Building a Canadian Disability Arts Network: an Intercultural Approach

Abstract

A growing body of scholarship highlights the critical import of interdisciplinary dialogue between performance studies and disability studies. This dialogue seems particularly relevant for intercultural performance studies and in this essay I argue that an emerging Canadian disability arts presenters’ network offers a useful opportunity for such an exchange. The metaphor of the network also provides a model for thinking about intercultural creation in ways that favour ongoing dialogue and debate over consensus. Since its inaugural meeting in 2006, this network has drawn together pioneering presenters of disability arts and cultural events, each involving a significant theatre component, from across Canada. Canadians have shown considerable leadership in local and international disability arts and cultural movements but there has hitherto been little coordination between presenters or professional support on a national level. This network’s origins, membership, activities, and arguments shed light on diverse disability cultures at play in Canada and press intercultural performance studies to include disability as an important identity rubric while also attending to this diversity.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 8 citations exist upstream.