Disability Artistry Initiative at BAX
A constellation of projects led by disabled artists creates a growing framework for disability, access, and artistry at BAX. A multi-prong, artist-led collection of intersectional programs includes ROTATIONS, directed by Yo-Yo Lin and Pelenakeke Brown, a collaborative residency with the CUNY Dance Initiative at Brooklyn College and inaugural recipient Anna Gichan, DREAM (Disability, Radicality, Embodiment, and Access for Makers) developed by the artist Perel, and an Access Artistry Conversation Series designed in consultation with Kevin Gotkin.
Together, these projects build a platform for disability artistry that serves both the organizational culture, including BAX staff and its artist community, as well as the broader field of contemporary dance and performing arts. These interlocking programs formulate a framework for accountability and shared stewardship. They build momentum and expertise about disability access and artistry, a key dimension to sustainable organizing that too often is siloed among only those spearheading the work.
The Disabled Space Grant in 2018-19 and 2019-20 was funded by the NYC Deparment of Cultural Affairs Disability Forward Fund.
Current Programs
Cuéntame DJ Cohort
Cuéntame is partnering with BAX as part of their Practice Lab to build a DJ Cohort of all Disabled and/or Queer/Trans DJS. Club life has been inaccessible for too long and we want to provide a way for disabled/queer people to not just be attendees of nightlife but the artist and creators of the night. We are offering 12 people who identify as either Disabled and/or Queer/Trans a chance to learn from teaching artists the basics of becoming a DJ. Teaching artists will have different levels of experience, styles, and technical knowledge. This Cohort will prepare you for an hour long live DJ set to take place during the week of a disabled-queer performing arts and nightlife festival in October 2026.
D.R.E.A.M
Led by Perel, the Dance, Radicality, Embodiment, and Access for Makers mentorship program centers the complex questions about disabled artistry with honesty and transparency about the need to discover the answers collaboratively, acknowledging that what works for one artist might not for another. Perel has learned that what is necessary for them as a working artist/mentor is to be able to bring their own research and practices into the mentoring relationship.
Past Programs
Access Artistry Learning Circle
The Access Artistry Learning Circle is a space for exploration of access practices and disability culture for a cohort of representatives from NYC-based dance/performance/movement arts organizations. In early 2024, this cohort will convene in 4 modules that will cultivate anti-ableist political analyses and the structure and support necessary for sustainable institution-specific technical expertise. Recordings and documentation from these convenings will become part of a public course to be released later in 2024. This project is stewarded by Kevin Gotkin, Ph.D., and Madison Zalopany, administered with BAX/Brooklyn Art Exchange as part of the Disability Artistry Initiative, and funded by the Ford Foundation’s Arts Futures program.
ROTATIONS
ROTATIONS acts as an exploratory online workshop space where each cycle consists of a series of 8 movement classes taught by different Mad, Deaf/deaf/HoH, chronically ill, sick, and disabled dancers artists. The priority is being together and learning from one another. As a means to create a collective resource, all techniques and curricula are open-source.
Access, Artistry and Disability Conversation Series (2022-23)
Across the cultural sector, institutions are having very similar conversations about access and disability. Often disability initiatives are activated in response to a particular grant, only to disappear when funding is no longer available, or dissolve when a key staff member moves on from an organization. This is sapping the momentum that would be possible with regular convenings for organizations and their staff to share ideas and incubate initiatives. A higher level of communication and commitment from the field is sorely missing and urgently desired.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many access efforts by arts organizations. When we were all forced to close our physical doors in 2020, many organizations pivoted to online platforms and began to integrate access features for blind, low vision, Deaf, and hard of hearing artists and families into the fabric of the programming, web design, and user portals, some for the first time.
There is a shared recognition that access measures are not temporary needs: we must adjust as a field to invest and incorporate accessibility in thoughtful, sustainable, and expedient ways so that we can more effectively serve our students, audiences, and artists. How can we collectively bring equity and access lenses to every decision we make across policy and programming, and cross-institutional practice in order to uphold field-wide respect for artists?
We collected resources and created a Framing Disability Justice site for our cohort.