To honor the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) on December 3rd, Art and Culture Project joins the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL) and Art Therapy Collective in hosting four art workshops this December, including the in-person Fabric Dolls Workshop.

As we enter the last month of 2023, let’s take a moment to pause, breathe, reflect and nurture ourselves as a community. Facilitators will provide art materials and prompts for attendees. The goal is for participants to reflect on disability justice issues through art making and dialogues.

Fabric Dolls Workshop: Gentle remembrance and grieving for loved ones

Let’s take a moment and honor our disabled or Crip siblings who left this world too early in the disability community. Together, participants and facilitators will make dolls made of yarn and fabric. Snacks and supplies provided. We encourage you to bring your stories of lost loved ones, and fabrics and yarns that are important to you.

About the Workshop Facilitators

Brian “B” Randolph (they/them) is an art therapy graduate student from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Brian specializes in portraiture, drawing the human form, and the writing/drawing of comics. B is working with their supervisor, disabled artist and art therapist, Sandie Yi, to create disability culture and art at Access Living this year.

Miriam Austin-Wright (they/she) is a graduate art therapy student at SAIC. They are from Indianapolis, Indiana. A nonbinary, biracial, and disabled individual, Miriam is committed to building an intersectional therapeutic lens that perceives individuals as the multifaceted and experienced beings they are, capable of enacting transformation personally and in the communities in which they live. As an art therapist in training, they hope to work from an eclectic approach, fusing and drawing from multiple therapeutic perspectives to create a decolonial, consumer-driven, liberating, and highly creative space. 

Fabric Dolls Workshop Access Information

This series of workshops and open studios are scent-free events, please refrain from wearing any scented products. Please contact Sandie Yi at syi@accessliving or 312-640-2187 if you have questions or access requests, including requests for ASL interpretation. Snacks will be available at in-person events. For non-SAIC attendees, advanced registration is required. Please bring a government-issued ID card for checking in with the security desk for in-person events. Masks are required for all people, unless it is in conflict with one’s access needs. 

Fabric Dolls Workshop Sponsor Information

This series of event is brought to you by the Arts and Culture Project at Access Living, the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL), Art Collective at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Shirley Ryan Abilities Lab. The contents of this series of workshops were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RTCP0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this series of workshops do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS. You should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. This program is also partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.