Disability Culture Workshops: The Tracks Project
Wood Chair photograph: polarized image of person using a wheelchair in the woods

Exhibition and Presentation Sites:

June 2004: community/performance conference, Rhode Island - photo installation

July 2004: InterFACES Bangkok - juried photo exhibition, selected 'Wood Chair' (image above), Raffles LaSalle International Design School Bangkok

August 2004: Committing Voice festival, Goddard College - photo installation (exhibition)

September -October 2004: Glocester Manton Library, Chepachet (exhibition)

September - November 2004: Empire Tea and Coffee, 22 Broadway, Newport, Rhode Island (exhibition)

November 2004 - February 2005: Bryant University, Women's Center (exhibition) - join us for the opening event, November 30th, 4pm!

December 2004: Norman Bird Sanctuary, Middletown, Rhode Island

March 2005: Performance Medicine conference (presentation)

March 2005: Muhlenberg College, Pennsylvania (guest lecture)

March 2005: The Atrium Gallery, 1 Capitol Hill, Providence, Rhode Island (exhibition)

April 2005: University New Mexico, Albuquerque (presentation)

May 2005: Sarah Doyle Gallery, 26 Benevolent Avenue, Providence (exhibition)

June 2005: Hasbro Children's Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island (exhibition)

 

Art Works sold to institutions and installed in public spaces include:

Department of Administration, Capitol Police, Providence

RI Higher Education, Providence

Department of Administration- Personnel, Providence

Secretary of State, Providence

DVR -Office of Rehabilitation Services, Providence

 

Workshops:

29th of February, 1-4: Burrillville Recreation Center, Burrillville

17th of April, 1-4: Louttit Library, 274 Victorial Highway, West Greenwich

29th of May, 1-4: Bryant College, 1150 Douglas Pike, Smithfield

July 10th, 1.30-3.30: Goddard Park, Warwick

July 31st Misquamicut Beach, Westerly

July 10th Goddard Park, Warwick

July 31st Misquamicut Beach, Westerly

August 8th Misquamicut Beach, 5.30-7

August 21st: Norman Bird Sanctuary, 3-5

September 24th: media review meeting

October 30th, Canonicus, Exeter, 1.30-3.30

November 30th, Bryant University, Bryant Center, 4 pm: Gallery opening and Darkness workshop

 

Participating Artists


Dawn Burke

Mary Katherina Braun (Warwick)

Jessica Cales (Woonsocket)

Mary Cannon (Coventry)

Jeannine L. Chartier (Pawtucket)

Mary K. Flaherty (Boston)

Bill Guy (Foster)

Valerie Haven (Boston)

Terri Heywood (Warwick)

Petra Kuppers (Glocester)

Andy Lacouture (Glocester)

Deborah Nash (Exeter)

Mary Ann O'Toole (Boston)

Carol Poore (Providence)

Valerie Quagliata (Warwick)

Joey Sabo

Judy Semononff (Warwick)

Agnieszka Woznicka (Providence)

 

Original Call for Participation

We all leave marks in our environment - some of these marks are direct, like tracks in the snow, earth, grass, sand and water, some more
subtle. Our presence, our limbs, wheels and crutches, our way of being influence the landscape.
Through community arts workshops, we will explore some of the differences with which disabled people enrich our wider social world.
We move differently, we inhabit our world differently. Our differences present another view of the world, and of what it means to lead a fulfilled life - and our shared world is richer for these different perspectives.
Join disabled community arts leader Petra Kuppers to explore what disability culture and arts can mean.
Throughout 2004, a number of workshops will take place in rural settings in Rhode Island, and we will use movement work, photography,
earth sculpting, some creative writing and other arts-methods to explore our space in our world. Come along!

The Tracks Project is a collaboration between VSA Arts of Rhode Island and Petra Kuppers, Asst. Professor of Performance Studies at Bryant University, and Artistic Director of The Olimpias Performance Research Series (www.olimpias.net). Additional art work (a digital video project) is provided by Agnieszka Woznicka, Assistant Professor of Animation at RISD, who has also created some of the b/w documentation photos. The project is made possible by a Rhode Island Foundation New Works Grant, and will culminate in a travel photography exhibition.

To participate, please email (or send) a brief statement about yourself, and about why you wish to participate. You can also ring
Petra to tell her why, or speak through an intermediary. We are looking for curiosity and interest in disability arts and culture! You need to
be over 18, and need to self-identify as disabled.

Details

Bring clothes appropriate for the weather. We will work part of the time outside. Also bring writing materials, and, if you have a camera
(digital or optical) bring it along, if you wish.

Each workshop can accommodate up to 6 participants (plus one helper, assistant, friend, driver per participant, if you wish – whatever works
for you). A travel allowance of $40 will be paid to each participant. If you need help with transport, or just want to check out whether this
might be for you, contact Petra Kuppers, pkuppers@bryant.edu, (401) 232 6455, or Jeannine Chartier, ri@vsarts.org, (401) 725-0247. Snail mail address: Petra Kuppers, 60 Salisbury Road, Glocester, Rhode Island, 02814.
You can participate in more than one workshop, but you don’t have to. Workshops will take place all over Rhode Island’s rural spaces.

 

Beach Scars

Beach Scars - these images emerged out of a workshop in which we used colored clay and beach materials to investigate scar tissue, and its relation to our bodies's histories.

 

 

 

Back to main page