Created in partnership with Arts AccessAbility Network of Manitoba

Creative Accessibility Across Canada

Creative Manitoba, in partnership with AANM, is proud to present a series of talks about creative and curatorial practices within the sphere of disability and accessibility.

Black Triangle Arts Collective

*NEW DATE*

Friday, October 18th | 12 to 1 pm | Online | FREE

E. Sweeney and Syrus Marcus Ware– founders of the Black Triangle Arts Collective- will be joining us to talk about their work in research, creating and presenting exhibitions, sparking dialogue and developing curatorial practice from intersectional and disability-informed perspectives. They strive not to duplicate artist/curator relationships, but instead intentionally disrupt these power dynamics through ​processes that are interdependent, empowering, and built on divergent strengths and weaknesses​.

***  ASL interpretation will be provided  ***

E. Sweeney is a visual artist, arts professional and curator. She is also a neurodivergent queer of Acadian settler decent, who grew up in rural Nova Scotia. She has a BFA in Studio Art from Concordia University (2001), a B.Ed from the University Of Ottawa (2005) and an MA in Critical Disability Studies from York University (2012), where she focused on disability art and contemporary curatorial practice. E. frequently presents and guest lectures on the topic of art criticism, activist museum praxis and contemporary disability arts. She is a founding member of the Black Triangle Arts Collective and in 2019, E. was awarded a two-year Chalmers Art Fellowship for her project Premise/Shift.

E. shares her time between the traditional unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg (Ottawa, ON) and Miꞌkmaq peoples (Mavillette, NS).

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Syrus is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University. Using drawing, installation, and performance, Syrus works with and explores social justice frameworks and Black activist culture. His work has been shown widely, including solo shows at Tangled Art + Disability in 2022 (Random Access Memory), Grunt Gallery in 2018 (2068:Touch Change) and Wil Aballe Art Projects in 2021 (Irresistible Revolutions). His work has been featured as part of the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art in both 2019 and 2022 in conjunction with the Ryerson Image Centre (Antarctica and Ancestors, Do You Read Us? (Dispatches from the Future and MBL:Freedom)), as well as for the Bentway’s Safety in Public Spaces Initiative in 2020 (Radical Love).

He is part of the PDA (Performance Disability Art) Collective and co-programmed Crip Your World: An Intergalactic Queer/POC Sick and Disabled Extravaganza as part of Mayworks 2014. Syrus‘ recent curatorial projects include That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019), Re:Purpose (Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2014) and The Church Street Mural Project (Church-Wellesley Village, 2013). Syrus is also co-curator of The Cycle, a two-year disability arts performance initiative of the National Arts Centre.

Syrus is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter- Canada and the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism. Syrus is a past co-curator of Blackness Yes!/Blockorama and the Wildseed Black Arts Fellowship. Syrus has won several awards, including the TD Diversity Award in 2017. Syrus was voted “Best Queer Activist” by NOW Magazine (2005) and was awarded the Steinert and Ferreiro Award (2012). Syrus holds a doctorate from York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. He is the co-editor of  the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (URP, 2020), and Marvellous Grounds: Queen of Colour Formations (BTL, 2018) and Queering Urban Justice (UTP, 2018).

Creative Accessibility Across Canada is a series of workshops that will explore disability art, the experiences of artists with disabilities and how to make art accessible. These workshops are not only for emerging artists with disabilities, but arts organizations and artists at all levels of their career with and without disabilities.

Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba is a regional not-for-profit artist run charitable organization dedicated to the full inclusion of artists and audiences with disabilities into all facets of the arts community.