Chalk Art at Lincoln School

Chalk Art at Lincoln School
Originally uploaded by pennylrichardsca
[Image description: A portrait of Vincent van Gogh in chalk, on a sidewalk, with an easel display of various art books above, and a piece of blue chalk on the edge of the drawing.]

In anticipation of a community-wide chalk-art event on Saturday, we had a chalk-art preview session at our local elementary school this morning. So hmmmm, chalk art AND disability history? No problem! I did a Vincent (above) and a Frida... (just had to be sure they were kid-appropriate images).

Disability Arts and Culture Center at Access Living, Chicago

We have been hearing about the great things about the disability arts initiatives in Chicagoland. In this WLS Chicago, ABC 7 News video, curator and award-winning artist Riva Lehrer leads us on a tour of the new Disability Arts and Culture Center that recently opened at the new eco-friendly home of Access Living, at 115 West Chicago Avenue.

Curators Sharon Snyder and David Mitchell are to be applauded for their Disability History installation, also featured in the video, which has served as a key vehicle for documenting and celebrating the many creative acts of resistance by and on behalf of people with disabilities. See the DS.TU post from April 25, 2006 on the Not Dead Yet 10th Anniversary Celebration. Access Living is one Center for Independent Living that has truly embraced the arts as a mode of expression and reflection on the changing place of disabled people in today's society. If you are in Chicago, I certainly invite you to check out these installations.

Additional coverage: Beth Haller, at media dis&dat

The Unruly Salon Series, Vancouver, Spring 2008

This looks like a spectacular series. Registration is now open; they're also looking for local volunteers to help with set-up and such. Here (below) is the homepage blurb, but go check out the individual events scheduled--a nice mix of performing and visual arts, scholarship and storytelling formats, with a wide range of topics.

The Unruly Salon Series Presented by Green College at UBC January 12-March 29th, 2008

Join The Unruly Salon to further the discourse on diversity, humanity and civil society; contribute to a fundamental reshaping of the disability narrative; challenge ideas of ‘global citizenship’; and work to realize the full inclusion of all people.

In the context of a burgeoning disability arts and cultural movement in Canada and internationally, the Unruly Salon Series is an historical first at UBC. Drawing from both internationally renowned scholars of disability studies and professional artists from the visual, performing, musical arts’ sectors, the Salons will demonstrate a belief that the pursuit of equality and inclusion is a cultural task as much as it is an academic or political one.

Salon scholars and artists variously ask:

• How do varied experiences of dis/ability transform and vitalize the meaning of an education, the public sphere and social justice?
• How can disability arts, culture and struggles by people with disabilities transform and inform undergraduate and graduate education at UBC and in the wider province, Pacific Rim and internationally?
• What can we all learn from artists and scholars with disabilities currently participating in disability scholarship and the arts locally and globally.

The Series is the inspired creation of Dr. Leslie G. Roman, Associate Professor, Dept. of Educational Studies at the UBC Faculty of Education, in partnership with Mr. Geoff McMurchy, visionary artistic director of S4DAC (The Society for Disability Arts and Culture) and Artistic Director for The Unruly Salon Series.

Leg splints and mid-century modern design

"What works is better than what looks good. The 'looks good' can change, but what works, works."

--Ray Eames

I was enjoying the extensive online Library of Congress exhibit, The Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention today. The Eameses were important mid-20c. designers, who are best known for plywood, fiberglass and wire-mesh chairs and other furniture, among their many other endeavors. Even if you don't know their name, some element of their work is probably familiar to most Americans.

Why is this relevant to disability studies? Well... during World War II, they were part of a team of designers hired by the US government. (This wasn't unusual; my great-aunt Mimi was a shoe designer during the war; the government needed designs that could be mass-produced within the limits of wartime supplies, thus... canvas shoes.) One of the items Ray and Charles Eames designed was a molded plywood leg splint for the US Navy. Note that the original splints are now prized by collectors, like most Eames designs. The Eameses even featured a sculpture made from their splint on their 1944 Christmas card. The splint label above was designed by Ray Eames.

The technical solutions, materials, and sinuous shapes the Eameses used in the splint project were turned, after the war, to the design of durable, ergonomic, molded plywood furniture. Just one more example--like the audiobook, TV captions, Montessori schools, etc. etc.--where innovations are worked out first for disability-related applications, and only later translated to wider use.

Embellished cast

Found this on the blog of artist Aileen Roberts, it's what she did for her sister's cast:We should all have such cool sisters! (Go see it at Aileen's blog to catch the other side of the design.) Reminds me of the bling kit Sara's true love gave her, to decorate her leg. Or my own son's Christmas stockings. Kinda gives holiday decorating a whole new dimension, eh?

Look who turned up for the October Meetup!

Panorama taken at our DS Meetup, originally uploaded by Edu-Tourist.

We had a great turnout for our monthly Disability Studies Meetup at Temple University's TECH Center. It definitely had a literary and artistic flair. Carol asked each attendee to write down the name that they would like to give to their autobiography. I think we have the notes somewhere, but my favorite title was "I Learned Everything from Carol."

The more formal program consisted of a presentation by Sarah Drury on some of the basic computer circuitry that underlay eVokability, a project to expand the emotional expressive range of people with disabilities through new media. Photos from the public performance of the eVokability: The Walking Project can be seen elsewhere on this blog.

Shoutout to Lydia for the bringing the veggies! We are open to suggestions on artists and performers to bring in next month, in conjuction with the Philadelphia's own Independence Starts Here Festival of Disability Arts and Culture.

Next Week in London: Journeys into Madness, 1850-1930

From the H-Net Announcements digest:

Journeys Into Madness: The Representation of Mental Illness in the Arts and Sciences , 1850-1930

The conference Journeys into Madness: Representing Mental Illness in the Arts and Sciences, 1850-1930 will take place at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, London, on 11 and 12 October 2007. This conference has been supported by the University of Plymouth, the Wellcome Trust and the British Academy. To book your place, please contact Gemma Blackshaw. Payment can be sent electronically or by post.

The program includes papers on "male hysteria," the rest cure, asylum photography, German psychiatry, patients' writings, farm work, art brut, avant-garde film, asylum art, trauma... check it out. Even when I can't possibly attend, I love looking at conference programs, seeing who's doing what...

Super Heroes, Super Villains (San Francisco, October 4-November 21)

The Bay Area nonprofit visual arts center Creativity Explored, which welcomes artists with developmental disabilities to create, exhibit, and sell their work, has a studio blog, and a frequently updated website--and they need it, because the place is constantly having events, exhibits, sales, and screenings. This one caught my eye, in light of the upcoming Disability Blog Carnival edition on a "supercrip" theme: Super Heroes Super Villains Gallery Exhibition, which opens next month. Here's the gallery's blurb about it:

Fly, leap or zoom over to Creativity Explored for a special exhibition straight off the pages of your favorite comic book. Studio artists reinterpret famous saviors of the universe and those who would thwart them. Laron Bickerstaff gives a new look to heroes like The Flash and Green Arrow, while Edana Contreras contributes an ode to Oracle — the only major super heroine in a wheelchair. Michael Bernard Loggins imagines his own cast of super characters including Super Toothbrush Hero, Super Serious Man and even Super Average Girl — “Trying to stay as average as she can be.” Curator Francis Kohler of Creativity Explored also contributes food for thought placing text panels throughout the show to highlight real life heroes and villains of the disability movement.

Seems the opening reception will include a live band, too.

Image description: A piece of art depicting a superhero in (best I can tell) ink outlines and blue and red pastels, with an intense yellow background. The superhero appears to be running straight at the viewer, with three out of four limbs bent in a stylized "L" shape. The artist is Jay Herndon.

Perfect Ain't Cool

I'll admit I don't usually go in for the heavy-metal t-shirt aesthetic of skulls and flames (despite my previously revealed interest in NHRA drag racing). But while passing a gallery named Gasoline in El Segundo yesterday, I spotted this sticker (above) in the window, and thought the sentiment (along the lines of "symmetry is overrated") might appeal to some DS,TU readers. It's by car-culture graphic artist Jeral Tidwell, and the stickers are available at his website, Humantree.

[Visual description: A black rectangular bumpersticker with the words "Cool Ain't Perfect, Perfect Ain't Cool" in red all-caps, and in much smaller type at the bottom edge, "www.humantree.com"]

The New Face of Disability in the Arts (New York City, 31 July)

Cool stuff from New York: A Theatre by the Blind production of John Belluso's The Rules of Charity is now playing (May 26-June 24) at the Lion Theatre in New York City. In July (the 11th to the 29th), noted disabled actor Henry Holden will play the "rudely stamp'd" Richard the III--a Shakespeare character who is often portrayed as disabled (hat tip to Troy Wittren for the news of that show). And...

From the Theatre Resources Unlimited website (links added here):

Tuesday evening, July 31st, 7:30pm
Beyond Handicaps and Handouts:
The New Face of Disability In The Arts

Co-produced with Stephanie Barton-Farcas, artistic director of Nicu's Spoon. Confirmed panelists: Christine Bruno, Disability Advocate, Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts; Lawrence Carter-Long, Director of the Disabled Network of NYC; Professor Thomas Donnarumma, Iona College Dept. of Performing Arts; Henry Holden, Disabled International Activist, Actor and Speaker; Anita Hollander, East coast SAG/AFTRA rep. for disabled artists; June Rachelson-Ospa, Writer, Producer, Director; Ike Shambelan, Artistic Director, Theatre by The Blind.

We'll discuss what accommodations are needed to hire the disabled, and how the costs are surprisingly nominal and outweigh the benefit of working with some extraordinary talent. Plus the added dimension that can be brought to a work through non-traditional casting.

The Spoon Theater, 38 W. 38th Street, 5th floor

April 7: Alison Lapper (b. 1965)

Happy 42nd birthday to English artist Alison Lapper (pictured at right), born on this date in 1965.

She's perhaps best known as the subject of the Marc Quinn statue, "Alison Lapper Pregnant," a larger-than-life marble which has stood on Trafalgar Square's "Fourth Plinth" since 2005. This month, it's scheduled to be taken down, and replaced with another work of public art (so those of us who never got to London to see it are out of luck). The statue was featured on Ouch! podcast #4--how do you feature a statue on an audio program? I'll say only that a megaphone was possibly involved.

There's an edited excerpt from Lapper's autobiography, My Life in My Hands (Simon and Schuster 2005), online here, concentrating on her childhood in a residential hospital, and her young adult years, seeking independence, education, a career, love, the usual stuff.

Rebecca Horn and Flannery O'Connor

There were a couple birthdays I might have marked here this weekend if I wasn't otherwise occupied-- but I want to post a quick note anyway, with images:

Rebecca Horn (b. 24 March 1944) is a contemporary German performance artist, and filmmaker. In the mid-1960s, she was living in Barcelona and working on fiberglass sculptures; working with fiberglass without a mask landed her with a serious lung disease, and she was hospitalized for a year for treatment and recovery. During her time in the sanatorium, she drew, and sewed, and tried to create objects that would extend her body from the hospital bed. The image at left shows her "Finger Gloves," a 1972 performance piece in which she wore long balsa extensions on her fingers, an example of her body-extension creations, which play with ideas of touch, sensation, protection, and imperfection.

American writer Flannery O'Connor (25 March 1925-3 August 1964) inherited systemic lupus from her father. In her two novels and 31 short stories, there are running themes of disability, pain, violence, monstrosity, religion, and an unsentimental, often gothic dark humor that is charactistic both of Southern literature and of the era, but may also reflect her personal experience of chronic pain and illness. O'Connor began using crutches in the 1950s (as shown in the image at right), because the powerful medications she took to manage her pain weakened her bones. She said, of writing through chronic illness, "I have enough energy to write with and as that is all I have any business doing anyhow, I can with one eye squinted take it all as a blessing. What you have to measure out, you come to observe more closely, or so I tell myself."

Riva Lehrer wins first Wynn Newhouse Award

I am forwarding an exciting announcement from David Mitchell, about a recent honor for the Chicago-based artist Riva Lehrer. What David doesn't say here is that he and his partner Sharon Snyder are at least in part responsible for raising the arts community's awareness of Riva Lehrer's work, through the DVD they produced and showed at film festivals and conferences across the country called "Self-Preservation: The Art of Riva Lehrer," 2004.

Simi Linton showed parts of "Self-Preservation as part of her Mini Course "Approaching Disability Through the Arts" sponsored by the Institute on Disabilities last Spring 2006.

Learn more about Riva Lehrer and her art on her website.

-----Original Message from David Mitchell-----

For those who haven't heard -- Riva Lehrer's art was just awarded the prestigious Newhouse Award for artists of excellence. This is a monumental achievement for her work and disability arts in general. Please send her your heartiest congratulations!

RIVA LEHRER WINS FIRST WYNN NEWHOUSE AWARD

The Samuel I Newhouse Foundation announced today that Chicago artist Riva Lehrer is the winner of the first annual $50,000 Wynn Newhouse Award for artists of excellence. Ms Lehrer was selected from a group of eighteen nominees by a committee of persons respected in the arts community.

This award was established by collector Wynn Newhouse, who believe this program can draw attention to the work of the most talented artists having disabilities. He hopes this award will expose the art world and the public to important contributions made by these fine artists.

Ms Lehrer is currently on the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her recent Circle Series, includes expressionistic portraits of powerful and successful creative persons with disabilities. Over the years Ms. Lehrer has explored the schism between "normal" and "different" in her art with powerful results.

She believes, "Disability and art are natural partners. In order to have a good life with a disability, you have to learn to re-invent your world almost hour by hour. You discover ways to re-imagine everything, and how not to take the average answers to everyday questions. There is a great deal of creativity in disability if you decide that "reality" is just a raw material for you to mould. So many times, these re-inventions have been the keys to open new doors for everyone." Her recent work can be reviewed at http://rivalehrer.com

Four other artists tied as runners-up in this competition. They are: Darra Keeton of Houston and New York, Terrence Karpowicz of Chicago, Jonathan Sarkin of Gloucester and Sunaura Taylor of Berkeley.

In addition to Mr Newhouse, this competition was judged by Cheryl Brutvan, Beal Curator of Modern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, William A Newman, artist and faculty member at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, Dr Olivia Raynor, scholar, author and Director of the National Arts and Disabilities Center at UCLA, and New York artist Dorothea Rockburne.

The foundation will soon begin the nominations process for the 2007 Wynn Newhouse Awards.
Questions about this awards program can be addressed to William R Butler by e-mail.

Giants in Edinburgh

The GIANTS exhibit was originally organized in 2003 by the Disability Rights Commission, supported by the Mayor of London, and produced by Shape, an arts charity. It features photos by David Hevey (director of the 1996 documentary Freak Out), designed by Helena Roden. The exhibit features three sections--Unseen, Being Seen, and Being--to chart the move from institutions to activism to community life.

It'll be in Scotland this month: at the North Edinburgh Arts Centre (8 August-19 August), at the Whale Arts Agency (22 August-26 August); at Craigmillar Community Arts (29 August - 1 September); and Scotland Yard (5 September -9 September).

Accessible art OR parking

Rolling Rains Report points out this story, about a component of the Santa Fe Design Week festivities involving the beautification of accessible parking spaces. But...isn't there a problem? The art is only visible if folks with parking placards stay AWAY. Thinking through some more welcoming alternatives... maybe a sound installation that's triggered by the presence of a vehicle with proper plates or a placard? or maybe, something that points art-minded onlookers to notice the striped area NEXT to the parked van, highlighting the true function of that space (which is not, contrary to common practice, a great place to abandon your grocery cart).

"Art Beyond Sight"

This is a bit ahead of the game, but it sounds worth planning for: There will be a conference jointly organized by Art Education for the Blind, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum Access Consortium, called "Art Beyond Sight: Multi-Modal Approaches to Learning," that sounds more interesting than the jargon in the second half of the title. It's scheduled for Friday October 14 and Saturday October 15; the Friday events happen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and feature among the presenters Rebecca McGinnis and Deborah Jaffe (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Hannah Goodwin (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Georgina Kleege (University of California at Berkeley and author of Sight Unseen), Dr. Alvaro Pascuale-Leone (Harvard Medical Center), and David Rose (Harvard Medical School of Education and CAST). The Saturday morning events take place at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and feature two panel discussions chaired by Paula Terry (Director, Office of AccessAbility, National Endowment for the Arts), and Francesca Rosenberg (Museum of Modern Art). Saturday afternoon events will be more panel discussions, held at the American Folk Art Museum. There will also be dinner and breakfast gatherings for discussion. If you email these folks (try editor-at-large@artbeyondsight.org ) with "October conference" in the subject line, they'll send you registration information and other details.