Image courtesy of Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa.
Accessibility as Creative Practice: Workshop for Sensory-Sensitive Makers
Saturday, April 15 / 2 – 5pm
Audain Gallery
SFU Galleries welcomes artist Vitória Monteiro as co-facilitator of the second Access as Creative Practice Workshop, which is centred around people who are sensory-sensitive.
For this workshop, Vitória and Access as Creative Practice Intern Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa will create a sensory-sensitive space that centres and welcomes the various interests and hobbies that people may have. Participants are invited to bring a hobby or activity of their choosing—such as crocheting, knitting, sketching, collaging, playing a handheld game, or working on their laptop—and to come together in a low sensory space to partake in their own special interests, in community. Guided by the co- facilitators, the workshop will foreground the ways in which people can embrace special interests as creative practice in spaces that prioritize various sensory needs. All levels of non/experience with art-making are welcome.
Vitória Monteiro is a visual artist who explores the intricacies of language abstraction and the reprocessing of information. Monteiro works in paper- making, sculpture, and performance to navigate various realms that knowledge inhabits. With a subtle undertone of satire, their work provides a new realm for knowledge to inhabit that is silent, inarticulate, and abstract and, in doing so, proposes a new way of reading. Their practice explores themes of dislocation, translation, indexicality, and citation, and is rooted in reflections of being neurodivergent.
ASL will be provided at this event. Single-use earplugs and stim toys will be available on-site.
While masks will not be required in order to prioritize sensory access, participants are asked to still consider COVID safety to protect the most vulnerable among us; being fully immunized and/or testing 24hrs before attending are great ways to do this. Even if it’s not COVID, please stay home if you’re feeling unwell.
SFU Galleries spaces are scent free and citrus free. Please do not bring any citrus to the event because it may pose an anaphylactic risk.
Stay tuned for the third workshop for sensory-sensitive folks, and Disabled QTBIPOC folks.
Free event
All materials provided
Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa is an immigrant settler whose art practice focuses on exploring racialized identity, multi-sensorial experiences of art, and artistic labour. Their work focuses textile materials like weaving, tufting, and sewing, but includes printmaking, writing, and more. Keimi is interested in the perceptions of ethnicity and gender that exist in art-making, and how “accessibility” and “art” relate.
Please register for the event through the Eventbrite link:
This program has been made possible by the generous support from the British Columbia Arts Council’s Early Career Development Grant.
