PROJECTS

BUILDING BRIDGES TO FOSTER DEAF CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP

(Funding : FRQSC, 2023-2026)

Cultural citizenship consists of the set of practices that determine the possibility of people feeling like they belong to a society, particularly when they come from a minoritized social group. Recently, progress has been made, but much work remains to be done. Cultural citizenship as it is currently envisaged is not fully inclusive. Deaf people do not only want access to hearing culture. Full cultural equity and Deaf cultural citizenship require increased access for hearing people to Deaf culture and the commitment of cultural actors to the development of Deaf cultural representations and the dissemination of Deaf art. This action research aims to equip cultural circles to improve their practices of inclusion, representativeness and dissemination of deaf art, through training.

HEMISPHERIC ENCOUNTERS: DEVELOPING TRANSBORDER RESEARCH-CREATION PRACTICES

(Funding : SSHRC Partnerships, 2020-2017)

Hemispheric Encounters is a partnership project that seeks to develop a network of universities, community organizations, artists, and activists, working with performance as a methodology, a pedagogical strategy, and tool for social change.

This network seeks to define, explore, and experiment with performance practice as a distinctive practice-based, anti-colonial, transborder, and collaborative mode of knowledge production. A set of innovative live and digital research-creation formats are mobilized, designed to increase public engagement beyond the academy, recognizing all participants as co-producers of knowledge.

Hemispheric Encounters seek to explore how performance offers creative tools for addressing social justice issues and working transnationally. Performance is defined as an embodied act, from artistic activities such as performance art and theatre to cultural practices like ritual, protest, and enactments of self in everyday life. It is also conceived as a political process–acts of doing that can both reiterate and alter existing geopolitical realities.

More infos: https://hemisphericencounters.ca/

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: DIS/ABILITY DIVERSITY SETS CULTURE IN MOTION

The DIS/ABILITY DIVERSITY MAKES CULTURE THRIVE awareness campaign aims to raise awareness among people working in cultural circles in order to develop cultural equity and :

1) Increase the hiring of dis/ability diversity people (Deaf, disabled, neuroatypical and psychoatypical people) in cultural milieux

2) Encourage greater dissemination of their artistic practices

3) Encourage collaborations between abled-bodied artists and dis/ability diversity artists

4) Disseminate the results of research conducted by the Chair.

This awareness campaign is piloted and financed by the Chair, in partnership with Montréal Arts Council, Québec Arts Council (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec) and SLCB (a Deaf accessibility company), in collaboration with several cultural organizations. It was developed with the support of an advisory committee made up of several people from cultural milieux and the communication agency Zone Créative.

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH : MAY 31, 2023

CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP AND CULTURAL ACCESSIBILITY : INTERVIEWS AND VIDEO CAPSULES

In 2021, we conducted 21 interviews with Deaf artists and Deaf and hearing cultural workers, who developed exemplary practices in terms of cultural accessibility. The participants come from 4 cities in Canada: Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, and Ottawa. They shared their perspectives on cultural citizenship and accessibility in cultural settings.

Due to the pandemic, these interviews were held from a distance by Zoom. They were recorded in order to broadcast parts of these rich reflections in the form of short thematic video excerpts.

FIRST VIDEO CLIP : Feeling like you belong

DEVELOPING ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH WITH DEAF PEOPLE

The ethics principles in research make it possible to take into account people in situations of vulnerability and/or minorities. This research project is part of a context where the vast majority of studies on deaf people are carried out by hearing people, and sometimes harm Deaf people. Those research are often part of medical paradigms and produces knowledge that is often inaccessible because it is not disseminated in sign languages.

For example, deafness is viewed only through the lens of the medical model within the major research funders in Canada. Just as it would be incoherent to classify studies of gender ans sexual minorities from a perspective that pathologizes homosexuality, Deaf communities are demanding that their social and cultural realities be studied outside the medical spectrum, knowing the implications of this paradigm on the living conditions of their members.

This research project aims to:

1) Explore the main gaps and challenges in current research practices with Deaf people;

2) Identify the important ethical aspects of doing research with deaf people (e.g. research strategies, sharing of benefits, use of information collected and funding for equity measures) and;

3) Create guidelines for research with Deaf people.

COLLABORATIVE GROUP IN CULTURAL EQUITY

In collaboration with researchers, artists and cultural workers, the collaborative group aims to develop a resource in cultural equity. Made up of twenty people from various backgrounds (theater, museums, cultural mediation, etc.), the group relies on a collaborative approach to create a space for exchanges, sharing and co-creation of knowledge.

Made up of Deaf and hearing people, the group seeks to better understand the needs of Deaf and disabled people, and of cultural workers in terms of cultural accessibility. The aim is to co-create a resource for accessibility and cultural equity.

OCTOBER 6, 2022

December 1, 2022

BOOK THESE DATES IN YOUR CALENDAR : JOURNÉES DE RÉFLEXION ET DE CRÉATION COLLECTIVE

Équité culturelle et artistes de la diversité capacitaire

october 19-21, 2023

DAYS OF COLLECTIVE REFLECTION

The days of collective reflection (or study days) aim to bring together researchers, students, artists, and cultural workers who work and produce knowledge related to cultural citizenship and demonstrate exemplary practices in terms of accessibility and cultural equity. They are intended to be a place of stimulating meetings and exchanges allowing participants to discuss their perspectives, approaches, ways of operating, challenges encountered, desires for change, etc.

For example, the day of collective reflection planned on May 6^th, 2022, aims to focus on the notion of cultural citizenship, Deaf cultural expressions, mixed creation processes (Deaf and hearing people), as well as certain cultural accessibility and equity practices.

RESIDENCY FOR ARTISTS OF DIVERSITY WITH DISABILITIES
ART FROM THE SINGULAR TO THE PLURAL

This residency aims to create a meeting space between artists of different abilities (deaf, disabled, neuroatypical and psychoatypical people) in order to exchange, create and develop new projects. The residency will take place from May 25 to 27, 2022 at the Afromusée in Montreal and will end with a happy hour open to the public.

This residency is funded by the Conseil des arts de Montréal and co-organized by Visions sur l’Art Québec (VASQ) and the Canada Research Chair in Deaf Cultural Citizenship and Cultural Equity Practices. Chaired by Géatanne Cummings and Véro Leduc and facilitated by Renata Paciullo Ribeiro, this precious moment of encounter and creation will bring together 10 artists of diversity : Carlos Melomano Parra Duran, Denise Beaudry, Géatane Cummings, Hodan Youssouf, Lucila Guerrero, MAP, Marven Clerveau, Véro Leduc and Yves Alavo.

EVENT facebook

JOIN US!

5 to 7 APÉRO-EXPO at the Afromusée

WHEN ? Friday, May 27, 2022

WHERE ? AFROMUSÉE

ADDRESS ? 553 Ontario Street E, Montréal (QC) H2L 1N8

CENSUS OF CULTURAL ACCESSIBILITY PRACTICES

The census of cultural accessibility practices aims to draw a portrait of cultural accessibility and equity practices in Quebec. It identifies the measures put in place, as well as the services offered in artistic and cultural institutions which make their cultural offer accessible to Deaf and disabled people.

The census is carried out using the information available on the websites of the targeted cultural institutions and includes two parts. It lists the policies, programs, services, and action plans that constitute the accessibility practices of these institutions. It also questions the participation of Deaf people and disabled people in the creation and implementation of these practices.

MUSIC AT THE FINGERTIPS

Watch the 3 video capsules

OUR WEBsite

Since 2018, Véro Leduc has been conducting research on Deaf music, in collaboration with Line Grenier, professor of communication at University of Montreal, as well as with a team of assistants, Deaf and hearing: Charline Savard, Clément Decault, Hodan Youssouf, Jennifer Manning and Mélina Bernier.

The project holds five components:

1) a mediagraphy listing a diversity of Deaf music, ranging from original signed music to the translation of hearing songs in sign languages;

2) 11 video interviews with Deaf people who sign in LSQ and ASL about their musical trajectories throughout their life;

3) A group interview with 8 Deaf adults on their musical heritage;

4) thematic video capsules produced from excerpts from interviews and

5) reflection workshops based on those video capsules.