Why Curators Should Prioritise Accessibility with Sean Lee

Curating Tools

27-05-2023 • 14 mins

How do disability arts disrupt normative systemic barriers? What do we mean by access? Join host Maria Cynkier in the conversation with Sean Lee (he/they), an artist and curator exploring the notion of disability art as the last avant-garde. Learn about the histories behind disability activism, practitioners and artworks that inspire Sean and how curators can create more inclusive and inviting art environments.

This podcast is brought to you by Call for Curators, providing professional art opportunities since 2012, and Node Center for Curatorial Studies, the pioneering e-learning platform for curators and art professionals founded in 2009.

Meet our guest, Sean Lee. Orienting towards a “crip horizon”, he is interested in the transformative possibilities of crip community building and accessible curatorial practices that desire the ways disability can disrupt.

Sean is currently the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability. He holds a B.A. in Arts Management and Studio from UTSC. Sean is also an independent curator, lecturer, and advisor, adding his insights and perspectives to conversations across Canada, the US, and internationally. Sean sits on numerous committees and serves on the board of the Toronto Arts Council and CARFAC Ontario, and is a member of the OAC’s Deaf and Disability Advisory Committee and Chair of TAC’s Visual and Media Arts Committee.

Our host ⁠Maria Cynkier⁠ is an independent curator and researcher working in the fields of art, ecology and digital culture. In her practice, she is concerned with the social, political and material impacts of new technologies on humans, non-humans and the environment. She often works within the framework of speculative storytelling and worldbuilding tactics that enable critical dialogue.

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Audio editing by Maria Cynkier.

Intro music by Dan Carr.