Open Access in the Virtual Realm:
Carmen Papalia and Kristin Rochelle Lantz
in Conversation with Sara Reisman
Thursday, June 18, 2020
6 to 7:30pm EST
This event was held on Zoom
Carmen Papalia, Blind Field Shuttle, (San Francisco, CA) 2010 - ongoing. Collaborative performance. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo by Jordan Reznick. [Image Description: A group of people line up behind the artist Carmen Papalia with their arms linked and eyes closed. They cross the street in an urban space towards the camera with Papalia utilizing a white cane to guide them. To Papalia’s left is a security officer.]
On June 18, the Rubin Foundation hosted an online program with activist artist Carmen Papalia who spoke about his practice which meaningfully connects art, activism, and accessibility. Building on his long-term project Open Access, which provides organizations and practitioners with tools to facilitate deeper engagement with communities, Papalia discussed how access is being defined in virtual spaces, and how disability can be addressed in programs conducted via online platforms. Committed to the belief that access must be facilitated based on awareness of community needs rather than strict adherence to ADA guidelines, Papalia’s research-based performance practice reveals how the process of making arts and culture accessible can be scaled to the resources at hand, for both individual practitioners and organizations large and small. Papalia was joined by his partner Kristin Rochelle Lantz with whom he often collaborates.
Access Information: This presentation included live ASL interpretation and captioning.
To read an event transcript, please click here.
Bios
Carmen Papalia uses organizing strategies and improvisation to address his access to public space, the art institution and visual culture. His work, which takes forms ranging from collaborative performance to public intervention, is a response to the barriers and biases of the medical model. As a convener, he establishes welcoming spaces where those from historically marginalized groups realize their desires for participation through processes rooted in activism, performance and institutional critique. Papalia’s work has been featured at: The Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, the Tate Liverpool, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Gallery Gachet, among others.
Kristin Rochelle Lantz is an artist and curator whose work is concerned with the cultural implications of caregiving. Before becoming a mother on September 7, 2018, she was the programs coordinator at Gallery Gachet, a collectively-run space in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that has demystified issues related to mental health since 1993. With over 15 years of experience in supportive roles at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Museum of Vancouver and the Purple Thistle Centre, she currently works with her partner Carmen Papalia as a collaborator and arts manager.