User:Artchivist1/drafts/Tangled Art + Disability

Tangled Art + Disability is a non-profit organization in Toronto dedicated to supporting Disabled, Deaf and Mad artists and the disability arts in Canada. Their activities include presenting art exhibitions at Tangled Art Gallery in downtown Toronto; pursuing a variety of project and event partnerships with other social service, educational, and artistic organizations; and consulting on accessibility and inclusion to cultural agencies in Toronto. Tangled Art Gallery is among the first galleries in Canada to showcase disability art and advance accessible curatorial standards.

History
The precursor to Tangled Art + Disability was the Abilities Arts Festival, a series of annual arts festivals featuring local and international disability artists. The multidisciplinary festival ran from 2003 to 2012, showcasing dance, photography, theatre, comedy, music, film, painting and performance art. It was formally incorporated in 2006 as Abilities Arts Festival: A Celebration of Disability Arts and Culture, with a mandate to showcase and promote the work of artists with disabilities, contribute to the development of an arts and cultural sector in Canada inclusive of artists with disabilities, and to provide learning and professional development opportunities for artists with disabilities. It became a registered charity in 2010.

The organization rebranded as Tangled Art + Disability in 2013, led by Eliza Chandler, a board member, who became the first disability-identified artistic director the following year. In 2016, the organization opened Tangled Art Gallery in the 401 Richmond building in downtown Toronto, with the goal of creating a permanent and accessible home for disability arts alongside the many other leading arts organizations which are resident in the building. In 2017, the staff became entirely disability-led.

Programming
Tangled Arts + Disability sponsors discussion panels, career advancement workshops and an artist in residency program at Tangled Art Gallery to provide artists with disabilities a space to share, speak about and improve on their work.

Cripping the Arts symposium
The Cripping the Arts symposium (held in 2016 and 2019) has focused on issues surrounding access the arts for Deaf, disabled, and Mad people, both as audience members and creators. 150 people attended the 2016 symposium, and 50 organizations were represented at the event. The symposium also featured Cripping the Stage: A Disability Cabaret, a performance work featuring local visual artists alongside professional performance artists with disabilities from the United Kingdom. The 2019 symposium, co-organized by the British Council, Creative Users Projects, and Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Disability Studies, included a wide variety of talks, presentations and performances with a common theme of disrupting normative practices within the arts.

Professional development support
Tangled Art Gallery sponsors free workshops focusing on career advancement for artists with disabilities. Eliza Chandler cites financial accessibility to be as important as physical accessibility for artists with disabilities. A common misconception for artists working with a disability is that their work cannot improve, something the workshop series aims to change public perception about. The workshops cover artist CVs, artist statements and grant writing, as well as professional practices such as photography and sculpture.

Residency program
Beginning in 2012, Tangled Arts + Disability has hosted the annual Sharon Wolfe Artist in Residence program, Canada’s first artistic residency specifically designed for an artist from the Disability community. The chosen applicant is given up to eight weeks to produce a specific program of work. Artists are given a stipend for materials as well as a studio space in the 401 Richmond building. From 2018 to 2021, Tangled partnered with the Bodies in Translation research project to jointly host artist-in-residence and curators-in residence.

Previous Artists-in-Residence and Curators-in-Residence include:
 * Max Ferguson: Curator-in-Residence (2020-2021)
 * Vanessa Dion Fletcher: Artist-in-Residence (2018-2019)
 * Alex Bulmer: Artist-in-Residence (2018-2019)
 * Sean Lee: MIXER 2017
 * Gloria C. Swain: Mad Room 2016
 * mel g campbell: Point of Origin 2015
 * Janna Brown: Still Echoes Resound 2013

Crip Times Podcast
Created in partnership with Bodies in Translation and Wheels on the Ground, the podcast aired 10 episodes between November 2020 and February 2021 and was hosted by Yousef Kadoura, Kayla Besse, and Kristina McMullin. In the context of COVID-19 restrictions, the podcast sought to recreate some of the feeling of connection within disability arts communities that had been lost with the closure of in-person venues.

Tangled on Tour
Tangled on Tour (2014-17) showcased national and international artists with disabilities in venues across Ontario, including London, Ottawa, Thunder Bay and Peterborough. Tangled on Tour consisted of visual arts exhibitions, musical performances, film screenings and panel discussions.

Exhibitions

 * Persimmon Blackbridge, Constructed Identities, May 4 - July 6, 2016
 * melannie g campbell, Point of Origin July 15 - September 15, 2016
 * Gloria C. Swain, Mad Room, September 23 - December 3, 2016
 * Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Own Your Cervix, January 13 - March 31, 2017
 * Deirdre Logue in collaboration with VibraFusionLab, admiring all we accomplish, April 7 - June 30, 2017
 * sab meynert, Progress is a Spiral Upward, September 7 - October 14, 2017
 * Bishara Elmi, Salt of the Earth, October 26 - November 25, 2017
 * Cindy Baker, Jenelle Rouse and Jessica Leung, Home: Body, December 7 - 16, 2017
 * Sage Willow and Alice Lo, Deaf, what?, January 18 - February 17, 2018
 * Fiona Legg, The Maze Project & A Distant Memory 2, March 1 - 24, 2018
 * Roberto Santaguida, My Head Lay on A Trusty Word, April 19 - May 19, 2018
 * Sarah Ferguson, Peter Owusu-Ansah and Salima Punjani, Flourishing: Somewhere We Stay Attuned, September 7 - October 19, 2018
 * Aislinn Thomas, Three Windows: Flourishing, October 11 - 21, 2018
 * Laura Burke, Mad Ones: Flourishing, November 20 - 24, 2018
 * Maanii Oakes and Richard Harlow, Flourishing: Somewhere We Stay Authentic, November 2 - December 19, 2018
 * Bruce Horak, Through A Tired Eye, January 24 - February 24, 2019
 * Group exhibition, Outliers on Tour, March 8 - April 19, 2019
 * Leala Hewak and Laura Shintani, Fault Lines, May 3 - June 15, 2019
 * Rick Miller, Jules Koostachin, and Geneviève Thibault, Ancestral Mindscapes, September 13 - October 25, 2019
 * Valentin Brown, Body Farm, November 8 - December 20, 2019
 * Group exhibition, Hidden, January 17 - February 28, 2020
 * Danielle Hyde, Jaene F.W Castrillon and Kate Meawasige, Thaumaturgy, March 13 - April 24, 2020
 * Group exhibition, Undeliverable, September 17 - October 29, 2021
 * Danielle Hyde, Jaene F.W Castrillon and Kate Meawasige, Sagatay (New Beginnings), November 12 - December 17, 2021
 * Being Home, January 21 - April 1, 2022
 * Group exhibition, #CripRitual, January 21 - April 1, 2022