Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation

Join DiverseWorks on September 30th for the Fall 2021 Diverse Discourse Lecture, Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation, with Amanda Chachia, independent curator and critic.

Oftentimes exhibitions tack on access once the artwork has already been executed and ready to be installed in the museum or gallery. But what if artists were to ponder access as an integral and critical part of their artwork? Can access be creative and experimental? And furthermore, can the curator also fold access into their practice, while working collaboratively with artists, considering it as a theoretical and practical generative force that seeks to make an exhibition more engaging for a wider diversity of audiences? This talk will consider how a growing number of artists, curators, and scholars ponder these ideas through experimental approaches within exhibition-making and artistic practices.

Amanda Cachia is an independent curator and critic from Sydney, Australia. She received her PhD in Art History, Theory & Criticism from the University of California San Diego in 2017. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary art; curatorial studies and activism; exhibition design and access; decolonizing the museum; and the politics of embodied disability language in visual culture. She is currently working on two book projects: a monograph based on her dissertation solicited by Duke University Press, and the edited volume Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation under contract with Routledge that includes over 30 contributors from around the world. Cachia currently teaches art history, visual culture, and curatorial studies at Otis College of Art and Design, California Institute of the Arts, California State University Long Beach, and California State University San Marcos. She serves as caa.reviews Field Editor for West Coast Exhibitions (2020-2023).