Summer break 2024
2024-09-01 00:00 - 2024-09-30 23:59 (America/Toronto) | BC
All activities of ArtsAbly, including the podcast, will be on summer break from September 1st to September 30, 2024.

4th Annual Humanities Podcasting Network Symposium: Best Practices
2024-11-08 10:30 - 11:45 | Online
For this fourth iteration of the HPN Symposium, on November 8 and 9, 2024, we find ourselves interrogating, engaging with, and pushing the boundaries of the concept of “best practices” and how it relates to humanities podcasting. Our initial inquiry was born out of a discussion about the need to counteract worker invisibility and exploitation on university campus podcast teams. But this raised a larger, thornier debate: Are there other agreed-upon principles of podcast-making and audio creation? If so, have they emanated from particular forebears and models, or sprung up out of habitual creation like unwritten, but widely understood, common laws? Are there contexts peculiar to podcasting that deserve their own careful ethical treatment or understanding?
Diane Kolin, founder and director of ArtsAbly, will be part of the discussion panel in Session 2: Best Practices for Podcasting as Artistry and Craft, on November 8 at 10:30 AM EST. You can find below the full program of the symposium and the registration link below. The recording of the session will be shared later.
Full program of the 4th HPN annual symposium
Registration link on Eventbrite

Celebrate the 50th episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation - June 13 at 6 pm EST
2025-06-13 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Welcome to ArtsAbly in Conversation with artists! ArtsAbly’s aim is to promote artists with disabilities through the podcast “ArtsAbly in Conversation” available on all streaming platforms and on YouTube. This special podcast episode will be the 50th since ArtsAbly was launched in 2024. It will be a live online discussion with artists who have been guests of the podcast in the past. Let’s discuss the power of artists with disabilities in the arts industry: visual arts, theatre, music, dance, etc. We will share tips, good practices, and examples of accessible venues.
We organize this event so that you can be part of the journey. We believe that all artists interviewed by ArtsAbly should be paid (we usually give a honorarium), but we need your help to reach our goal and continue fund our episodes and promote more artists. Tickets for the event are free but we encourage donations. There are no small amounts. Any support will be appreciated.
Join us online for an engaging session where talented artists share their insights, inspirations, and creative processes. This event is a unique opportunity to connect with artists from various backgrounds and learn about their artistic journey. Get ready to be inspired and gain a deeper understanding of the artistic world. Don’t miss out on this exciting event!
Get your free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/artsably-in-conversation-50-special-episode-live-online-discussion-tickets-1367090367089?aff=oddtdtcreator
Guests include:

Alex Bulmer, Playwright and theatre artist.
Emily Schooley, Actor and filmmaker.
Kemal Gorey, Media Composer, RAMPD Secretary.
Malicious Sheep, Multidisciplinary artist.
A. Laura Brody, Curator, Founder of Opulent Mobility.
Rory McLeod, Artistic Director of Xenia Concerts.
Traci Foster, Artistic Director of Listen to Dis’.
Stefan Sunandan Honisch, Musician, Sessional Lecturer, Theatre Studies.
Andrew Dell’Antonio, Musicologist, Professor.
Elizabeth McLain, Musicologist, Assistant Professor.
Robin Hahn, Soprano, opera singer.
Deshaymond, Singer, songwriter, producer.
Heather Feather, Children’s performer.

The episode is hosted by Diane Kolin, director and founder of ArtsAbly.

Music in the Village - The Village at Black Creek 2025
2025-08-09 11:30 - 2025-08-10 15:30 | The Village at Black Creek, 1000 Murray Ross Pkwy, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 2P3, Canada
The past comes to life in the Village at Black Creek on August 9th and 10th, 2025. The upcoming shows will illuminate the historic village with live performances all weekend long! Travel through time and catch all of the acts by a range of all-star artists!
ArtsAbly is the accessibility advisor for this event. We will be present onsite for the entire festival.
It’s Fab, it’s fun, and it’s FREE!
More info on FabCollab’s website

CCMP Accessibility and Theatre Workshop – Private event
2025-10-04 00:00 - 23:59 | BC
This private event will be a Community Theatre and Accessibility workshop organized by ArtsAbly, for City Centre Musical Productions (CCMP) in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

2025 Joint American Musicological Society and Society for Music Conference – Musicking in Disabled Community: Access Intimacy and Cultural Activism
2025-11-08 13:30 - 15:00 | Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN, 55403, United States
Organized by the AMS Music and Disability Study Group. Saturday, November 8, 2025. 12:30pm – 2:00pm CDT / 1:30pm – 3:00pm EST
The Music and Disability Study Group of the AMS hosts three presentations and a conversation on the theme “Musicking in Disabled Community: Access Intimacy and Cultural Activism.”
We have chosen three presentations that:

Are driven by the interests and priorities of disabled people;
Involve people collaborating across disability identities, prestige categories, and professional affiliations;
Engage with co-creating disability culture (see Brown, “What is Disability Culture,” ​Disability Studies Quarterly 22:2 (2022) and/or access intimacy (See Mingus, “Access Intimacy: The Missing Link”, 2011; https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/ ) as a form of resistance to structural ableism.

The presentations will be followed by general conversation on the themes above. All are welcome!
Presentations:

Access Culture at the Cedar – Elizabeth McLain
ArtsAbly and Disability Culture – Diane Kolin
Crip Sonorities – Molly Joyce

Full details: https://www.conftool.pro/minneapolis2025-ams-smt/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=258

Lecture at OCAD University: Accessibility assessments of public art installations
2025-11-12 11:30 - 14:30 | OCAD University, 100 McCaul St, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1G1, Canada
My colleague Roman Romanov, Sessional Lecturer at OCAD University and fellow Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification (RHFAC) Professional, invites Diane Kolin to present the public art accessibility assessments work frequently done by ArtsAbly to his class about accessibility and design.
This presentation is not public.

ArtsAbly and UBC: Music and Collective Access Symposium
2026-02-27 00:00 - 2026-02-28 23:59 | St. John’s College, 2111 Lower Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
We are delighted to announce the Call for Papers for the Music and Collective Access Symposium, which will occur in February 2026 in Vancouver.

Music and Collective Access Symposium 2026
Link to the event website: https://www.musiccollectiveaccess.com/
The event is free but registration is mandatory.

Organizers:
Anabel Maler (UBC), Stefan Sunandan Honisch (UBC), Diane Kolin (ArtsAbly)
Keynote speaker:
Pamela Witcher
When:
February 27 & 28, 2026
Where:
In-Person: St. John’s College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Online (Zoom)
Registration:
https://www.musiccollectiveaccess.com/registration/

We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming Music and Collective Access Symposium, which will take place from Friday, February 27 to Saturday, February 28, 2026, in Vancouver BC, Canada, hosted by St. John’s College at the University of British Columbia.
This hybrid (in-person and online, synchronous) conference is a collaborative undertaking between ArtsAbly, a not-for-profit organization working with performers and schools to make the arts more accessible to all, faculty members at UBC, and Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture, a Vancouver not-for-profit organization.
The symposium will offer performances, workshops and lectures, led by specialists, scholars and performers from across Canada, and will provide a forum for claiming access as a collective responsibility, while thinking through the theoretical, practical, aesthetic, and educational questions that individual access needs present in performance and learning environments. Four workshops will be featured: Braille notation, American Sign Language (ASL), accessible technology and instrument design, and performance and improvisation.
We gratefully acknowledge that the symposium has been made possible by the support of our host, St. John’s College, UBC, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant, a SSHRC Race, Gender, and Diversity Initiative Grant, and UBC Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism (sTEAR) funding. The UBC Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Musqueam Nation. Elder Larry Grant is a Faculty Fellow of the College.

The sympsosium will offer:

Papers (20 minutes, with 10 minutes for discussion)
Lecture Recitals (30 minutes, with discussion)
Workshops (1 hour)

Access Supports for the Symposium:
The symposium organizers will provide maximum access support to the best of our ability.
The symposium is in a hybrid format, welcoming both online and in-person synchronous presentations. All symposium sessions will include Sign Language interpretation, and Communication Access Real Time (CART) captioning. In addition, hired students will be available to provide help moving around the University of British Columbia for both days of the symposium. All symposium materials will be available in large print format (24 point, Sans Serif). For participants attending in person, there will be a designated quiet room, and we will provide a scent-free environment. For participants attending online (Zoom), participating in discussion both by speaking and by typing will be available. Symposium organizers will read typed comments and questions aloud for everyone. For online sessions, we will ask participants to avoid using emojis, and to refrain from typing comments during sessions, to avoid access barriers for people using assistive technology.
If you wish to discuss specific access needs with us at any point, please feel welcome to write to the symposium organizers using the dedicated email address provided below.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email musiccollectiveaccess@gmail.com.
