to enhancing opportunities for artists with disabilities and promoting disability justice. Launched in 2003 as the not-for-profit Abilities Arts Festival, the organization’s founding mission was to elevate discussion and awareness of art created by people with disabilities. The aim was to promote diversity and inclusion in the mainstream art world, while ensuring artists with disabilities were part of the larger cultural conversation. As time went on, they discovered that an annual event was insufficient. While the exhibiting artists received exposure and leveraged networking opportunities during the festival, there was a dearth of programming for the rest of the year. “There would kind of be a lull,” says Lee. “But then there was an opportunity to take on a gallery that people could come to regularly for consistent programming of people with disabilities, and to also enact accessible curatorial practices.” Tangled Art Gallery opened to the public in 2016 with accessible curation at the forefront of what they do. Exhibiting artists adhere to accessibility standards developed by the gallery that go far beyond the minimum set by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Artists are requested to display their art at a lower height and in accessible lighting conditions. Tangled staff work with the artists to create audio description and captions for those who are Deaf, a tactile element for those who are blind and sign-language interpretation by a Deaf person for written text. Performances are presented in a relaxed format to accommodate neurodiverse audiences. While some artists may find these requirements daunting, those who showcase with Tangled are encouraged to creatively incorporate them into their work. “When there’s a consistent space for you to come to as an artist, you can be more experimental and you can open yourself up to ideas of creative access or accessibility as an aesthetic component of what you do,” Lee says.