CAN/LETS was excited to deliver 2 workshops to the staff of Massy Arts Society. The first was Disability Awareness. The second was a combination of Disability Justice and Crip Kindness. This was a great audience of engaged participants who asked great questions about how they can integrate accessibility practices into their venue, workplace, and services.
We delivered these workshop in person. It was our first opportunity to share our new, large, stim toy collection with workshop participants. 1 participant told us that they realized they forgot their stim toy on the way to work and were concerned about whether they would be able to make it through the workshop without it. Then, when they arrived at the workshop, the first thing they saw was an entire table of stim toys. It made them feel seen and represented. We are so glad they shared this with us!
From Massy Arts Society website: “Massy Arts Society is a community hub dedicated to supporting the practices of Indigenous and over-excluded artists. Our programming is extensive in its multiple forms: open talks, debates, book launches, art shows, performances, concerts, fairs, and many others. We are primarily funded by Massy Books, an Indigenous woman-owned bookstore on the traditional, ancestral, unceded, and occupied territory of the xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and ̱ sel ̓ ílwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Massy Arts received seed ̓ funding from Massy Books for two years to get off the ground and continues to receive support. Today, we are grateful to receive support from the FPCC, BCAC, Government of Canada , which allows us to pay all artists to showcase their work in the gallery for the 2023 year.”