This fall, the popular program Mn Artists Presents is going virtual! Minnesota-based multidisciplinary artist Alison Bergblom Johnson leads an evening of online events that investigate ways to leave behind stigma and discrimination that is attached to bodies experiencing disability, both invisibly and visibly. What happens when artists with disabilities find support within the mainstream? How do artists with disabilities avoid being mere tokens or separated from communities rooted in disability? Bergblom Johnson invites Minnesota artists with disabilities to dream what access could be.
All are welcome for a program that includes special livestreamed performances, an accessible networking event for artists with disabilities, and films. Connect with local artists of all disciplines and engage with the questions driving the MN arts community.
Program
November 19, 7 pm: Livestreamed performances by Scott Artley, Rubin Hardin, and Peder Hagen. Register here.
November 19, 8 pm: Virtual networking event for artists with disabilities. Register here. Registration is required for participation. Registration will close November 5 or when the event reaches capacity. All audiences are invited to observe the event, but only artists with disabilities are invited to participate.
November 19–December 3: Films by Atlas O. Phoenix and Liza Sylvestre streaming on walkerart.org.
November 19: Essay by D. Allen and Alison Bergblom Johnson available on walkerart.org.
Accessibility
Performances will include ASL interpretation, live captioning, and audio description. Participants may request accommodations for the networking event via the registration form. Films will be captioned. For additional questions regarding accessibility, please contact access@walkerart.org or call 612-375-7564.
Audio Described version of livestreamed performances available here.
Guest curator Alison Bergblom Johnson (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist; through collage, creative nonfiction, and solo performance she engages with meanings and experience of gender, trauma, value, and worth. She has performed at Strike Theater and Patrick’s Cabaret, among others. She is on the COMPAS Teaching Artist roster and is an Artist Career Consultant for Springboard for the Arts.
Participating Artists
Atlas O. Phoenix (they/them) is an award-winning director, writer, producer, actor, and editor who creates compelling, provocative film work. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, their previous artistic work has been about the darkness of human nature, child abuse, and familial dysfunction.
D. Allen (they/them) is a multidisciplinary queer poet and visual/performing artist who makes work around illness, embodiment, gender/sexuality, and the passage of time.
Scott Artley (he/him) is a queer disabled multidisciplinary artist and cultural producer whose practice spans performance, visual art, and creative leadership. His performance piece Going Low is body art on the molecular level, and a lesson in caring from a distance.
Peder Hagen (he/him) is a performer and visual artist. He always felt born into a different time and relates to his character, Iris O’Connell, a farm wife from western Pennsylvania. Iris likes Judy Garland because they both didn’t feel like they fit in when they were young and now they do. Hagen has performed this character previously for Patrick’s Cabaret at Lush and the Cowles Center.
Rubin Hardin (they/them) is a poet from Saint Paul who has published and performed widely. They will be performing a series of poems that explore their experiences as a disabled trans person.
Liza Sylvestre (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and Curator of Academic Programs at the Krannert Art Museum. Through Captioned: Channel Surfing, she critically engages with the space created by the absence of accessibility modes.
