Accessing Art With Amy

"Amy Amantea is a multi disciplinary art with legal blindness and a love for photography. With a focus on “Finding the Light,” Amy asks people to describe the photos she has taken and never really seen. Amy uses her recollection of place and time to engage in conversation and shared memory, creating a unique participant experience. Connect with the artist: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amy.am...

Goldbard is a divergent creative who is sharing their healing gifts with the world through art, writing and song. Whether performing with their duo, SonicJoy, or doing healing work with clients as a trauma recovery coach, their work centres their lived experience in a queer, neurodivergent, fat, trauma survivor body. They believe the arts are our most powerful tool for personal and collective tran...

"When you acquire a disability, there is a period of adjustment when you figure out what this “new life” looks like. And, while you do that, those around you are often comparing you to who you were or looking at you as someone how won't be able to function in society or live a normal life. What is “normal” anyway? Who decides what that looks like? If you are Jennifer Burgmann, you are taking these...

"Johnny Tai is a lot of things. He is an accomplished martial arts instructor, a former dragon boater, a YouTuber and a singer songwriter. He also is a tactile artist. Johnny, who is totally blind and partially Deaf, shares the biggest challenge he had when he was learning how to draw was how to translate a three-dimensional form onto a two-dimensional surface. Using aluminum or copper sheets as h...

"Joining us from, Duncan, on Vancouver Island, Lise Gillies describes her ADHD as a superpower – being able for focus on multiple things at once while creating graphic recordings. She also works with Indigenous traditional plants to create some of the most luxurious lip balms ever. Connect with the Artist on her website: blackbirdholistic.ca"

"Katherine Matlashewski is a graduate of Studio 58, a well-known professional acting school in Vancouver. Being dyslexic meant she had to advocate for herself throughout her education and life, but she is turning some of these experiences into work that she can perform on stage in order to “fill that gap” where artists with disabilities should be present. Connect with the artist on Instagram: @kat...

"Shawn Jordan has been drawing since childhood, and this has been a key narrative through their artistic practice. Living on Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg, Manitoba), Shawn explores a multitude of artistic mediums and is open to, as they put it, “Trying anything once.” In this episode, we introduce you to Sunny Bubbles and learn about how this character came to be. Connect with the artist on Instag...

"According to her website, Ysabelle Vautour has a mission to elevate disability representation on the arts. How does she do this? With her desire to continue exploring new art forms and connecting with other artists who live with disability AND bring these artists together so that we can learn from eachother and perhaps even create together! Connect with Ysabelle, commission her work and consider...

"This world is full of fascinating people. Q is one of them. With multiple intersections and a background as a death dula, Q shares some of the artistic work that explores lived experience and politics and changing the narrative. What does it mean to have a ”forever project?” Let's explore that and so much more. Joining us from Chilliwack, B.C., it is Q! CONTENT WARNING: ableism, strong and possib...

With significant changes in mobility, old spaces become unknown insofar as the body must learn anew to navigate through them. In recent years, Kim Kitchen sought a more accessible means to art-making conducive to her new reality of disability. Audio and video emerged as a friendly, gentle, no-friction medium. From her home in North Bay, Ontario, Kim shares her journey and a new project that is a c...

"Based in Toronto out of Lisa Anita Wegner’s Haus of Dada Studios, the Mighty Brave Productions team has been creating film and multimedia content since 1998. The group has evolved from a film production house into a diverse, community-focused collective that produces disability-led projects in all forms of media for the world stage. Come and explore Lisa’s unique universes. Connect with the Artis...

Connor Runnings lives on Vancouver Island and studies theatre and acting at the University of Victoria. He brings his lived experience of autism into his writing and performing, and is an advocate for the representation of authentic storytelling. His show, Built Different, involved an entire creative team of people who identify as neurodivergent; what a powerhouse and he is only just getting start...

Artist Sacha Kopelow is located in Winnipeg. Sacha puts her heart and soul into an artistic practice called glass casting, the process in which glass objects are cast by directing molten glass into a mould where it solidifies. This technique has been used since the 15th century BCE in both Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia but is also alive and well in Winnipeg! Visit Sasha's website: sachakopelow.wor...

Pottery making began in the 7th millennium BC. The earliest forms were hand-formed from slabs, undecorated, unglazed low-fired pots made from reddish-brown clays. How far we have come! Jenel Shaw, of Winnipeg, invites us into her world and shares the gifts pottery has brought into her life.

"Born in Liverpool, UK, Kevin Morris now lives in London. Kevin's interest in poetry started in his youth and was inspired by some of the “greats!"" Kevin has particular interest in rhyme, letting the words come to him naturally, not forced. Using Braille and screen reader technology, Kevin writes from the heart about his experiences, and the environment around him. Visit Kevin's website: https://...

"Nicholas Fernette is a Vancouver-based artist with a real flare, and unique style of tattooing. Living with anxiety, Nicholas shares his journey as a tattoo artist and some of the additional consideration that living with anxiety brings to the work. Maybe he will inspire you to get your first tattoo! Follow Nicholas on Instagram: @floridantetat2"

Alan Shain has been an artist, in many disciplines, for more than 30 years and has travelled the world with his comedy routines, including the 2000 Paralympic games in Australia. Navigating the stage with his power wheelchair and combatting ableism around his cerebral palsy accent, Alan is smashing stereotypes one audience at a time. Learn more about Alan on his website: http://www.halicamedia.com...

Dr. Leona Godin is a writer, performer, educator and the author of There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness (Pantheon, 2021). She is also a writer and performer; “The Star of Happiness,” about Helen Keller’s time performing in vaudeville, has been one of her great successes. Listen to Leona talk about her life as a blind academic, writer, performer and teacher, as she joins u...

You don’t have to be a kid to like animation. It can be full of auditory, visual, extravagant movements and larger-than-life characters ... or it can be boiled down to the most simplistic element. Any way you consume it, you need your imagination to activate and to create it! Joining us today from Vancouver, is Erica Miles, who identifies as an Autistic Animator. Learn more at ericaanim.com or fol...

Sometimes, you meet people who have a real infectious personality! Shayla Shenanigans brings a shimmy to everything she does as a drag queen and comedian. With a flare like no other, her boisterous personality and slightly raunchy stylings are aimed to please and delight audiences of all kinds! WARNING: some mature content and topics that may be triggering for some Website: Suntothfx.wixsite.com/h...

Vanessa Furlong has combined her training in circus arts with her lived experience as a mad artist and integrated them into her work as a therapeutic clown. We mostly know clowns to be the butt of the joke and having a need to make us laugh, but is that all there is to a clown? If you want to be a clown, you may find you have big shoes to fill!     Follow Vanessa and fellow circus arts performer E...

Victor Enns was born in Manitoba, and knew from a young age that he was good a writing; he published his first piece in Grade 8. Living with multiple disabilities and chronic pain, Victor has used these experiences to channel the creative process and is excited to embark on his new project Listen, Here.  Follow his progress on his website : 

Jenna Reid is an artist who identifies as a psychiatric survivor: her work is based in textiles and fabrics and is informed by memory, community, activism and the asking of questions around some big questions. Jenna shares with us her journey as an artist, and how it intersects with her life experiences.   Follow Jenna on Instagram

We hear the term B-Boy a lot in regards to breakdance, but Robyn Gell identifies as a B-Girl. This is an energetic style of dance typically performed to hip-hop music and characterized by stylized footwork and acrobatic or athletic movements; the dancers were known as Break Girl’s, or B-Girls for short. Robyn invites us into their world as a B-Girl who is blind and living in the UK.  Follow Robyn...

  Find Erin at   kingstoncircusarts.com