A new collaborative art project in Guelph is being shaped by artists with developmental disabilities to further their artistic practices.
Access 2 Arts is an artist-run community project and its first artist skills development project is a three-month-long collaborative printmaking program.
Registration is open until March 28 at 5 p.m. The cohort of seven artists are 18 years old and older and priority is given to people who benefit from one-on-one support and live in Guelph-Wellington.
Artists will explore printmaking through three workshops with three different printmaking techniques. There will be studio days for artists to work on their project. The location of the workshops will be based on artists’ accessibility needs.
By the end of the program artists will have their own book of prints they made together. An exhibition will be hosted at 10C in July.
Paige Bromby and Ahmri Vandeborne are facilitators of the program and started Access 2 Arts. Bromby has a family member who works in developmental services and Vandeborne works one-on-one with artists with developmental disabilities. They talked about the lack of opportunities in art for people with developmental disabilities and want Access 2 Arts to be an accessible starting point to the Guelph visual arts community.
Artists will be paid for their work with a $200 honorarium. Artists are going create art and collaborate with other artists so they deserve to be paid, said Bromby. The money might knock down a barrier to participation. Some people with developmental disabilities receive funding from the provincial government to participate in programs. This program is at no cost to artists so their funding can be saved for other programs.
Printmaking was chosen as the main artistic medium because it tends to be inaccessible because its expensive. As far as Bromby knows, Vandeborne’s printmaking press at her studio is the only one available for public use in the city. There are technical skills to learn with printmaking “but I find that it can meet the needs of a really diverse group a lot more readily than painting does,” said Bromby.
Based on what the artists are looking for, personal support workers can be in attendance, a sensory room can be available or smaller groups can be formed to make it a better place to create in.
“We want the arts to be accessible to all, but we also want creative practice,” said Bromby. There are one off painting workshops in the community and Bromby wants to see more continuous creative practice development programs. What she thinks makes this program different are the wraparound supports to make it accessible for artists with developmental disabilities.
“So much of the world is inaccessible to folks with physical and developmental disabilities. So it's really important for us that we can create kind of accessible spaces,” said Bromby.
Registration for the program is available online.