Art Activism
Today, I changed the name on this page from Advocacy to Activism as I realise that is what I have become. It wasn’t strictly speaking my intention,.. It happened over the last few years as circumstances, personal and general, prompted me to take the chance to speak up when I see injustice or inequality towards people, and ESPECIALLY children, with disabilities. I also now speak up when I see lack of representation of people with disabilities as how can there be inclusion or equity without representation?
Is this how you do it? Am I doing it right? I don’t know. I feel, as though I am finding my voice all over again! I love harmony, consensus. This does not feel quite so harmonious. It’s a new song … in fact, what is the song? It’s very unfamiliar to me.
So, I hope you will be patient with me, as I find this new voice and new song!
As an artist who has a disability, I have albinism and have a visual impairment, I am passionate that as a society we learn and take the steps to facilitate people who have a disability to express and develop their abilities and reach their potential. I see it as a question of creativity: creative inquiry, creative response and creative practice. There is so much we can do to disable the disabling aspects of disability. People with disabilities are frequently inherently more creative anyway, they’ve had to learn to be in order live in a very “able” world. In order to play my part, this page will bring you through specific projects I have created, am involved in or am an advocate for.
With Dr. Sinead Kate at Sightsavers
Solid, Space and Sound workshop by Emilie Conway - August 8th 5-7pm @ Pallas Projects, The Liberties
A multi-sensory experience using sound, touch, and a sense of atmosphere to communicate artistic ideas which will open engagement from a more diverse audience to your practice.
All participants regardless of accessibility requirements are asked to fill out this form for Chronic Collective to best cater to needs of the group. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSczd-2xaECTokh_DpWa0jt0buNceqgJ2_GcTd668sCsFj-iYw/viewform
Travel stipends are available for anyone who needs them. Please indicate this via the form or contact chronicartcollective@gmail.com.
For more information vistit : http://pallasprojects.org/project/chronic-collective
Irish Theatre Institute and Mother Tongues Present: Contact Point
June 27, 5-6:30pm
Emilie Conway: “If you want your work to be taken seriously and respected as an artist, you have to hide having albinism.”
CONTACT POINT is a series of online conversations for theatre/multidisciplinary artists and arts workers asking challenging questions about our arts and culture sector. Emilie Conway will speak on stereotypes around disability on June 27. Register for the event HERE
Facilitated by Tatiana Santos (Research and Development Officer at Mother Tongues .
Each session features an exciting guest speaker who talks about their experience of a stereotype. You will have an opportunity to feedback through group discussions, questions, and a final group sharing. Find out more and register HERE
The National Neighbourhood: DCCCC
Cnnecting artists, groups and villages with libraries, museums and creative places to deepen their understanding of each other and themselves.
The National Neighbourhood is a Dublin City Council cultural programme run by Dublin City Council Culture Company. I was a facilitating artist on a pioneering series of sessions that introduced a group of people who have visual impairment to our cities cultural institutions. I was eager to take this as an opportunity to raise lots of points in discussion on arts and culture accessibility and participation for people who are visually impaired or have a disability. We had many lively sessions that were enlightening for both the institutions and the participants. Ouc city’s institutions went away with lots of lived experience on accessibility which we all hope improves cultural accessibility for all.
Find out more at dublincitycouncilculturecompany.ie
Tactile and Touch Resources created by Emilie to enhance audio tours.
Live Audio Described & Tactile Tours at the RHA Gallery, Dublin.
I create audio described tours and tactile resources to allow visitors who are visually impaired experience art at the RHA Gallery in Dublin.
Previous tours include: Brian Eno: 77 Million Paintings, Eamonn Doyle, Niamh O’Malley: Handle, Michael Robinson, and Neill Carroll
Emilie Conway is an award winning musical artist. She is also a visual artist and art facilitator. She has a visual impairment. The central role art plays in her own life drives her passion to explore access and inclusion through collaborative art practice and engagement.
In designing these tours, I was inspired by my own belief and experience of art as a multi-sensroy experience. Audio description is great. But I don’t see why it should stop there, solely dependent on verbal transmission of the art. For this reason I created tactile resources shown below. I’ve also include movement and poetry in my tours. This multi-disciplinary approach to my tours also suits me as an artist who loves words, dancing, music and all art forms.
Tactile resources created by Emilie for previous tours.
Voices
My own visual impairment and a recent second brush with hearing loss, which thankfully, I'm recovering well from, has made me very sensitive to the voice and space, or lack thereof, of people with disabilities in our society. Never more than now, in the middle of a pandemic, we don't hear much from this community and they are part of all of our families and friends. I feel it is important that these voices are heard since the more we understand, the better we can respond and the kinder, more inclusive, and integrated a society we can be.
VOICES celebrates, spotlights and explores the experiences of people who have a visual impaired through music, spoken word, poetry, etc.
While participation is by people who have a disability, the audience is open to all! So, if you would like to learn a little about different kinds of visual impairment and pass an enjoyable evening of music, poems, art and ideas, shoot me a mail.
SIGHTSAVERS JUNIOR PAINTER ART COMPETITION
I’m delighted to be invited to judge Sightsavers Junior Painter of the Year competition. This is a very special art competition in which children are invited to make a painting around the theme of how sustainability can help disability inclusion under the title Put Us in the Picture. Sightsavers are also running a wonderful program for schools to get children thinking about sustainability and access to education for children with disabilities in the developing world (and here!) through games and activities which foster empathy and imagination.
The Arts Council’s Artist in the Community Scheme Managed by Create in partnership with the RHA Gallery.
Like music, art gives people a voice and, as an artist, whether I work in music or in art the process is the same: that of listening, exploring, distilling and giving voice to something or clearing the interference so a voice be heard . As visual art is no longer purely visual but a multi-sensory experience, I became concerned that the voice of those who experience visually impairment is present in visual art, as in music, both in its creation and experience. To me, it is a creative invitation and a question for socially engaged art - one I feel passionate to address. I devised a project to explore how art, like music, could be a collaborative practice with people who are visually impaired and fully sighted artists in 2018 which was supported by the Arts Council and the RHA Gallery.
Retina 2019: Fighting Blindness Ambassador
Retina 2019 brings together top international and Irish researchers and clinicians in the global effort to find treatments and cures for conditions causing vision impairment and blindness.
Approaching its 20th year, this multi-dimensional three day event will see more than 400 people attend at least one element of the conference representing every stakeholder group: patients, advocates, clinicians, scientists, industry, regulators and government.20 Years of Research
The Retina Conference is an annual event organised by Irish patient-led charity Fighting Blindness, 2019 marks the 20th year of the conference. What began as the All-Ireland Retinal Researchers Network (AIRRN) Meeting in 2000 has grown from strength to strength over the years and is now a three day internationally renowned conference.
I am delighted to be invited to be ambassador for this important event around the education and cure blindness and visual impairment.
Brief Interview on Newstalk about my experience with albinism and Retina 2019 here.
NCBI Clear Our Paths Campaign
The National Council for the Blind of Ireland has today launched a nationwide awareness campaign urging people not to place obstacles in the way of people with visual impairments. People with impaired vision face difficulties, on a daily basis, as they try to navigate their way through towns and cities countrywide.
Obstacles include cars parked on footpaths, bins in the middle of paths, overhanging branches and dog litter- all of which pose huge problems and potential danger for people with sight loss.
Elaine Howley, Director of Policy and Advocacy with NCBI says “Our aim is to raise public awareness of the impact that obstacles on our footpaths have on the everyday lives of people with any level of sight loss”.