I’ll be part of a panel on 5/7, With Us: Artists with Disabilities on Adapting Technology for Us with Springboard for the Arts, as disabled artists hold space for each other, share tips and practices, and embody the informal motto of the disability rights movement, “Nothing about us, without us.” My fellow panelists will be Belo Cipriani and Nicole Thomas, and the conversation will be moderated by Alison Bergblom Johnson.
On my end, I’ll be discussing the challenges I faced with a lifelong hearing impairment, and what it’s meant navigating a variety of spaces, choosing what I attend and present at, and what I’ve felt comfortable applying to over the years, especially as my impairment increases.
Belo Miguel Cipriani, Ed.D. is a digital inclusion strategist who became passionate about making online spaces accessible after being blinded by a group of men in 2007. His books and articles on disability issues have received numerous awards and international recognition. He has guest lectured at Yale, and, in 2020, he was appointed by Governor Tim Walz to the Minnesota Council on Disability. Through his digital access consulting firm, Oleb Media, he has helped countless organizations build inclusive websites and apps. HuffPost referred to him as an “Agent of Change” and SF Weekly named him one of the best disability advocates. Tony Coelho, the primary author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, called him an “important voice” in disability writing. Learn more at belocipriani.com and watch Blind: A Memoir: Audiobook – Chapter 1 (youtube.com)
Nicole Thomas is an interdisciplinary artist and community organizer focusing on communal care, comfort, and solidarity in healing. Artwork coming from her studio balances the act of play and memory processing. Working collaboratively with the community is an integral part of their practice. They facilitate programs that are trauma-informed and encourage connection through creative storytelling. More recently, she was an artist-in-resident at the Chautauqua School of Art in Chautauqua, New York. Their work has been exhibited at various galleries including Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, Textile Center, Fresh Eye Gallery, Rosalux Gallery, and Regis Center for Art at the University of Minnesota. https://www.nicolethomas.studio/
Our moderator is Minneapolis-based artist-organizer Alison Bergblom Johnson (she/her) who collaborates with community care and art organizations from small, grassroots endeavors to very large, established institutions. Her genres and media include storytelling, creative nonfiction, installation, and collage, and her work explores gender, disability, and sexuality.
I think this will be in intriguing conversation.
Springboard for the Arts’ mission is to support artists with the tools to make a living and a life, and to build just and equitable communities full of meaning, joy, and connection. Founded as an independent nonprofit in 1991, Springboard for the Arts has an innovative 30-year history of supporting artists making a living and a life and artist-led community development work.
With offices in St. Paul and Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and working nationally, they are a small and ambitious organization that gets things done. They dream big about a different world that attends to an ecosystem that supports everyone to live and love as they wish while treading gently on this only planet we share. Everything they do, they strive to model a more holistic and more equitable ecosystem in order to make a greater difference.
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