Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba is a regional not-for-profit artist run charitable organization dedicated to the full inclusion of artists and audiences with disabilities into all facets of the arts community.
Mandate
To facilitate a network of artists and stakeholders from both the arts and disability communities that supports artists with disabilities in achieving individual artistic excellence, promotes higher visibility of these artists within all disciplines and promotes policies and practices intended to make the arts more accessible to all Manitobans.
Vision
The full inclusion of artists and audiences with disabilities into all facets of the arts community.
Mission:
- To advance the education of artists with disabilities by providing courses, instructional seminars, and workshops in various artistic disciplines, and on topics such as grant-writing, portfolio preparation, and photography documentation;
- To advance the public’s appreciation of the arts by producing public art exhibitions, presentations, and performance arts events, and by providing a forum for qualified artists to exhibit, present, or perform their artistic works through participation in such events;
- To promote health by providing artists with disabilities with appropriate facilities and services adapted to accommodate their specific needs; and
- To undertake activities ancillary and incidental to the attainment to the above charitable purposes.
Goals:
- To be the voice for artists and audiences with disabilities in Manitoba
- To bring leadership on access and equity issues that impact the arts
- To empower artists with disabilities by providing access to the resources they need to advance their artistic practice
- To bring artists with disabilities and stakeholders together to explore and nurture a creative and inclusive community
- To educate and inform the arts community, policy makers, and arts funders about artists and audiences with disabilities
- To act as resource to arts organizations and institutions making their venue and services more suited to people with disabilities
- To gather and disseminate relevant information to individuals and organizations in the disability and arts sectors
Guiding Principles
Artists with disabilities encounter barriers everyday – structural obstacles, physical disadvantages or the attitudinal barriers of others. It’s hard for a professional artist to practice their art in a world that’s not accessible.
Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba (AANM) has a vision – the full inclusion of artists and audiences with disabilities into all facets of the arts community.
- We want to celebrate the outstanding artistic merit and inclusion of artists with disabilities in all disciplines of the arts – music, dance, theatre, visual art, writing and so many others.
- We want to demonstrate how artists are expressing their creativity despite barriers.
- We want to inspire not only artists with disabilities, but all ‘temporarily able-bodied’ stakeholders to support “Arts for All” in our community.
AANM believes disability informs and enriches an artist’s creative expression as well as brings new perspective to the world we share. Without sentimentality or stereotype, authentic creations showing their challenges enable those artists to contribute to society by reducing social exclusion, ending isolation, confronting, disrupting, and reshaping our world.
AANM shares and celebrates the achievements and celebration of the unflinching voices of artists who work with and not in spite of their differences.
At AANM, we believe that Arts and Disability Culture will prove to be a major shaping force of the 21st century. We are excited to be at the forefront of this societal change. We’ve successfully introduced Arts and Disability Culture to Winnipeg. We have so much more to offer and present! With the help and support of our members and the many others interested in our organization, we’ll have no problem authenticating and celebrating our cause.
Policies
Read or download our Policy documents below: