Reports and Pedagogical tools

A black and white pencil illustration of an older Madeline Clark and Sterling Lyon. Madeline is standing, holding a white dog. She has glasses, her hair pulled back in a bun, and is wearing a cardigan and pants. She is focused intently on Sterling. Beside her is Sterling, speaking into a microphone. She is seated in a mobility scooter decorated with flowers, wearing a sweatshirt and pants. Her hair is loose around her face. Around them swirl a haze of memories – of clothing they were forced to sew as children, reaching out hands to each other, crying, cleaning, being trapped behind the windows of Huronia, and taking the stand at the trial. Madeline and Sterling © 2023 by Varvara Nedilska is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Time Travel Wheels: A pedagogical guide

Chatsick, J., Collins, K., & Zbitnew, H. (2023). Time Travel Wheels: A pedagogical guide.

This pedagogical tool offers a guide to the novella, Time Travel Wheels, and to the history of institutionalization of people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities at the Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia, Ontario. With three distinct levels of engagement, beginner, intermediate and in-depth, this guide supports discussion and activities in order to engage with difficult histories.

A multicoloured composite illustration of several elements of an interconnected ecosystem. Including, a tree, spiders with web, bees and hive, an owl, flowers, a bear, the mountains, the moon, several jellyfish, a sleeping fox curled tightly in a ball and diamonds and crystals in the landscape. The central focus of the illustration is a troop of mushrooms with a network of mycelium. Mushrooms all together © 2021 by Sonny Bean is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Relaxed Performance: An Illustrated Guide

Collins, K., Jones, C.T. & Rice, C. (2022) Relaxed Performance: An Illustrated Guide. Research Report. Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice, University of Guelph.

This tool builds on the Relaxed Performance training modules developed by the British Council. It also draws on the findings from Relaxed Performance research by the British Council and Bodies In Translation (BIT), including the 2019 Relaxed Performance: Exploring Accessibility in the Canadian Theatre Landscape and the 2022 Relaxed Performance: Exploring University-based Training Across Fashion, Theatre and Choir reports.

Performance artist Rachael Young opens her arms wide and upward. Rachael is a black woman. She’s pictured centre stage, in the lower third of the photograph. The electric blue background above her contrasts with the warm, golden light that illuminates her. She wears a glittery metallic top with one long sleeve and one bare shoulder. Her skirt is a huge dome made of shiny copper fabric that glimmers across the full width of the photo. This image, from Brownton Abbey, “a kaleidoscopic off-world temple performance party,” presented at the 2019 Cripping the Arts Symposium, is by Michelle Peek Photography and courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, Re•Vision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph.

Relaxed Performance: Exploring University-based Training Across Fashion, Theatre and Choir

Jones, C.T., Rice, C., Collins, K., & Dion, S. (2022). Relaxed Performance: Exploring University-based Training Across Fashion, Theatre and Choir. Research Report. Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice, University of Guelph.

Over the course of the 2019—2020 academic year, the British Council and Bodies in Translation (BIT) at the Re•Vision Centre for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph partnered with three universities in Turtle Island, in the province known as Ontario, to introduce Relaxed Performance (RP) training modules into existing fashion studies, theatre, and choral studies curriculums. Through this RP Curriculum Pilot project, up to 240 students at X University, York University, and the University of Guelph, respectively, learned best practices and how to incorporate RP principles into their mid-term and final projects, which were open to the public. This report chronicles the RP Curriculum Pilot, a project built on findings from the 2019 “Relaxed Performance: Exploring Accessibility in the Canadian Theatre Landscape” report, which pointed to the promise of disability justice–led RP training and delivery for improv- ing accessible performances. Over the course of this training, BIT researchers employed a mixed methods framework using surveys, interviews, participant observation, and analysis of materials produced through the RP training. Through this data generation, we gained insight into RP as a vibrant, creative intervention with roots in European theatre–based disability activism. Each discipline engaged in RP for different reasons and developed its own set of strategies around making a crip fashion show, a relaxed theatre production, and a choral ensemble performance more accessible; all of these performances reflect RP’s growing application across sectors. The work of RP is community-based and must be community-led, beginning with the meaningful inclusion of disabled people as RP trainers, also known as Access Activators. Following the guiding principles of disability justice, RP’s community-based approach must preserve and nurture its vitality by expanding its context-specific relationships with those who report being underrepresented in RP, specifically Deaf and Indigenous communities. Additionally, it is clear that as a justice-oriented praxis, RP must continue to strive to respond to and develop context- and industry-specific “vital practices” that will vary across performances as RP continues to grow, becoming transdisciplinary and increasingly transnational in scope.