© Nirmala Coppejans
Sector day: Cripping the Space
Marijn Prakke, Mira Bryssinck, Josefien Cornette, Fien Criel, Anna Püschel & Joyce Vuylsteke
16%-24% of the population has a disability.
That group is currently inadequately represented in the current arts sector.
As an artist or organization, how do you work on accessibility in a sustainable way, both in the workplace and within the creation of a performance? Why is it important to facilitate work by/about disability? Where do you start and what is involved?
Crucial questions to which we try to offer practice-oriented answers on this day. International speakers such as Kaite O’Reilly, among others, come to inspire us with words of wisdom. Cripping the Space presents their charter to the industry. We eat together and offer info sessions shaped by Culture Desk.
ACCESSIBILITY
*We work with crip time: people may leave and enter according to their needs.
*Childcare: we provide childcare, activities and treats for your children so you can participate in peace.
*The entire location is wheelchair accessible from the main entrance. The restrooms are also wheelchair accessible.
* Flemish Sign Language interpreter: throughout the day programme
*Live Dutch-language surtitles: throughout the day programme
*FM loop: throughout the entire day programme
*Escort to and from railway station Brussels North (on request)
*Guidance during the sector day at De Hallen in Schaerbeek (upon request)
*Parking: There are no parking facilities, not even for those in possession of a parking card for the disabled. However, there is the possibility of kiss and ride in front of the entrance gate.
*Here you can find more info on how to reach the Hallen by public transport (in Dutch)
SCHEDULE -under reservation-
10:30 – 11:00 Walk-in with coffee
11:00 – 12:00 Keynote Kaite O’Reilly
12:00 – 12:30 Q&A
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:00 Keynote Sonja Parmentier
14:00 – 14:30 Presentation Charter
14:30 – 14:45 Pause
14:45 – 15:45 An info session on recruiting artists in a cultural organization
15:45 – 16:45 An info session on funding for more accessible cultural organizations and activities
Info session: hiring artists in a cultural organization
As a cultural organization you have to deal with various artists: everyone has taken a different route to get to your organization. You have to take into account not only that route, but also various backgrounds and their status. In this session, we’ll look at, among other things, what you need to consider when you want to compensate an artist for his/her/their performance and the method of compensation in conjunction with the type of income they may already be receiving (such as an income replacement allowance, benefit, art work allowance, living wage, etc.).
Info session: funding for more accessible cultural organizations and activities
Making your workplace, organization and cultural activities more accessible requires an additional investment. During this info session, we aim to help cultural organizations gain insights into additional funding opportunities and strategies to make their operations more accessible to people with disabilities.
CONTACT
Do you have any questions or want more info regarding accessibility on Sector Day? If so, please feel free to contact us at info@stagingaccess.be. For a direct request for help on the day itself, please call or message +32 486 022 295.
In collaboration with Het TheaterFestival, Kunstenpunt, Staging Access, Kunstencentrum VIERNULVIER, Cultuurloket, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Lasso & DE SINGEL, NTGent & Sociaal Fonds Podiumkunsten.
Les Halles de Schaerbeek
Grote Hal
Kaite O’Reilly is a multi-award winning playwright and dramaturg, who writes for radio, screen and live performance. She is known internationally for her pioneering work in Disability culture. Prizes include the Peggy Ramsay Award, Manchester Theatre Award, Theatre-Wales Award and the Ted Hughes Award for new works in Poetry for Persians (National Theatre Wales). She is a two time finalist in the International James Tait Black Prize for Innovation in Drama (2012, 2019) and The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She was honoured in the 2017/18 International Eliot Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for developing ‘Alternative Dramaturgies informed by a Deaf and disability Perspective’.
She is associate dramaturg for National Theatre Wales and production dramaturg/narrative director for Rambert’s Peaky Blinders dance theatre, The Redemption of Thomas Shelby, touring. She works internationally, her work translated into fifteen languages worldwide, and is part of the visiting faculty at ITI: Intercultural Theatre Institute, in Singapore. Kaite’s plays Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors and The ‘d’ Monologues are published by Oberon/Methuen/ Bloomsbury. Her international work includes the 2018 Unlimited Commission And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/Wales ‘d’ Monologues, a collaboration between Deaf and disabled artists, now in development with partners Access Path Productions in Singapore and Body On&On in China. Her plays the 9 fridas and The ‘d’ Monologues had their Korean premiere in Seoul, 2021.
She is currently working on a British Council Wales/India Connections through Culture commission. Her first feature film, The Almond and the Seahorse with Mad as Birds films, won the Special Jury’s prize at Dinard Film Festival in 2022. Featuring Rebel Wilson and Charlotte Gainsbourg, it will be released in the UK in 2023. She is currently developing a television series with a disabled female protagonist.
Sonja Parmentier
Sonja Parmentier grew up in her parents’ dance studio. After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree at Codarts, dance academy in Rotterdam, she started working as a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer. Where she started as a dance professional without wheels, today she is a dance professional with wheels. Over the years, she has worked with national and international experts in various forms of dance. Because she strongly believes in the emancipation of people with disabilities and their right to fully participate, she gives workshops and lectures for various organisations, such as Nederlandse Dansdagen and Holland Dance Festival.
She has been involved in creating and handing over the ” Agenda Inclusive Performing Arts” in 2019 in the Netherlands and has also been involved in both launches of the Time to Act reports , initiated by Europe Beyond Access and British Council. In addition, she is a co-initiator of the PodiumINC Foundation , which advocates for the position and development of artists with disabilities. A foundation born out of a sense of need to get things moving and take action as an inclusive organisation. In her own, sometimes somewhat critical, activist way , she brings the subject of inclusion into the limelight.
