Wingspan Goes to School

Wingspan Launches Canada’s First Dis/Deaf Artist Residencies in K-12 BC Lower Mainland Schools

About Wingspan’s Dis/Deaf Artists-in Residency Program

Wingspan became an Established Cluster as part of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation Office (VPRI) in January of 2019. This means we are spreading our Wings into Canada’s public schools in the BC Lower Mainland, as a pilot to a hopeful national initiative. This project is timely because Canada has recently tabled Federal legislation to become accessible with bill C-81, The Accessible Canada Act. We have taken our program into the schools so the movement of artists with disabilities and Deafness can encourage students to become leaders in the dis/and Deaf arts around accessibility and inclusion, transforming what it means to listen to and learn from all youth.

Wingspan Classroom Wingspan Classroom

Seven schools in two districts, Vancouver School Board and Delta School Board have partnered with Wingspan and are hosting Canada’s first fully accessible and inclusive Dis/ability and Deaf Artists-in-Residence Program in K-12 schools with artists working with all students as role models and mentors, telling their stories in first-person narratives and encouraging their students to do the same. Moreover, innovative teachers and educational leaders have stepped up to work with the artists and are developing curricula with the artists to meet Wingspan’s learning objectives and serve the needs of their students and schools. See artist bios here.

Vancouver School Board:

Delta School Board:

Wingspan has been inspired in part most recently by Federal Minister Carla Qualtrough’s earlier national consultation and call for accessibility and inclusion. Equally, we have taken our cues from the disability arts and culture movement and NGO’s from the last two decades led by visionaries such as Geoff McMurchy, Catherine Frazee, Bonnie S. Klein and David Roche. From the Unruly Salon at UBC in 2008 till Wingspan 2017-present, we have moved from the margins to the mainstream. We have taken our program into the schools so the movement of artists with disabilities and Deafness can encourage students to become leaders in the dis/and Deaf arts around accessibility and inclusion, transforming what it means to listen to and learn from all youth.