Kinetic Light to Present 2024 'Access ALLways' Series Online Workshops

Internationally-recognized disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light will present their 2024 Access ALLways workshop series with sessions focusing on various topics related to equity and accessibility in the arts offered in April, June, August, October, and November 2024. Access ALLways is Kinetic Light's holistic approach to accessibility & equity training. Created and led by Kinetic Light artist, engineer, and designer Laurel Lawson, these workshops are participatory, online sessions designed specifically for people in the the arts ecosystem: artists, arts organizations, producers, presenters, grantmakers, and event organizers.

The ALLways method, grounded in Kinetic Light's holistic research and practice, uses fundamental principles of equity and hospitality to help participants learn how to create equitable access for performances, events, process, and organization. Each session is fully online and is participatory; discussion and exercises are conducted in small groups. CART captioning, ASL, and visual description are included for each session. Click for dates, fees, details and registration.

"ALLways invites us to transform how we are in relation to each other and to our work.

Centering equity frees us to recreate the places where people meet art, to build our largest and most enthusiastic audiences, and to make the best work possible," comments Laurel Lawson of Kinetic Light. "We are excited to offer our rigorous research and practice development to the field in these impactful, interactive sessions."

Workshop fees are on a sliding scale according to organizational operating budget, with subsidized fees available for independent arts workers. In addition to Early Bird rates and multi-session discounts, Kinetic Light offers package pricing for teams of three or more from the same organization. Custom workshops for organizations and companies are also available. Contact workshops@kineticlight.org for group rate or custom programming details.

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

April 16: Access as Creative Practice, 1-4pm ET/ 10-1pm PT

This session is all about the creative and generative possibilities of disability in artistic practice. This session is ideal for artists in professional practice who are actively committed to accessibility in their creation and rehearsal process or in performance, and for arts organizations and presenters who are commissioning or supporting the creation and production of new work.

Specific focus topics in this session will include flexible and multiplex access, auditory access for visual and performing arts, visual access for sonic art, and collaborative creative processes.

June 20: Accessible Event Design, Budgeting & Content, 1-4pm ET/ 10-1pm PT

June's session focuses on designing and executing accessible events and performances. This workshop is ideal for presenting organizations, front of house leaders, community organizers, development specialists, community organizers, and self-Producing Artists with new to modest levels of experience with accessibility.

This session will focus on access fundamentals for in-person, online, and hybrid events; how to design and budget your event and content access; personnel support needs and strategies; and accessible marketing and attendee journeys.

August 22: Intro to Accessibility Thinking & Practice, 1-4pm ET/ 10-1pm PT

August's session is for arts workers in any role with no or new experience levels with disability or accessibility. This session introduces access fundamentals as well as frameworks to develop your own approach and methods, and is ideal for founders, venues, and presenters who want to begin to implement accessible practices in their personal and organizational work.

This session offers technical and cultural fundamentals for centering equity in your work; accessible communications, outreach, and community-building techniques; how principles of hospitality and equity can inform access; and provocations for meaningful culture change.

October 17: Accessible Programming & Grantmaking, 1-4:30pm ET/ 10-1:30pm PT*

October's session is designed specifically for arts workers involved in designing and implementing programming and funding, including governmental, NGO, nonprofit, and foundation workers. It is ideal for arts workers with intermediate experience with accessibility, who are interested in restructuring traditional models of programming.

Join us to discuss intersectional equity with attention to program goals, accessible and simple application design, equitable review and selection processes, funding practices, and user research and information collection.

*NOTE: This session is 3.5hrs long, rather than the standard 3hr ALLways session.

November 19: Centering Disability in Strategy, Systems & Structures, 1-4pm ET/ 10-1pm PT

November's session is ideal for arts professionals who have a strategic, organization-wide, or field-wide focus with intermediate to advanced levels of experience with disability or accessibility. Institutional interest in supporting disabled artists and access work has boomed - but this well-intentioned support will be ineffective at supporting equity, justice, and field-wide change if we don't examine our underlying assumptions and structures.

Join us to learn how centering artistry and equitable access can transform organizational cultures. Specific topics will include accessible organizational culture and de-biasing tools, inter-organizational collaboration and field trends, and strategies for supporting creation of accessible work.

LAUREL LAWSON BIO

Laurel Lawson (flexible pronouns) is a choreographic collaborator, dancer, designer, and engineer with Kinetic Light. She is the primary costume and makeup designer, contributes technical and production design, and designs the wheelchairs that she and Alice Sheppard use in performance. She also leads access and technology initiatives, including Audimance, the company's approach to audio description, and Access ALLways, a holistic approach to disabled-led equitable access. Lawson began her professional dance career with Atlanta's Full Radius Dance. In her independent and transdisciplinary practice, housed at Rose Tree Productions, her work includes both traditional choreography and novel ways of creating art through technology and design; in the creation of worlds and products experienced, installed, embodied, or virtual. Her work has been recognized with a Dance/USA Artist Fellowship, funded by the Doris Duke Foundation, and with a 2023 Creative Capital Award. Lawson is also CTO and co-founder of CyCore Systems, a boutique engineering consultancy. A noted public speaker and teacher, she speaks on a range of technical topics as well as on leadership practice, accessibility, culture and equity, cultivating creativity and driving innovation.