“I, Object(ification)”.

Disability Art and Culture Project (DACP) members are creating an interactive art installation. It will be shown at a Revolutionary Arts Panel as part of the Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival,May 17, 2014.
The installation (exhibit) will look at ways the medical system marginalizes people with disabilities. Whether you have a disability, illness, injury, or health condition that is or is not diagnosed, many people feel like the health system reduces us to labels and body parts. We sometimes feel objectified.
We would like you to contribute to this installation so we get as many participants as possible! Here are the ways to contribute for either a video portion, a visual art portion or both.

Please see our anti-oppression statement. DACP makes all efforts to support an anti-oppressive environment so that our work does not oppress anyone or support ableism, racism, sexism, cissexism, heterosexism, ageism, and the other ways in which marginalized people are oppressed.

VIDEO JOKES

See the list of light bulb jokes lined here. These were ALL written by people with disabilities and Disabled people. They are intended to be satire.

If you find some you really like, please video or audio record yourself telling them. You may rewrite any on the list to suit you. You can also create new ones on whatever part of your identity you want to explore (disability, health, ethnicity, poverty, etc.)

If you write a new joke, please write it from your own experience. We will not broadcast jokes that are violent or hateful.

For recording, you can use a video camera, smart phone, tablet or webcam. If you do not have access to these, you can submit a written joke for someone else to record, draw a picture of the joke, or express the joke in whatever way works for you.

Please submit your joke-telling by email to Cheryl Green at info@storyminders.com. If your recording is too large to email, contact Cheryl. We will work out a plan.

Deadline for light bulb jokes is May 1st, 2014 at 5:00 pm Pacific Time

OUCH PICTURES

We would like to show pictures that represent how diverse, complex and individual pain can be. Many people feel physical, emotional, spiritual or psychic pain. Sometimes, no one else can see where, how or why it hurts. So a lot of people in pain are told they are faking it or that it’s not that bad.

To explore the diversity of pain, we are looking for photographs, drawings or paintings of pain. Please submit a picture or drawing of yourself or your pain or even a close up image of some part of you that hurts. It can be something that appears painful or that does not appear painful to others. It might be a cut on your arm, a swollen joint, or a head that “looks fine” but hurts, for example. You may remain completely anonymous. Each photo or artwork will have the label “Ouch” added underneath it.

Please note that DACP has the right to decide what will be included in the Art Installation. Our goal is to have work that is a good fit for our community, which includes people under 18 years of age. We will include as many as possible, but we might not be able to include all submissions.

Artworks can be emailed to Cheryl Green at info@storyminders.com to be included.

Deadline for Ouch artworks is May 1st, 2014 at 5:00 pm Pacific Time

Download our call for participation in the art installation I, Object(ification: Contribute to DACP art installation I, Object(ification)

Saturday, March 1, 6:30-9:00PM

Center for Intercultural Organizing

700 N Killingsworth St., Portland, OR 97217

The evening will feature performances and videos from diverse members of the disability, queer, fat, sex positive, and body positive communities, as well as a silent auction! The silent auction will feature items from various Portland based businesses and artists. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15.00 at the door. Proceeds support the Disability Pride and Culture Festival in May 2014, which will feature the amazing Lambda Literary Award winner and Mangos with Chili cofounder Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Help make the spring Festival happen by attending a great party!!

This is an 18+ event. Be advised, components of the show include nudity and sexual content.

CLICK HERE TO PREORDER TICKETS

Center for Intercultural Organizing features an accessible performance venue, including:

-Wheelchair access
-Accessible, gender neutral restrooms
-ASL Interpreters
-Audio description
-Please be scent free.
-Venue is located 6 blocks from TriMet MAX Yellow Line N Killingsworth stop and is accessible from bus lines 72, 4, and 44.

For further accessibility information, contact disabilityartculture@gmail.com or call DACP at 503-238-0723 (voice).

Check out the event on facebook!

2013 was fantastic for DACP!

Our Inclusive Arts Vibe program has never been so active.

This year, Rachel Esteve, IAV Dance Company member, worked as an Assistant Dance Teacher. IAV also continued its dance classes at Alder Creek Middle School for a second year, and the Middle School students performed at the end of their school year! The Alder Creek Middle School principal called it “a model of inclusion,” and we look forward to many successful collaborations in the future!

Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company, DACP’s integrated youth dance company, put on their second solo show, Home/Unrestrained. In addition to our weekend shows, IAVDC added a free Friday matinee for school and community groups.  IAVDC were featured performers at a Colored Pencils event.

IAVDC also performed at Portland Community College after DACP got a grant to showcase disability arts there; IAVDC was joined by two fantastic Portland artists, Tess Raunig and Ivan Cauldwell, who danced and sang, as well as a showing of Cheryl Green’s film “Friending with Brain Injury,” and Alexis Jewell and Max McDonnell’s film “A Heart’s Beat.”

April saw Glitter! Groove! Grow!, a family-friendly fundraiser for Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company.  We were honored by an afternoon of performances by Native American drummer and singer John Edmo, the luminous storyteller Ed Edmo, popular folksinger and longtime DACP supporter Jana Losey, storyteller and artist Joy Corcoran, singer Sarah Doherty, and a preview performance by IAVDC!

This year is a big one for growth and change!

DACP is transitioning. Oregon Cultural Access (ORCA), will become DACP.    Our current board is supporting the nonprofit’s transition, and we will be recruiting new board members!

DACP was also accepted into the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Cultural Leadership Program. DACP staff have the opportunity to work on long-term strategic planning with a nonprofit consultant to secure our sustainability and growth.

DACP hired volunteer Sarah Doherty to work quarter time on Development, to write grant applications and reports, help organize fundraisers, and seek sponsorships.

From January to June, DACP hosted an accessible, low-cost life drawing group at the Gallery at Port City. We featured live models who were Disabled and nondisabled, young and old, LGBTQ and straight, fat and thin, and our artists created beautiful artistic representations of diverse bodies and subjects. Check out photos of some of the artwork on our facebook page!

DACP received a grant from Oregon Humanities for our reading group, Dis/Representation: Reading into Disability.  DACP partnered with Portland Community College Disability Services, Gimp Girl, and Portland State University Disability Resource Center to present a disability justice literature program, PCC provided space, technology, and real-time captioning to hold reading groups every month.  People attended groups in person, and called and wrote in from their homes ll over the state! We read fiction and nonfiction by leading thinkers on disability justice and studies. You can find a list of readings on our webpage, http://disrepresentation.com.

In addition to the reading group, we presented a poetry reading and chapbook-signing with poet and long-time DACP supporter, William Alton. We also worked with Willamette University to bring feminist Disability Studies scholar Ann Fox to lecture on Toni Morrison’s book, Home.

In the summer and fall, DACP also piloted a community organizing/outreach internship program. We worked with five interns to publicize our Dis/Representation events, build new connections with statewide disability, arts, social justice, and people of color organizations, and further develop existing relationships between DACP and other organizations and communities. Our interns also learned about organizing, disability rights and disability justice, and dynamics of oppression and resistance across different communities. Your donation will help us continue to develop new leaders and build our disability arts programing and sustainability of DACP.

We have a lot to look forward to in 2014:

We are planning a winter Disability Movie Night. Watch for an announcement about that event!

We are planning our third Sex, Love, and Disability adult fundraiser for early March. We are always looking for volunteers to help us seek sponsorships and items for donation and auction, coordinate event details, and organize entertainment.

We will also be seeking submissions for a ‘zine on disability, sex, and love! We’ll assemble the ‘zine and sell it as a fundraiser for DACP.

May 17-24, DACP will present the 6^th Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival! We are very excited to announce that our featured guest artist is Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, who is currently a featured artist with Sins Invalid,  founded the traveling queer and trans* people of color performance group Mangos with Chili, and won a Lambda Literary Award for her poetry book, Love Cake. Piepzna-Samarasinha will hold a performance intensive for any interested artists.  We are also planning a panel on Revolutionary Arts, a poetry reading by Piepzna-Samarasinha, and of course the Festival performances!

We would like to ask you to consider making a personally significant year-end gift  to Disability Art and Culture Project to kick off a spectacular new year. To those of you who have given your time and resources, thank you. We accomplished so much this year with volunteer time, donations, and the determination and creative flair from our disability arts community. We couldn’t have done it without you. All of us at the Disability Art and Culture Project want to thank you for a fantastic 2013, and we look forward to building vibrant disability art and culture with you in 2014 and beyond!

Sincerely,

Kathy Coleman, Artistic Director

Sarah Doherty, Development Director

Go check it out! http://www.DisRepresentation.com

Find reading lists, access information, and both ongoing online discussion and information on how to join a real-time reading group conversation! Our first in-person reading group is Thursday, May 30, from 6:30-8:30pm in PCC Cascade Campus’s 112 Terrell Hall. Join us in person or online, or start talking over at the DisRepresentation website discussion forum!

Or find our facebook group and join the facebook event for in-person or real-time online reading group discussions!

And tell your friends!

This program was made possible with generous support from Oregon Humanities, and contributions from community partners Portland Community College Disability Services and Gimp Girl, as well as consultation and ongoing support from community experts on everything from reading groups to disability literature.

We need the following art and craft supplies for our upcoming art classes:

• Colored construction paper
• Colored cardstock
• Colored felt or felted wool
• Acrylic sealing spray
• Jump rings
• Earring wires
• Headpins
• Embroidery thread and craft needles
• Jewelry stringing wire or cord
• Fasteners/clasps for necklaces/bracelets
• Beads (all sizes)
• Donated or borrowed jewelers’ pliers (at least 2 more)
• Donated or borrowed small wire cutters (at least 2 more)
• Frames, 8 1/2 x 11″ or larger (at least 10 more)

We could also use gift cards to art and craft supply stores!

E-mail us at disabilityartculture@gmail.com if you can help with art and craft supplies!

We are looking for donations of items for our art and culture auction this April:

• Artwork, including but not limited to sculpture, jewelry, painting, illustration, papercrafts, prints, photographs, and digital media
• Gift certificates
• Meals at restaurants
• Hotel stays
• Art supplies
• Vouchers for classes
• Tickets to local performances
• Museum tickets and/or memberships

We are also looking for donations of

• Gift certificates to local grocery stores
• In-kind donations from local restaurants and/or bakeries, for light refreshments the day of the fundraiser
• In-kind donations of poster printing
• Paper products: cups, plates, napkins, tablecloths, disposable flatware
• Artisan chocolates and fresh-cut flowers to sell at the fundraiser
• Crayons, paper, pipe cleaners, coloring books, and other art supplies appropriate for young children for an activity table

Do you have anything to donate, or any other ideas about fundraising for our youth dancers? Let us know by e-mailing diabilityartculture@gmail.com!

For the Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company performance in May, we are looking for donations of the following:

• Videography
• Video editing
• Professional photography
• In-kind donations of poster printing

Contact the artistic director, Kathy Coleman, at kafia2008@yahoo.com  if you can help us with our IAVDC performance needs!

We’ve received a donation of frames for our Waltz of the Flowers class, but we can still use your help!

Join us for an all-ages paper cutout art workshop with emerging local artist, longtime diversity facilitator, and friend to DACP, Lavaun Heaster! Join us to make bright, tactile, inclusive, and accessible paper cutout folk art. All materials and tools will be provided. Don’t worry if you’ve never made visual art before, or if you don’t think you have the skills! Lavaun’s workshops are inclusive, for all ages and abilities, we’ll have some shapes already cut out for you to design and arrange, and DACP will also have some volunteers to assist with art-making.

All participants will receive an electronic image of the art piece(s) they create, and the original artwork will be donated to DACP for fundraising purposes. Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company’s spring performance is coming up, and DACP is working on a family friendly fundraiser to cover the expenses. This workshop is for people who would like to create art to donate for auction at DACP’s fundraiser!

WHEN AND WHERE:

SCRAP Education Annex, Standard Dairy Building, Suite J, 2808 NE MLK, Jr. Blvd, 97212
Saturday, March 2, 3:30-5:30pm

ACCESSIBILITY:

• The SCRAP Education Annex is on the #6 bus line, and there is some on-street parking on the surrounding side streets.
• The building is ADA accessible.
• There are two large, accessible single-stall gender-neutral restrooms.
• Although DACP gladly accepts donations to cover our costs, there is no charge for this workshop.
• Please refrain from wearing scented products. This event takes place in a rented community space that is not consistently fragrance free.
• This workshop is all ages. Children 6 and under with adult supervision only.
• Volunteer art assistants will be available.
• Contact disabilityartculture@gmail.com with further accessibility questions.

TO REGISTER:

Space is limited! Please register directly with DACP by e-mailing disabilityartculture@gmail.com or calling 503-238-0723 (voice) by 5pm on Friday, March 1.

Visit our facebook event page here, but please do register by e-mailing or calling.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Lavaun Heaster is an emerging local low vision artist who creates inclusive tactile art. Lavaun’s work depicts diverse people connecting. She is curious about varying cultural practices and beliefs, having grown up in a multiethnic family and currently living with a multiethnic partner. Inspired by the vibrant art, ethnic communities and disability scene in Portland, OR, Lavaun has combined her passions in creating original art which you can see at http://accesibleart.webs.com/.

We are seeking models of any/all body sizes and shapes, genders, disabilities, races, ethnicities, and art or modeling backgrounds. Mobility devices of all kinds are welcome, as are assistive technology, service animals, and personal assistants. If you are interested in becoming a DACP model, please email Stefanie at DACPVisualArt@gmail.com or call Kathy at (503) 238-0723 (voice). You can also contact Stefanie at the open art sessions for more information.

This is a volunteer position. We would eventually like to be able to pay our models a little bit of money for each hour they pose for us. This will be possible if we receive donations from open art session participants. For the time being, however, we cannot guarantee any payment for models. Please let us know if you are interested. We could use someone for Friday, March 8, if you’re ready now!

This March we are holding a family art auction to raise funds for the Inclusive Arts Vibe  Dance Company (IAVDC) performance.  We are grateful for a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council to fund this event, but it is not enough.

We need to raise $7000 more to cover the following:

• $4000 for costumes
• $500 for photography and editing
• $1000 for performance videography and editing
• $1000 for publicity
• $500 for set design and props

Our art auction will include art made by children, youth, and adults. To accomplish this we will be holding two free art making events for children and youth to create art for us to auction at the fundraiser.

Fundraisers require a lot of planning and many worker bees.  We are looking for individuals to join our fundraising committee who can take on multiple tasks to assist with planning and production of the event.

Committee duties include, but are not limited to:

• Finding a free or low-cost space for the event
• Getting art donations
• Getting food and drink donations
• Publicizing the event: Outreach to friends, colleagues and contacts in person, by email and through social media, poster distribution, posting on event calendars, etc.
• Working at the event itself (set up and clean up, taking tickets, etc.).

Please contact Kathy Coleman at kafia2008@yahoo.com or 503-238-0723 (voice) if you can join our planning committee. 

Also let us know if you would like to help us with the above duties but can’t join the committee.

The more volunteers we have, the easier it will be to accomplish our goals!

Or support our work financially:

Thank you!

Thank you for being part of our most successful year yet! You can help us jump-start our work for 2013 by making a tax-deductible gift to DACP before 11:59pm on December 31!

2012 was fantastic for DACP!

We had our second annual Sex, Love, and Disability fundraiser and the fifth Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival since our founding in 2005. The Festival’s theme was the power of art to cultivate social change. We had live performance, panel discussion and a Theatre of the Oppressed Workshop with The-TREE Institute. We are proud to have worked with incredible writers and performers in our community, and with Antoine Hunter, the Oakland-based African American Deaf and Hard of Hearing Choreographer, Dancer, and founder of the Urban Jazz Dance Company. Hunter performed solo dances and worked with local dancers to choreograph and premiere a collaborative piece at the Festival.

In 2012, Aireen Joven was hired as our first ever organizer. She built relationships with individuals and organizations, developed and recruited volunteers, and helped DACP set the stage to run more smoothly. She brought an invaluable artistic and racial justice perspective to her work. Your donation will help us develop new leaders and continue our racial justice work!

Since 2008, Inclusive Arts Vibe has had dance classes at Lynch View Elementary School. This year, Rachel Esteve, IAV Dance Company member, is interning there as an Assistant Dance Teacher. IAV also added dance classes at Alder Creek Middle School, perfomed in the Festival, and were featured performers at the disability-themed Colored Pencils in August. IAVDC welcomed three new dancers this fall, and the company is in rehearsal for their upcoming May performance.

This summer, we organized an online community survey and Community Listening Session at Portland Community College’s Cascade campus. DACP wanted—wants!—to hear from our community. We used what we learned to determine the direction of DACP—regular arts programming, opportunities for cross-cultural listening, continued work on anti-racism, more space for disability art and culture, education within our various diverse communities on racial justice and disability justice and their intersections. We have had rich discussions about art and social justice. The Community Listening Session also featured a presentation by artist Rupert Kinnard on race, disability, sexuality, gender, and art.

In the fall, DACP analyzed survey data, applied for and received partial funding to continue the IAV dance classes, and in November partnered with Story Minders to host Disability Comedy Movie Night. Cheryl Green premiered her film “Friending with Brain Injury!” We had an incredible conversation about disability culture, dark humor, insider/outsider dynamics, and the role of comedy in social justice work. Over fifty people got together for food, conversation, and fun!

We have a lot to look forward to in 2013:

Starting on January 11, 2013, DACP will host an accessible, low-cost life drawing group  every second Friday of the month, at Project Grow. We will break down barriers to disability art and culture making one art session at a time!

In the spring, DACP will partner with GimpGirl, In Other Words, and local and national humanities experts and Disability Studies scholars to launch a Disability Studies reading group! Expect to read academic and non-academic, fiction and nonfiction, works on intersectional disability justice and diverse disability cultures. We’ll have lectures by local and national Disability Studies scholars, and both in-person and online discussions.

We’ve started to plan a springtime art-auction fundraiser for the Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company performance with youth art classes facilitated by local artist Lavaun Heaster. And, of course, IAVDC’s recital will be in May!

We’re also tentatively planning a symposium on the intersections of race and disability in visual culture, and a book launch/poetry reading with local poet William Alton. With every event, we further the artistic expression of people with both non-apparent and apparent disabilities, support our communities in understanding disability culture and pride, and help the wider culture reimagine the definition of disability, art, and culture.

We would like to ask you to consider making a personally significant year-end gift to Disability Art and Culture Project to kick off a spectacular new year. To those of you who have given your time and resources, thank you. We accomplished so much this year with volunteer time, donations, and the determination and creative flair that our disability arts community is famous for. We couldn’t have done it without you. All of us at the Disability Art and Culture Project want to thank you for a fantastic 2012, and we look forward to building vibrant disability art and culture with you in 2013 and beyond!

Sincerely,

Kathy Coleman, Artistic Director
Sarah Doherty and Cheryl Green, DACP planning committee

Please come join us to make your own art! We will provide the models, you provide your own art supplies. You can bring anything you’d like. We will have tables and chairs – feel free to bring easels or other supports if you’d like.

This is an opportunity for anyone in the wider Portland community to make art in a social justice-oriented communal space. No teachers or critique provided; open to artists of all levels: beginners, intermediate, advanced; please no photography. The space is physically accessible with two single stall gender neutral bathrooms and sinks available for use. Please refrain from wearing scented products to the open art sessions.

Sliding scale $1-$10, pay what you can, NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS. Money goes to support DACP and its events. Interested in being a model for an hour? Have any questions? Contact our volunteer organizer, Stefanie Snider, at DACPVisualArt@gmail.com or at the art session. Or call Kathy at (503) 238-0723. We hope to see you there!

Download and distribute our flier (which has text-based information and an image of art supplies) here: DACP art sessions flier