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Rethinking Connections Between Bodyminds and Art: a disability and mad artists panel

Date and Time: December 8th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm EST

Location: Zoom, registration below

Access: There will be ASL-English interpretation and live captioning at this event. Please contact Eliza Chandler for access inquiries.

Access Inquiries

The School of Disability Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and Art Windsor-Essex invites you to attend an online public event featuring Jack Hawk, Jules Koostachin, and Dev Ramsawakh.

On December 8th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm EST, artists Max Ferguson, Jules Koostachin, and Dev Ramsawakh will join in conversation to discuss their disability and mad art practices, critical access practices, and audience engagement. This conversation is inspired by and responds to Grey Matter: Your Brain On Art, a current Art Windsor-Essex exhibition curated by Dr. Lori Buchanan and Julie Rae Tucker.

This event is organized by TMU students as part of DST 503: Disability Arts and Cultural Production, a workplace-integrated learning course offered through the School of Disability Studies, taught by Dr. Eliza Chandler. This event is supported by the School of Disability Studies at TMU, Faculty of Community Services at TMU, Art Windsor-Essex, and Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada.

Register

Max Ferguson

Max Ferguson has been a practicing artist since 1996 and received his BFA from the University of Regina in 2001. He graduated with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2017. His artistic explorations involve disability studies, gender, non-neurotypical and trans-queer sexualities, activism, the body, surrealism, anti-colonial approaches to artmaking, and psychoanalysis. His practice blends high and low art approaches and draws from a mixture of art and academic theory, pop culture, and other influences. He is also a published poet and writer, holds a degree in journalism, and has worked as a political, legal, military and arts writer in four different provinces over the past decade. Max Ferguson is also Tangled Art + Disability’s 2020 Curator-in-Residence.

Dev Ramsawakh

Dev Ramsawakh is a disabled and non-binary award-winning multidisciplinary storyteller, producer and educator. They’ve been published digitally on websites like Chatelaine, CBC, and Xtra, and have produced projects for SKETCH Working Arts and Luminato Festival Toronto and participated in grant and program application reviews for Toronto Arts Council, The Effing Foundation and Warner Brothers Discovery. They’ve also been included in anthologies such as Disability Visibility,Two Times Removed, and Toronto 2033. They also write poetry, model, and facilitate workshops, both independently and with CRIP Collective. You can find Dev on Twitter and TikTok @merkyywaters and on Instagram @merkyy_waters or on their website IndivisibleWriting.com.

Jules Koostachin

Born in Moose Factory Ontario, Jules was raised by her Cree speaking grandparents in Moosonee, and also with her mother in Ottawa, a warrior of the Residential school system. Jules is a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation, the Ancestral lands of the MoshKeKo AsKi InNiNeWak. She resides in Vancouver with her family.

She completed her PhD at UBC.  In 2010, she completed her masters at Ryerson University in Documentary Media where she was awarded the Award of Distinction for her thesis work, as well as the Graduate Ryerson Gold Medal for highest academic achievement. Jules was one of six women selected for the Women in the Directors Chair program, where she directed a scene from her award-winning feature script Broken Angel which was also selected for the TIFF’s filmmaker lab, as well as the Whistler’s Screenwriting lab.

Jules’ company VisJuelles Productions Inc. has a number of films and projects in development. Her television series AskiBOYZ (2016), NiiSoTeWak: Two Bodies, One Heart (2017), OshKiKiShiKaw: A New Day (2019) , KaYaMenTa: Sharing Truths about Menopause (2020) – available on CBC GEM. Butterfly Monument (2017) about her relation, the late Shannen Koostachin. MisTik (short narrative) and her feature drama Broken Angel are currently in festivals.  Jules is also part of the LA Blackmagic Collective Breakthrough Initiative.  She was the Indigenous Storyteller in Residence with the Vancouver Public Library.

Related Exhibitions

See all exhibitions

Grey Matter: Your Brain on Art

Location: Third Floor