About S4DAC

Our Mission

The Society for Disability Arts and Culture will present and produce works by artists with disabilities and will promote artistic excellence among artists with disabilities working in a variety of disciplines.

Our Mandate

The Society for Disability Arts and Culture (S4DAC) was incorporated November 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Our objectives are:

1) to organize festivals of disability arts and culture
2) to encourage and enable artists to create and present authentic interpretations of the disability experience,
3) to provide a variety of opportunities for the development of artists with disabilities and
4) to promote practices that will make the arts more accessible to all members of the Canadian public.

We have also been involved in a variety of program activities, including the Swamp Angels Integrated Choir, dance and theatre performances, visual arts exhibitions and workshops in dance, visual and theatre arts. Read an overview of S4DAC's key accomplishments.

Staff (2006)

• Geoff McMurchy — Artistic Director
• Avril Orloff — Office Manager

Board of Directors

• David Roche - President
• Leslie Roman - Vice President
• Vickie Cammack - Secretary/Treasurer
• A. J. Brown

Strategic Planning

S4DAC has just completed a strategic plan for 2007-2010. The plan looks at ways to establish S4DAC on a more solid foundation to allow our mandate to be more completely realized.

Financial support from Arts Now's Catalyst Program allowed us to enter into a wide-ranging set of initiatives, including in-depth research into the state of disability arts in Canada and abroad. This research resulted in two documents, which you can download by clicking on their titles below:

1. Disability Arts and Culture in Canada: A Brief Overview provides a snapshot of initiatives, issues and current performance or presentation opportunities for artists working in the field;
2. Different Models of Organization describes several artist-oriented organizations in Canada and the United States, including the Interact Center for the Performing and Visual Arts in Minneapolis, and Vancouver’s Gallery Gachet and Grunt Gallery.

In addition to the research documents, the Catalyst grant also allowed us to carry out an on-line survey of artists, members, donors and other stakeholders, to which which many of you responded. (Thank you!) Read a summary of the survey results.

We present these documents here with the hope that you'll find them of interest, and we welcome your comments and/or questions. You can send us your feedback at info@s4dac.org.

Two previously published research documents were invaluable resources to us in our own work. We have received permission to reprint them, and include them here for your reading pleasure:

1. The Picasso Project: A report from the field of disability arts (December 2004) examines the state of disability arts in Canada and the UK, and presents an ambitious vision of the future of disability arts and culture. Reprinted with the permission of Picasso PRO.
2. Lights...Camera...Attitude! Introducing Disability Arts and Culture (April 2004) addresses the definition and scope of cultural activity by disabled artists, scholars and activists in North America and internationally, and looks at the way forward towards full inclusion. Reprinted by permission of the Ryerson-RBC Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education.