Past Event

Carleton University Art Gallery invites you to a talk by Brooklyn-based artist and activist Shannon Finnegan: “A Completely Customized World Where Everything Is Just How I Like and Need It.”

This is the fourth event in CUAG’s “Disruptions: Dialogues on Disability Art” series, curated by Michael Orsini to generate dialogue about contemporary art as a force for challenging ableism. Admission is free and everyone is welcome! Light refreshments will be provided.

Shannon will discuss her evolving relationship to access and protest as an artist, speaking to why the accessibility of her work is important, as an integral part of the creative process rather than as an afterthought. Together, we’ll learn about how she responds to inaccessibility through her work and how that has the potential to push organizations and institutions to improve their access practices.

Inspired by Shannon’s project Museum Benches, we invite you to design your own audience space. We’ll provide chairs, pillows, mats and other materials (though you’re welcome to bring your own!) so that everyone can collaboratively create their ideal way to experience Shannon’s talk.

This event is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture, School for Studies in Art and Culture, READ Initiative, Carleton Disability Awareness Centre, Graduate Students Association and Carleton University Students Association.

Shannon Finnegan is a multidisciplinary artist making work about disability culture and accessibility. She has done projects with Friends of the High Line, Banff Centre, The Invisible Dog and the Wassaic Project. She has spoken at the Brooklyn Museum, School for Poetic Computation, The 8th Floor, and The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library. In 2018, she received a Wynn Newhouse Award and participated in Art Beyond Sight’s Art + Disability Residency. She is currently a resident at Eyebeam.

Michael Orsini is Professor in the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies and the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. He is co-editor (with Christine Kelly) of Mobilizing Metaphor: Art, Culture and Disability Activism in Canada (UBC Press, 2016). He is currently part of a SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant, “Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology and Access to Life,” which explores how activist art can be mobilized to promote social justice and an appreciation for diverse minds and bodies.